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''Kronan'', also called ''Stora Kronan'',〔The names mean "the crown" and "the great crown" respectively. For information on modern standardization of the naming, see Anders Franzén in Johansson (1985), p. 9; Lundgren (1997), p. 8.〕 was a Swedish warship that served as the flagship of the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea in the 1670s. When built, she was one of the largest seagoing vessels in the world. The construction of ''Kronan'' lasted from 1668 to 1672 and was delayed by difficulties with financing and conflicts between the shipwright Francis Sheldon and the Swedish admiralty. After four years of service, the ship foundered in rough weather at the Battle of Öland on 1 June 1676: while making a sharp turn under too much sail she capsized, and the gunpowder magazine ignited and blew off most of the bow. ''Kronan'' sank quickly, taking about 800 men and more than 100 guns with her, along with valuable military equipment, weapons, personal items, and large quantities of silver and gold coins. The loss of ''Kronan'' was a hard blow for Sweden during the Scanian War. Besides being the largest and most heavily armed ship in the Swedish navy, she had been an important status symbol for the monarchy of the young Charles XI. Along with ''Kronan'', the navy lost a sizeable proportion of its best manpower, acting supreme commander Lorentz Creutz, numerous high-ranking fleet officers, and the chief of the navy medical staff. A commission was set up to investigate whether any individuals could be held responsible for the Swedish fiasco at the Battle of Öland and other major defeats during the war. Although no one was officially held accountable, Creutz has been blamed by many historians for the sinking of ''Kronan'' because of his naval and command inexperience. Recent research has provided a more nuanced picture, and points to Sweden's general lack of a well-developed naval organization and officer corps at the time. Most of the guns that sank with ''Kronan'' were salvaged in the 1680s, but eventually the wreck fell into obscurity. Its exact position was rediscovered in 1980 by the amateur researcher Anders Franzén, who had also located the 17th-century warship ''Vasa'' in the 1950s. Yearly diving operations have since surveyed and excavated the wreck site and salvaged artifacts, and ''Kronan'' has become the most widely publicized shipwreck in the Baltic after ''Vasa''. More than 30,000 artifacts have been recovered, and many have been conserved and put on permanent public display at the Kalmar County Museum in Kalmar. The museum is responsible for the maritime archaeological operations and the permanent exhibitions on ''Kronan''. ==Historical background== (詳細はgreat power. It had defeated Denmark, one of its main competitors for hegemony in the Baltic, in both the Torstenson War (1643–45) and the Dano-Swedish War (1657–58). At the Treaties of Brömsebro (1645) and Roskilde (1658), Denmark had been forced to cede the islands of Gotland and Ösel, all of its eastern territories on the Scandinavian Peninsula, and parts of Norway. In a third war, from 1658 to 1660, King Charles X of Sweden attempted to finish off Denmark for good. The move was bold royal ambition in an already highly militarized society geared for warfare, a fiscal-military state.〔See Jan Glete (2002) ''War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States, 1500–1600.'' Routledge, London. ISBN 0-415-22645-7 for an in-depth study.〕 Disbanding its armies would have required paying outstanding wages, so there was an underlying incentive to keep hostilities alive and let soldiers live off enemy lands and plunder. The renewed attack on Denmark threatened the interests of the leading shipping nations of England and the Dutch Republic, who were best served by keeping the Baltic region politically divided. The Dutch intervened in 1658 by sending a fleet to stop the attempt to crush Denmark.〔Göran Rystad "Skånska kriget och kampen om hegemonin i Norden" in Rystad (2005), pp. 17–19〕 England also sent a fleet in November the same year, to assist Sweden in keeping the Sound Toll out of Danish and Dutch control. The English expedition failed as a result of adverse winter weather and the political turmoil that ended the Protectorate, and in the end, Charles' plans were thwarted.〔Rodger (2004), pp. 29–30〕 Charles X died in February 1660. Three months later, the Treaty of Copenhagen ended the war. Charles' son and successor, Charles XI, was only five when his father died, so a regency council—led by the queen mother Hedvig Eleonora—assumed power until he came of age. Sweden had come close to control over trade in the Baltic, but the war revealed the need to prevent the formation of a powerful anti-Swedish alliance that included Denmark. There were some successes in foreign policy, notably the anti-French Triple Alliance of England, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic. By early 1672, Sweden had improved its relations with France enough to form an alliance. The same year, King Louis XIV attacked the Dutch Republic, and in 1674 Sweden was pressured into joining the war by attacking the Republic's northern German allies. France promised to pay Sweden desperately needed war subsidies on condition that it moved in force on Brandenburg. A Swedish army of 22,000 men under Carl Gustaf Wrangel advanced into Brandenburg in December 1674 and suffered a minor tactical defeat at the Battle of Fehrbellin in June 1675. Though not militarily significant, the defeat tarnished the reputation of near-invincibility that Swedish arms had enjoyed since the Thirty Years' War. This emboldened Sweden's enemies, and by September 1675 Denmark, the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire were at war with Sweden and France.〔Göran Rystad "Skånska kriget och kampen om hegemonin i Norden" in Rystad (2005), pp. 20–21〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kronan (ship)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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