Warrior Kings of Sweden

by Gary Dean Peterson

  Besides the insurrection in Dalarna, there were now revolts in Småland and several places in Västergöttland and Östergöttland. With Dalarna completely committed to him, Gustav had set out for Hälsingland and Gästrikland in the north to bring them into the war. But in Stockholm Christian’s proxies were finally beginning to move. They were able to put together an army of some 6,000 men, a conglomerate of Danish regulars, German, Scottish and even French mercenaries. The interim regents decided the Dalarnian outbreak was the most dangerous and had to be stopped first. Jöns Beldenak and Gustav Trolle led their army into the field to smash this peasant uprising. The Dalesmen, under Peder Svensson since Gustav was in the north, met the Danish army at Brunback’s Ferry on the Dal River.

  There is a story that Jöns, upon finding himself facing a larger force, asks Peder how many men the Dalesmen can field. He is told that the province can muster 30,000 men if needed. Jöns expresses some surprise that such a large number can even be fed in the field. Peder responds that his men can live on only water and bark bread if necessary. The astonished Dane is supposed to have said, “People who can live on bark and water can be subdued neither by the devil nor by any man. Brethren, let us speedily take ourselves hence.”1

  In any case the Danish professionals armed with guns and modern weapons were routed by the peasant army armed with bows and arrows, crossbows and farm tools. The retreating soldiers were overwhelmed and cut down by the aroused bönder, eliminating the only major field army available to the Danish regents. Christian’s supporters had lost their army, but still held the major castles.

  The victory brought more men flocking to the Vasa banner and when Gustav returned from the north, he had a 15,000 man army to lead. In April 1521 he invaded Västmanland and attacked the fortified city of Västerås, garrisoned by Christain’s soldiers. The city fell and this region also joined Gustav.

  Next Gustav marched to Stegeborg Castle and it capitulated. Christian’s commander of the fortress, Berend von Melen, came over to Gustav’s side without a fight. Von Melen was a German soldier of fortune, a type common in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. In U.S. history we have Miles Standish of Plymouth and Capt. John Smith of Jamestown who were examples of the soldier for hire serving many masters. Von Melen was of this ilk and decided Sweden offered better prospects than Denmark, at least for the moment. Gustav gave him command of an army in the field and appointed him one of his inner circle military advisors.

  By May Gustav had pushed into Uppland and driven to the sea providing access to supplies from the outside world, notably from his old friends in Lübeck. From this position of power, he now made overtures to Gustav Trolle, as a Swede, for a peaceful conclusion to the war. Trolle reacted by sending a raiding party into Uppland to try and capture or kill this Vasa upstart. The attempt failed, but it put the rebel leader on notice that this would be a contest to the death. It would be Gustav Vasa as head of a free Sweden or his head on a Danish spear.

  On the coast Gustav made contact with Sture privateers who were already plundering Danish shipping in the Baltic. He enlisted their help in attacking supply ships feeding Danish forces in Stockholm and elsewhere along the coast.

  Gustav’s leadership was now accepted by most of the rebel groups in all parts of the country. By the end of May, Gustav had taken Uppsala, and stood at the gates of Stockholm. His fame and power spread nationwide. He sent one of his lieutenants to Finland and soon this region, except for the castles, was in his hands. By midsummer he was the recognized leader of the Swedish nationalist movement. On August 23, 1521, Gustav Eriksson Vasa was named regent of Sweden at a national meeting in Vadstena. Though he now had been given official sanction to rule Sweden by the Swedes, Gustav’s position was far from secure.

  Gustav’s power base was the common people, the farmers, miners and townspeople whose volunteers had made up, by far, the majority of his army. The nobility, however, was divided in its support with the opposition being led by Ture Jönsson Tre Rosor of Västergötland and Bishop Brask of Linköping. To gain their support, Gustav was forced to give Jönsson a role in government appointments and decisions of state. To Brask he granted guarantees of church property and privileges. Strengthening his political position with the nobility was necessary because militarily Gustav still had much to accomplish.

