part of sweden. in june 1710, most probably via a ship from pernau, the plague arrived in stockholm, where the health commission (collegium medicum) until 29 august denied that it was indeed the plague, despite buboes being visible on the bodies of victims from the ship and in the town. the plague raged in stockholm until 1711, affecting primarily women (45.3% of the dead) and children (38.7% of the dead) in the poorer quarters outside the old town. of stockholm's approximately 55,000 inhabitants, about 22,000 did not survive the plague. from stockholm, the plague in august and september 1710 spread to various other places in uppland, including uppsala and enköping, and to södermanland. the court was evacuated to sala in august, the riksrådet to arboga in september. while in uppland the disease seemingly faded out in the winter, it continued, though with less intensity, to ravage the uppland countryside throughout the whole year of 1711, infecting for instance värmdö, tillinge and danmark parish. from uppland, the plague spread southward. jönköping lost 31% of its inhabitants in 1710 and 1711. besides "bad air" (miasma), animals were believed to transmit the disease, and people were forbidden to keep domestic animals inside the built-up areas and ordered to kill stray pigs. in september 1710, ships from reval (tallinn) carried the plague across the gulf of finland to helsingfors (helsinki), where it killed 1,185 inhabitants and refugees (two thirds of the population), and borgå (porvoo), where 652 people from in and around the town died. ekenäs (tammisaari) and åbo (turku), then the largest town on the finnish coast, with a population of 6,000, were also infected in september 1710. 2,000 inhabitants and refugees died of the plague in åbo by january 1711. the plague then spread northwards and between 1710 and 1711 infected the towns of nystad (uusikaupunki), raumo (rauma), björneborg (pori), nådendal (naantali), jakobstad (pietarsaari), gamlakarleby (kokkola) and uleåborg (oulu) as well as an abundance of rural communities up to a line between uleåborg and cajana (kajana, kajaani). as the actual cause of the plague was unknown, counter-measures included flight, dissection of buboes and the lighting of huge fires to reduce the air's humidity, which was thought to reduce the chance of being affected by the plague's "bad air." the island of gotland was also affected by the plague from 1710 to 1712. in its port town of visby, the plague claimed more than 450 deaths, which was about one fifth of its population. zealand already in 1708, the danish politi- och kommercekollegium proposed shielding the danish islands with a marine cordon sanitaire, with dedicated ports for inspection of incoming ships from the baltic sea and a quarantine station on saltholm, a small island in the sound between copenhagen on zealand (sjælland) and malmö in scania. these measures were not implemented immediately, as the plague had not yet reached the baltic coast. on 16 and 19 august 1709, however, the king ordered the implementation of a revised plan, and a quarantine station was built on saltholm for goods and crews of ships coming to denmark from the infected ports of danzig and königsberg, while their ships were meanwhile cleansed in christianshavn; dutch traders sailing from infected ports to the north sea were to pay the sound dues on a special boat off the coast at helsingør. when the plague did not arrive in denmark, though, saltholm effectively fell out of use by 3 july 1710, when only three people were left in the station. the main problem then was rather the lost battle of helsingborg and the aggressive type of typhus that the retreating danish soldiers carried to zealand from scania. when in the course of the russian conquest of livonia refugees carried the plague to finland and central sweden, and on the southern shore of the baltic the plague had arrived in stralsund, the worried council of lübeck sent alerting letters to the danish government, which after a discussion lasting from 21 october to 7/8 november resulted in a government decision to renew the quarantine requirement. saltholm was to be manned and equipped again, and the quarantine requirement was extended to ships from other infected ports. it is unclear whether at that time the plague had already arrived in zealand's northeastern port of helsingør (elsinore), where the sound dues were collected from entering ships and where a suspicious series of deaths was reported by the local health commission, allegedly starting with the death in the town on 1 october 1710 of a dutch passenger arriving from stockholm. according to persson (2001), it is "difficult to determine whether their cases have actually been a matter of plague, even if the progress in my eyes seems very suspicious;" while frandsen (2009) says that "i will risk my neck and postulate that the disease in elsinore in the autumn of 1710 was not the plague but (as the barbers indicate) a form of typhus or spotted fever." there are however no doubts concerning the outbreak of the plague in late november 1710 in the small village of lappen just north of helsingør, populated by fishermen, ferrymen and nautical pilots. the first death attributed to the plague was that of a fisherman's daughter on 14 november; the peak of the plague in lappen was reached already on 23 december, and while it faded out there in january 1711, it had already spread to or continued in neighboring helsingør. more than 1,800 people died in helsingør in 1711, or roughly two thirds of its ~3,000 inhabitants. despite the precautions, the plague ultimately spread from helsingør to copenhagen, where from june to november 1711, between 12,000 and 23,000 people died out of a population of ~60,000. only on 19 september did the king decree that people from zealand must not go to other danish regions without a special passport; zealand indeed remained the only danish region with cases of the plague, except for holstein (see below). scania and blekinge in scania (skåne), the plague arrived on 20 (o.s.)