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Warrior Kings of Sweden
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Warrior Kings of Sweden
The Rise of an Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Gary Dean Peterson
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
Excerpt from The Story of Civilization: Vol. 6, Reformation, by Will Durant. Copyright © 1957 by Will Durant. Copyright © renewed 1985 by Ethel B. Durant. (New York: Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing Group).
Excerpt from The Story of Civilization: Vol. 8, The Age of Louis XIV, by Will Durant and Ariel Durant. Copyright © 1963 by Will & Ariel Durant; copyright © renewed 1991 by Will & Ariel Durant. (New York: Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing Group).
Excerpts from Gustav Adolf the Great, by Nils Ahnlund, translated by Michael Roberts, published by Princeton University Press and The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1940, © The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Peterson, Gary Dean, 1942–
Warrior kings of Sweden : the rise of an empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries / Gary Dean Peterson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7864-2873-1
1. Sweden—Politics and government—17th century. 2. Sweden—History, Military—17th century. 3. Sweden—Kings and rulers—17th century. 4. Sweden—Civilization—17th century. 5. Sweden—Politics and government—16th century. 6. Sweden—Kings and rulers—16th century. 7. Europe—History, Military—17th century. 8. Europe—History, Military—16th century. I. Title.
DL704.7.P48 2007
948.5'034—dc22 2007005128
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2007 Gary Dean Peterson. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: top Gustav Adolf the Great (British Library); bottom ©2007 Clipart
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my grandparents,
Hannah Svensson and Peter Gust Peterson,
who immigrated to the United States
from Småland, Sweden,
and homesteaded in Montana
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. First Kings of a United Sweden
2. The Kalmar Union
3. Gustav Vasa's Rise to Power and Swedish Independence
4. King Gustav I
5. War Debt and the Reformation
6. Succession and Civil War
7. Erik XIV and the First Northern War
8. King Johan III and the End of the First Northern War
9. A Swedish Prince on the Polish Throne and the Second Northern War
10. Sigismund III and Wars in the North
11. Karl IX and the Second Polish War
12. Gustav Adolf's Rise to Power
13. Gustav Builds His Army
14. Gustav Extends Swedish Power in Livonia and Prussia
15. Gustav Enters Germany and the Thirty Years' War
16. Gustav's Court on the Rhine and the Battle of Lützen
17. Oxenstierna Takes Control and Prosecutes the War in Germany
18. War with Denmark as the Thirty Years' War Winds Down
19. Queen Christina and the Athens of the North
20. Karl X—The Swedish Empire at Its Height
21. Sweden's Colonies and New Sweden in America
22. Karl XI and the Scanian War
23. Karl XII and the Great Northern War
24. Karl XII and War in Poland
25. Karl XII's Russian Campaign
26. The End of Empire
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
List of Terms
Preface
As the grandson of Swedish immigrants I have always been interested in Sweden, yet in grade school, high school and even college, any Swedish history I learned I picked up indirectly. In Roman history there were the Goths, who may or may not have come from Sweden. There were Vikings, mostly Danish and Norwegian, who ravaged Medieval Europe and reached North America—maybe. Swedish Vikings, I learned, did have something to do with the early Russian kingdoms. There was mention of Gustav Adolf’s participation in the Thirty Years’ War and Sweden’s short lived colony on the Delaware. And that was it, except for some slurs about the country’s neutrality during the two world wars.
I had not an inkling that the boots of Swedish soldiers once trod the streets of Moscow, that Swedish generals had conquered Prague and once stood at the gates of Vienna. Only vaguely did I understand that a Swedish king had defeated the Holy Roman Emperor and held court on the Rhine, that a Swede had mounted the throne of Poland, then held at bay the Russian and Turk. I missed completely the history of another Swedish king who captured Krakow and Warsaw, then reversed direction and drove the king of Denmark into a last island refuge.
It was not until later, reading on my own, that I discovered the story of Sweden’s rise to power under Gustav Vasa (the first of Sweden’s great warrior kings) in the sixteenth century. I learned of Sweden’s military dominance of central and eastern Europe under her second great warrior king, Gustav Adolf, and Sweden’s pivotal role in the Great Northern War at the beginning of the eighteenth century under her last great warrior king, Karl XII, perhaps the ablest general of his day. For a hundred years Sweden was the international military power of Northern Europe, turning the Baltic into a Swedish lake, and establishing colonies in Africa and America.
This story fills a large void in history as it is generally presented to the American student and reader. First, it bridges a geographical gap between Russian history, readily available in book and course study, and Western European history, as taught in U.S. high schools. The annals of Sweden, Finland, the Baltics, Poland, Lithuania and Prussia are little understood by Americans. Yet events in this region directly affected the course of Western European history and ultimately that of America.