  With his peasant army Gustav had been able to conquer the countryside, towns and small fortifications, but the great castles were still in Danish hands including Stockholm, Kalmar, Älvsborg and Viborg. In addition, his citizen army wanted to go home. These men had crops to harvest, families to attend to and property to ready for winter. Gustav, perhaps because of his understanding of agriculture, let many of these men return to their homes. But with his popularity at a peak throughout the country, he was able to find replacements and more. However, to take the castles, Gustav needed professional soldiers skilled in siege operations.

  In 1522 Gustav approached Lübeck with a shipload of silver and promises of special trade privileges, but the city council hesitated in becoming involved officially, its relations with Christian and his brother-in-law, the emperor, being somewhat strained. So a consortium was formed consisting of Gustav’s friends and contacts made during his 1519 stay in the city. The consortium provided the rebel leader with arms, supplies, 750 trained German mercenaries and a fleet of ten warships, all on credit. This gave Gustav something the Stures had never had, a navy of warships. He already had privateers, as the Stures had had, but these were merchant ships merely used to attack other merchant ships. Sea battles were still fought as infantry contests at sea with small arms used while one ship closed with another. The attacking ship would try to grapple itself to the defender and board that ship with soldiers. Warships, though often converted merchantmen, were constructed with forward and aft castles built high so that soldiers could shoot down on the other ship. Also, their sides were raised to prevent boarding by enemy ships and to facilitate boarding from the warship. The Stures had never had this kind of naval advantage.

  With these reinforcements, Gustav increased pressure on the castles and cleared the seacoast so he could receive outside supplies in large quantities. He laid siege to Stockholm Castle, driving Christian’s supporters from the city and occupying many of their buildings.

  Encouraged by these successes, the Lübeck City Council accepted Gustav’s silver and promises of preferential trade relations, delivering a second fleet of warships which promptly captured a Danish supply fleet headed for Stockholm Castle. With the Swedish coastal shipping secure, the Lübeck City Council insisted the fleet be used to attack Denmark. The ships approached Copenhagen, but were outmaneuvered by the Danish admiral, Soren Norrby. The invasion of Denmark by sea was lost, but the battle on land was going better for Gustav, putting Christian on the defensive.

  Gustav had made Berend von Melen commander of an invasion of Danish Skåne and Blekinge, increasing Christian’s problems. Making his situation more precarious, the Danish king had antagonized Frederick of Holstein, his neighbor to the south, and he eventually made enemies of the holy Roman emperor, Charles V, his brother-in-law. Christian had also pushed through legislation favorable to the burghers and peasants. Finally, he had made contact with the Lutheran movement in Germany. This was too much for the Danish nobility and clergy who now rose up and forced their king out of Denmark. Christian fled to the Netherlands with his family and part of the Danish fleet. Frederick of Holstein was placed on the Danish throne with potential claim to both Norwegian and Swedish crowns. Sweden was threatened anew by a Danish king.

  The Swedish council moved quickly. On June 6, 1523, the Estates of Sweden gathered at Strängnäs, a town on Lake Mälar in central Sweden. Represented were the miners, burghers, peasants, the council (5 clerics and 25 laymen) and much of the nobility. Berend von Melen was present as were two other Germans, official observers from Lübeck, Berut Bombouwer and Hermann Plonnies. The occasion was indeed momentous and pivotal in Swedish history. The business at hand was
to be the election and crowning of Gustav Vasa as king of Sweden.

  There seems to have been some hesitancy on the part of Gustav at the last moment. Perhaps it was show, maybe he did have some qualms about his abilities, or was he extracting some last commitments and promises from particular members of this austere group? Whatever the hold up, after conferring with members of the council and the Germans, Gustav preceded with the election. He was proclaimed king by acclamation and took the oath of office that day. The following day the coronation was sealed with a solemn Mass celebrated in the Cathedral of Strängnäs.

