Here he collected another army of 20,000 men, with which he so strongly entrenched himself on the Scanian coast in 1716 that his combined enemies shrank from attacking him, whereupon he assumed the offensive by attacking Norway in 1717, and again in 1718, in order to conquer sufficient territory to enable him to extort better terms from his enemies.
The only serious domestic trouble during Valdemar's reign was the rebellion of the Scanian provinces, which objected to the establishment of a strong monarchy inimical to local pretensions and disturbances, and especially to the heavy taxes and tithes necessary to support the new reign of law and order.
In November 1343 he obtained the town and castle of Copenhagen from King Magnus Smek of Sweden, by reconfirming in still more stringent terms the previous surrender of the rich Scanian provinces, and by the end of the following year he had recovered the whole of North Zealand.
Nay, more, Denmark's possession of the Scanian provinces deprived Sweden of her proper geographical frontiers.
The differences between the two states were finally adjusted by the peace of Copenhagen (May 27, 1660), Denmark ceding the three Scanian provinces to Sweden but receiving back the Norwegian province of Trondhjem and the isle of Bornholm which she had surrendered by the peace of Roskilde two years previously.