Secondly, this chronicle spans a period in time generally overlooked in American history books, literature, movies and television. Medieval Western Europe has been well represented in all these media. The American Revolution and the Civil War focus attention on the late 1700s and 1800s, but it was the political and religious movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that produced the climate for European global expansion including the exploration and colonization of the New World. And it was during these centuries that great strides were made in the advancement of weapons technology, warships and military tactics. Sweden was at the forefront of this military evolution, both on land and at sea. Besides playing a major role in these military, religious and political events of the era, Sweden took a hand in the colonization of America and continued to send skilled and industrious people to the United States well into the twentieth century.
In this book I present a narrative of Sweden’s age of greatness, in terms of her warrior kings, for the descendants of those immigrants, the posterity of immigrants of other Northern and Eastern European countries, students of military history, and the general reader interested in this neglected aspect of European history. A list of references, organized by chapter, is at the end of the book for the reader interested in a more detailed study.
I thank Sven Edenström of Ronneby, Sweden, for explaining details and filling in gaps, and especially my wife, Pauline, for long hours of editing and cri
tiquing.
Here then is the story of Sweden’s age of greatness, a tale of intrigues and conflicts, of power and greatness, of suffering and courage, of romance and loyalty, of kings, nobles and peasants, the story of a people, a nation and an empire.
Introduction
The origins of Sweden’s warrior kings are buried in her ancient past, obscured by the mists of time. Only a vague outline can be constructed from archeological evidence and occasional references in literature from outside the country. These sources do provide enough information to paint a picture, though somewhat sketchy, of the development of the early Swedish people, their chiefs and kings.
At the height of the last ice age the Scandinavian Peninsula was pressed down under a massive ice sheet. About 13,000 to 14,000 years ago the ice sheet began to recede. As the ice melted the peninsula rose. Though the rising water from the melting ice cut off the British Isles from the rest of Europe and filled the Baltic Sea, Scandinavia rose faster than the oceans and is still increasing its height above sea level today. This elevating of the land mass means the coastline, rivers and islands of Sweden have been constantly changing during the country’s history affecting harbors, port cities and river outlets.
About 6000 B.C. the first permanent settlers began to inhabit Sweden. Most of these hunter-gatherers were pre–Germanic, people crossing from Jutland into southern Sweden, but there is evidence of other people entering from the east around the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia or across the Åland Islands. By 5000 B.C. grains were being grown in Sweden and by 1500 B.C. a bronze-age culture flourished across southern Sweden. There was extensive trade with Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean civilizations. This trade was facilitated by the use of shallow-draft boats with upturned bows at both ends, precursors to the Viking longboats. They were without sails, powered by oars and manned by warriors and merchants.
About 500 B.C. this developing culture was cut down by the Celtic invasion. The Celts, a warlike people armed with iron weapons, spread across Central Europe from the Danube to Ireland, severing the trade arteries between the north and the Mediterranean. At the same time a cold period settled over the north and Scandinavia entered a dark age.
Around 100 B.C. Northern Europe began to warm and by then the Celts had been absorbed into local populations. Trade relations were reestablished across Europe with Sweden exporting iron, along with skins, walrus ivory, honey and amber, to the south. Explorers from the Mediterranean began to visit Scandinavia and from them we get a picture of Sweden as a land of many small kingdoms.
In the second century A.D. the Goths appear in history ravaging the Roman Empire and putting an end to the ancient city’s reign. There is strong evidence the Goths originated in central Sweden, and were the first of three waves of Swedes to affect Greater Europe.
The second wave was that of the Vikings, from about 780 to 1070. These warrior-merchants ranged west to North America and south to the Mediterranean. They established colonies (Greenland and Iceland), kingdoms (in Sicily, Italy, Ireland, England and Normandy), and an empire (that of Canute the Great, comprised of modern-day England, Norway, Denmark and southern Sweden).
To the east the Vikings invaded the river systems of Eastern Europe. Via the Düna, Lovat, Volga and Dnieper, they reached the Black and Caspian seas, threatening Constantinople and the Byzantine emperor. The Varangians or Rus, as the eastern Vikings were called, were primarily Swedish, though as with the western expeditions there was a mixture from all three Viking peoples in these adventures.