  Over the next four days Gustav worked out the terms of his agreement with Lübeck. Sweden would limit its foreign trade to Lübeck, Danzig and other Hanseatic cities as Lübeck dictated. Trade with other countries was forbidden. There would be no Swedish navigation through the Danish Sound or Belts. Lübeck and the other Hansa cities would be free of all tolls, customs and tariffs in Stockholm, Kalmar, Söderköping and Åbo. The Hansa cities could trade directly with Swedish nobility and clergy. In short, Gustav had agreed to allow Lübeck and the other Hansa cities control over Swedish foreign trade without tax or toll. This circumstance, Gustav must have realized, could not be tolerated for long.

  Cut off by land and by sea, the German mercenary garrison of Stockholm Castle surrendered on June 17, having been given the promise of safe conduct out of Sweden. Gustav entered the Swedish capital on the 24th as master of the nation. Frederick withdrew his claim to the Swedish throne; the Kalmar Union was finally and irrevocably dissolved and Sweden’s independence, for the moment at least, was secure.

  It was indeed a new age. While Gustav was battling for Swedish independence, the Victoria, the last of Ferdinand Magellan’s original five ships, sailed into Sanlucar de Barrameda Harbor, completing the circumnavigation of a world only guessed at a decade earlier. Hernando Cortes finally subjugated Tenochtitlán, one of the great cities of the world and capital of the Aztec Empire. The gold, sought so long by the conquistadors, would finally begin to flow into Spanish coffers. Francisco Pizarro was organizing his first expedition to Peru where he would conquer the Incas, rulers of the largest empire on earth. Gold, silver and emeralds from the New World would make Charles V, king of Spain and ruler of the Hapsburg domains including the Netherlands and Holy Roman Empire, the richest monarch in the world. Wealth from the Americas would change the economies of Europe.

  Earlier, England and France had joined Spain in the search for a route through or around the new land mass blocking quick passage to the rich orient being exploited by Portugal. The Cabots and other explorers probed the coast of North America. The riches found were not gold or spices, but fish. The Grand Banks off New Foundland proved to be the richest fishery in the world. These early explorers and their regular voyages across the Atlantic to take advantage of the Grand Banks laid the groundwork for colonies soon to be founded along the North American coast. Among those vying for territory here would come adventurous Swedes and Finns.

  Closer to home and of more immediate import to Sweden was the religious controversy brewing in Germany. As Gustav rose to power in Sweden, a Saxon monk was being excommunicated by Pope Leo X. He was then called to face the German princes, nobles, and clergy at the Diet of Worms by Charles V for his heretical writings and teachings. Martin Luther’s dissent was about to create a storm of conflict in Germany. This storm would inevitably crash on Sweden’s shores and eventually draw her armies back into Germany’s religious maelstrom.

  4. King Gustav I

  By the end of June 1523, Sweden was a fully independent country, ready to claim her place among the rising European nationalist states and Gustav Eriksson Vasa was her recognized sovereign. It would fall to him to shepherd this still medieval country into the Renaissance, a period generally considered to have begun about 1500. Gustav had proven himself a leader and revolutionary, but could he build a nation?

  Real Swedish independence, which the Stures had striven for, had been achieved. But to accomplish the rest of the Sture ambitions for Sweden would be at least as difficult, that is, a strong, secure central government and a sense of nationalism among the Swedes.

  The challenges were formidable, but in Gustav the Swedish people had a king of considerable talent and determination. His triumphant entrance into the shattered Stockholm was not the end of the struggle, there would be merely a shift in focus. The common enemy had been defeated, at least temporarily, but now there would be enemies both from within the country and without. To the east, Swedish Finland was threatened by the rising power of Muscovite Russia which had driven to the Finnish frontier with its conquest of ancient Novgorod in 1488. The key to the region’s defense was the Swedish fortresses of Åbo, Olofsborg, and especially Viborg on the Gulf of Finland. Across the gulf, along the eastern side of the Baltic, the domination of Semgallen, Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and Kurland by the German Livonian Brothers of the Sword was weakening. Control of the area would soon be contested by Poland, Russia and Lithuania, as well as native princes. Lithuania itself was in decline having lost much of its medieval empire that once stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Further west along the southern coast the Livonian Brothers’ confederate and kindred order, the Teutonic Knights, who ruled Prussia, were collapsing, producing opportunities for Poland and some of the surrounding Germanic states. All this instability meant potential problems for Swedish holdings in Finland and for her Baltic commerce.