/ 30 november 1710, when an infected västanå boatman returned home from the navy. scania had not yet fully recovered from the scanian war when its population was further weakened by a measles epidemic in 1706, a crop failure and the outbreak of smallpox in 1708–1709, an invasion of the danish army in 1709, the expulsion of this army after the battle of helsingborg, followed by conscriptions into the swedish army and an outbreak of typhus in 1710. while scania was protected from an infection from the north by a cordon sanitaire between it and småland, the plague came by sea and made landfall not only in västanå, but also in january 1711 in domsten in allerum parish, where the locals had ignored the ban on contact with their relatives and friends on the danish side of the sound, most notably in the infected area around helsingør (elsinore); the third starting point for the plague in scania was ystad, where on 19 june an infected soldier arrived from swedish pomerania. the plague remained in scania until 1713, probably 1714. in blekinge, the plague arrived in august 1710 by means of army movements from and to karlskrona, the central swedish naval base. by the beginning of 1712, about 15,000 soldiers and civilians had died not only in karlskrona, but also in karlshamn and other localities in blekinge. bremen, bremen-verden, hamburg and holstein at the time of the great northern war, the northwest of the holy roman empire was a patchwork with the swedish dominion of bremen-verden located between the largely autonomous cities of bremen and hamburg, bordered to the south by the electorate of hanover, whose prince-elector george louis became king of great britain in 1714, and to the north by the duchy of holstein, divided into holstein-glückstadt, ruled by the danish king, and holstein-gottorp, whose duke charles frederick, a cousin and ally of charles xii of sweden, resided in stockholm while danish forces had occupied his share of the duchy only disturbed by stenbock's march from wakenstädt to tønning in 1713. hamburg and bremen were crowded with refugees of war, and bremen in addition was suffering from a smallpox epidemic that had caused the deaths of 1,390 children in 1711. from copenhagen, the plague had infected several places in holstein, and while it is unclear whether danish ships first brought it to friedrichsort, rendsburg or laboe, and whether schleswig and flensburg were infected separately, it is established that it was the danish army that brought the plague to holstein. in addition to the ports, infected towns included itzehoe, altona, kropp and glückstadt, in kiel, the plague was limited to the castle and spared the town. the plague also broke out in neighboring bremen-verden, whose capital, stade, became infected by early july 1712 and on 7 september capitulated to the danish forces who had entered bremen-verden on 31 july. the plague, as in formerly swedish livonia and estonia, was a main reason for the defendants' surrender. in the spring and summer of 1712, the plague also broke out in gröpelingen on bremish territory. the city council downplayed the plague cases in order not to impair trade, but set up a health commission and a pest house for quarantine measures. isolation of the infected did not prevent the plague from spreading into bremen, but reduced the resulting deaths, which in 1712 were "only" 56 in gröpelingen, which had a population of 360, and 12 in bremen, which had a population of 28,000. however, the plague returned to bremen in 1713, killing another 180 people, beak shaped mask, as worn by hamburg's plague doctor majus hamburg was hit much more severely. when the plague had reached pinneberg and rellingen just north of the hamburg territory in the summer of 1712, hamburg restricted travel to the town, which the danish king used as a pretext to encircle hamburg with his forces and confiscate hamburg vessels on the river elbe, demanding 500,000 thalers (later reduced to 246,000 thalers) to make up for this alleged discrimination against his subjects in altona. 12,000 danish soldiers were moved before hamburg's gates. when the plague broke out in hamburg less than three weeks later, it was carried there from the danish troops by a prostitute from hamburg's gerkenshof lane, where out of 53 people 35 fell ill and 18 died. the lane was blocked and isolated; however, the quarantine could not prevent the disease from spreading through the densely built-up neighborhoods. among the dead was the plague doctor majus, who belonged to those physicians who wore a beak-shaped mask containing a vinegar-soaked sponge to protect him against the miasma. in december, the plague faded out. in january 1713, stenbock's swedish army marched through hamburg and burned down the neighboring town of altona, which in contrast to hamburg had refused to pay a contribution. in altona, the plague had killed 1,000 people, among them 300 jews, while hamburg remained free of the plague until july and did not take in refugees from altona. just a week after the swedish army had marched through hamburg, the russian army led by peter the great entered the town. according to frandsen (2009), the tsar "frolicked in hamburg while his troops plundered the suburbs." when in august 1713 the plague broke out again, it was much more severe than what hamburg's inhabitants had experienced in 1712, and the meanwhile returned danish army established a cordon sanitaire around the city. the cordon was supervised by major von ingversleben, who had dealt with the plague in helsingør, and effectively prevented the plague from spreading to holstein again. when the plague finally faded out in hamburg in march 1714, ~10,000 people had died of the disease. death statistics by region town/area plague years peak inhabitants deaths (absolute) deaths (relative) source danzig (gdansk) march 1709 – december 1709 august 1709 – september 1709 ~50,000 24,533 kroll & gabinsky (retrieved 2012) 1709 ~50,000 50–65% kroll (2006) danzig incl. surrounding places 32,599 kroll & gabinsky (retrieved 2012) vilnius 1709–1713 1709–1710 23,000–33,700 (1709–10) frandsen (2009) königsberg august 1709 – mid-1710 october 1709 – december 1709 35,000–40,000 >9,500 kroll & gabinsky (retrieved 2012) 1709 ~35,000 20–25% kroll (2006) stettin fall 1709–1711 11,000–12,000 1,650–2,200 kroll & gabinsky (retrieved 2012) 1710 ~11,000 15–20% kroll (2006) memel (klaipeda) september 1709 – 1710 1710 1,401