Varangian kingdoms were established with capitals at Novgorod and Kiev, then these kingdoms were combined into the empire of the Rus, stretching from the Baltic to the Black and Caspian seas. Merchandise from China, Persia and Byzantium passed through this empire to the Swedish trade centers of Birka on Lake Mälar, Gotland Island and Hedeby, on the Jutland Peninsula. Items excavated at Birka, at one time the greatest trade center in the Viking world, range from Rhineland pottery, English wool, Chinese silk and Arab silver to necklaces from the lower Volga and hides from the arctic. Gradually, the empire of the Rus became more Slavic than Swedish and turned toward Byzantium, adopting Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
During this Viking period, Sweden struggled toward unity. The many small kingdoms began to coalesce into a few large domains. Gradually, three states emerged to consolidate power. In Uppland the Svear (Svea, Siar or Swedes) developed a very warlike kingdom, spreading their control to the north and west. To the east, they acquired Gotland and conquered parts of Kurland along the eastern Baltic coast. As they spread south they came to dominate Birka and then encountered the Gauts.
The Gauts (Geats or Goths) probably originated in Västergötland, subjugating Dalarna, Närke, Värmland, Östergötland and, perhaps, Småland and Blekinge as well. For over three hundred years these two major powers of Sweden fought it out for supremacy. Finally, Erik the Victorious of the Svear (985–995) completed the conquest of the Gauts and is considered the first true king of Sweden.
A third consolidated area was Scania, which included Skåne, Halland and Blekinge. This kingdom grew strong on its rich farmland and fisheries. It prospered for four hundred years, even ruling Hedeby at one time. But in the ninth century Scania was conquered by the Danes, then by Eric the Victorious of Sweden.
By 995 Erik the Victorious ruled a domain that included essentially all that is modern Sweden (except the far north), territories along the eastern Baltic coast, and had nominal control of southern Jutland (Hedeby) which was again under Swedish rule. Swedish merchants dominated a trade network stretching from Greenland and Ireland to Persia and Constantinople. The country emerging during the waning years of the Viking era was a nation on the rise.
By dint of their victory over the Gauts, the Swedes of Uppland gained the right to select a king to rule both peoples. At his coronation, Olof, Erik’s son, took the title “Rex Sveorum Gothorum.” A united Sweden seemed destined for greatness.
1. First Kings of a United Sweden
A dark and gloomy atmosphere hung over the streets and alleys of Stockholm, invading the shops and homes with a sense of foreboding. Three days of feasting and celebration in the Swedish capital had been abruptly suspended. Clergy and noblemen, staying in the great Stockholm Castle, having come from all parts of the country to celebrate the king’s coronation, awoke to find themselves imprisoned in their apartments. The town’s craftsmen, merchants and tradesmen ventured out into the streets cautiously, sensing that some momentous shift in circumstances had occurred, but unsure as to its nature or extent. The gray November day passed for the city’s burghers, giving little indication of the crucial events taking place in the chambers of Stockholm’s Great Castle, the seat of government.
Early the next morning, November 8, 1520, Danish soldiers and bailiffs began knocking on doors, forcing citizens into the streets with orders to proceed to the great square in the center of the city. Crowding into the plaza, they found themselves encircling an open space in which stood a figure armed with a single-bladed long-handled ax. Jörgen Holmuth was a German mercenary, an expert with battle ax and broadsword. This day he would serve the king as executioner.
At high noon there was a commotion at one side of the square as Danish guards brought forward a man with his hands tied behind his back. A stir ran through the crowd as they recognized Mattias, Roman Catholic bishop of Strängnäs. In the middle of the open circle he groveled, begging for mercy from two men on an elevated platform. But his entreaties were to no avail, for Christian II, king of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and now Sweden-Finland, gave the signal for the execution to proceed. The German swung his ax and Mattias’s lifeless head rolled onto the frozen ground.
The execution of the good bishop of Strängnäs was followed by the beheading of the bishop of Skara. His last plea for life was to Gustav Trolle, archbishop of Sweden and the other figure on the platform next to the king; he made no move to rescue his bishop, for events were unfolding according to a plan of his design.
In 1000, Olof, king of Sweden, had defeated Olav Tryggvarson of Norway in a sea battle, successfully defending a kingdom stretching from the arctic to the Skåne-Zealand strait. His merchants plied the Baltic Sea connecting trade routes that reached from England to Persia and Constantinople. In 500 years this mighty nation had been reduced to a state of subjugation and servitude. It was indeed an ignoble state of affairs for Sweden.
This reversal in Sweden’s fortunes stemmed from two conditions rooted in the Viking period. First was the state of the monarchy created with the combining of the Svear and Gaut kingdoms by Erik the Victorious. The king was to be elected by the Svear of Uppland. The right to rule was not hereditary and he was to have total authority only in time of war when he commanded the army. When the country was at peace or when the king was away campaigning, power rested with the jarl (earl or minister). The jarl also ruled the Mälar Lake district and would lead the expeditions to Finland. It was the jarls that conquered Finland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, making the land their personal fief. The united kingdom did not, therefore, have a strong government, but was ruled by three parties at odds with each other, the king, the Uppland nobility and the jarl.
Warrior Kings of Sweden