  Finland itself consisted mostly of sparsely populated forests. However, the coastal areas had received significant Swedish immigration until a substantial peasant population thrived there. Little of the area had fallen into the hands of either the church or the nobility. Indeed, 96.4 percent of the land was held by taxpaying peasants, revenues important to the crown.

  To the north of this populated area stretched Österbotten along the Bothian Gulf, an area with only a scattered population of Finns and recent Swedish settlers along the coast. At the head of the gulf and northward ran Lappland, an expanse of wilderness with ill-defined frontiers between Russia, Norway and Sweden, a region inhabited by nomadic reindeer herders owing allegiance to no king or country.

  South of Lappland, on the west side of the Gulf of Bothnia, ran Västerbotten, a remote area with the far northern port of Umeå. It stretched south to Ångermanland where Sweden narrowed to less than fifty miles at its border with more southerly Medelpad and remained tenuously slim through Hälsingland. Finally, at Dalarna and Gästrickland with its important Bothnian Gulf port of Gävle, Sweden spread to a respectable land area. Here was Sweden’s ore producing region, the Bergslag, encompassing the provinces of Dalarna, Närke, Värmland and much of Norrland.

  Mining in Medieval and early Renaissance Sweden was not the deep tunnel or open pit operations we usually associate with mining today. A better analogy might be the 1800s gold miners of Western United States. Individuals, maybe two or three, digging into bogs or hillsides, perhaps excavating a shallow tunnel into a mountain to follow a particularly rich vein of ore. These men were peasants working on their own or minor gentry with a few servants that could be employed in the digging, washing and the refining of the ore. The products of their efforts were traded in local markets for grain from the plains provinces. They hunted and fished to supplement the earnings made from the earth to pay their taxes and sustain their families.

  Three minerals were mined in the Bergslag. Of overriding importance to Gustav was the silver produced at Sala. This intrinsically valuable metal was especially liquid with ready markets in almost any quarter. Production had started in 1510 and remained significant during Gustav’s reign, but fell off by late century. Subsequent administrations tried to revive production, but after that the mines consumed more resources than they ever returned.

  Copper from Kopparberg had been an important export since ancient times and continued to be a mainstay of trade with Lübeck via Stockholm. However, it was iron that was the real Swedish stock-in-trade. Since the beginning of the Iron Age in
northern Europe, when the iron bogs of central Sweden were first tapped for their unglamorous but essential mineral, the Bergslag was famed for its production of particularly pure and malleable iron. The ore, wrested from the bogs, was slow smelted to produce pellets of osmund that sold for a premium in the German markets. By the late Middle Ages ore was also being extracted from rock in Utö (an island in the southern Stockholm archipelago) and Västmanland by a faster smelting method that produced a primitive pig iron.

  Chief in the Bergslag was the province of Dalarna. Here, neither church nor nobility had acquired much land. These independent, tough-minded peasants had formed the backbone of the Sture resistance and had thrown in with Gustav Vasa to begin the drive to oust the Danes. Famed as crossbowmen, with their characteristic heavy bolt called a dalapilar, they formed the nucleus of his early peasant army. But with independence won, they also expected special consideration in maintaining a free and open trade for their products and representation in the new government. Their outlook was less parochial than the people of other regions because of their dependence on trade, and they were closely tied to Stockholm economically and often allied with the city politically. A valuable friend in war, they could also be real trouble if not appeased at the end of the fighting.

  On the borders of the Bergslag were the densely populated provinces of Uppland, Östergötland (with its grain producing plains), and pastoral Västergötland. Västergötland, like rocky, forested Småland, paid most of its taxes in butter and in oxen that could be driven to markets at ports, Stockholm, or the Bergslag. Butter and hides from these provinces were important Swedish exports.