As the grip of the siege tightened on Rising and the tiny Fort Christina garrison, conditions inside the fort became desperate. On September 13 Rising offered to confer with the Dutch governor-general and the two met for the first time in Stuyvesant’s tent. Rising learned his worst fears were well founded. The Dutch were determined to end the Swedish presence on the Delaware once and for all.
On September 14 a second meeting was held, but this time Rising, having concluded further resistance would only end in a waste of lives, brought his own terms of surrender to be used as a basis for negotiations. To the Swede’s surprise Stuyvesant accepted the terms as presented. The following day the treaty was signed ending Swedish control of her American colony. By the terms of the treaty Rising and his soldiers left the fort under arms with flags flying, relocating to Tinicum Island. Under the terms, all colonists who wished to return to Gothenburg were free to do so. Those remaining would retain their homes and land, and would be free to practice the Lutheran religion, but they would have to take an oath of allegiance to the Netherlands and be subject to the government in New Amsterdam and Dutch law. Thirty-seven men, mostly soldiers, took the offer to return to Sweden or Finland leaving some 300 people behind.
It was only after the surrender was signed that Rising learned the reason for Stuyvesant’s quick acceptance of terms. When the Dutch force left New Amsterdam for the Delaware, the Indians in the area recognized an opportunity to avenge the rape and rapine that had been perpetrated upon them by the Dutch under the Kief administration. A fleet of 64 canoes carrying some 500 warriors made a surprise attack on New Amsterdam. The few guards were quickly overcome. By evening another 200 warriors had joined the assault. The town lay open to them and they robbed, murdered and pillaged at will until the burgher militia was able to form up and drive the invaders from the island. The Indians crossed over to Staten Island and the Pavonia settlement where they continued their rampage for three days. In the end some fifty colonists were killed with twice that many, mostly women and children, carried off as captives. Another 200 were left homeless and many more lost possessions and, most importantly, their food supplies. Stuyvesant and his army had to return to the capital without delay. Having settled the treaty conditions, Stuyvesant left only a few soldiers at each of the two forts and sailed for New Amsterdam.
Before Sweden learned of the fall of New Sweden, another expedition was organized and sent to the colony from Gothenburg. On March 14, 1656, the Mercurius put in at Fort Casimir with 110 passengers mostly from northern Sweden. Again there were many more applicants than space aboard ship. There were more Finns than Swedes on the passenger list, which included Johan Papegoja and Hendrick Huygen as co-commanders. They must have been shocked to find both Fort Casimir and Fort Christina flying the Dutch colors.
When Stuyvesant learned of the new Swedish ship on the Delaware, he sent word that it was not to be allowed to land, but was to proceed to New Amsterdam. Papegoja and Huygen ignored the instructions and sailed to Tinicum Island where the ship was unloaded. When the vessel didn’t immediately comply with his orders, Stuyvesant dispatched a squad of soldiers overland to take charge. But the supplies were hidden and the passengers who had relatives on the island melted into the population. The rest took to the forests where they were quite at home, much more so than the Dutch. By the time the troops arrived their trail was cold.
Eventually, a town developed around Fort Casimir. It would become the thriving city of New Amstel, later New Castle, before there was a Wilmington or Philadelphia. On the Delaware, Tinicum Island became the center of the “Swedish Nation.” Here was located the only Lutheran church with Swedish pastors. Eventually, Stuyvesant appointed Gregory van Dyck deputy schout for the Swedish Nation along with Swedish magistrates to preside over their own courts. The former Swedish colony raised its own militia, officered by Sven Skute as captain and Lieutenants Anders Dalbo and Jacob Svensson. Stuyvesant did curtail Swedish autonomy somewhat, afraid too much independence might lead to a revolt.
In 1664 James Stuart (later James II), duke of York, conquered New Netherlands and the Swedish Nation became part of the English colonies. They were then required to shift allegiance to the king of England, not a problem for the Swedes and Finns as they had never been entirely comfortable under Dutch rule. All land patents were recognized, religious freedom observed, and they were given full rights as English citizens. On June 4, 1699, a new Swedish Lutheran church was dedicated at the site of what had been Fort Christina. Named Trefeldighets Kyrckia (Holy Trinity Church), it still stands today in Williamsburg, now called Old Swedes Church.
Thus Sweden’s colonial effort in America ended, but not the Swedish adventure in this New World. New Sweden would be instrumental in the formation of a new nation. On July 1, 1776, the Continental Congress took a vote on the Declaration of Independence. Only nine of the thirteen colonies voted in the affirmative. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against acceptance, Delaware was deadlocked and New York, the old New Netherlands, abstained. Benjamin Franklin’s admonition of, “We must all hang together or we shall all hang separately,”4 described the situation.
The final vote was postponed until the following day. On July 2 South Carolina voted to join the rebellion. Then John Morton, a Pennsylvanian of Swedish descent, switched his vote swinging his state to the affirmative. Late in the day Caesar Rodney, Delaware’s third delegate, galloped up to the statehouse after an eighty-mile ride through the night and a thunderstorm to break his state’s deadlock and bring it into the Declaration of Independence camp. It was enough. The Continental Congress spent the next two days finalizing the document that would create the first independent nation of Europeans in the Americas.
Swedish immigrants would continue to come to these shores for another two hundred and fifty years. They pushed inland, generally preferring their own farms away from the large settlements, a characteristic of Swedish immigrants to the United States. Swedes arriving in the 1800s and early 1900s did not congregate in the eastern cities as other Europeans often did. They pushed on to the farmlands of Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, the Dakotas and Montana. They arrived at the rate of 37,000 per year in the 1880s, inhabiting the frontiers as fast as new lands were opened to them until the northern forests, plains and Rocky Mountains were settled. Today there are some eight million Americans of Swedish decent, a strong and energetic people who have contributed much to their adopted country’s development and prosperity.
There is one last footnote to Sweden’s attempts at colonization. In 1784 King Gustav III of Sweden acquired the Caribbean Island of St. Barthelemy from France in exchange for trade privileges. The Swedish West Indies Company was formed in the hope of using the island as a base for exporting iron to the Americas. The chief city and harbor on the island was named Gustavia and declared a free and neutral port. During the Napoleonic wars the city thrived and grew rich from trade. As the European wars subsided, commerce dwindled and the island was sold back to France in 1878. However, the name of the capital and tourist center of the island remains Gustavia to this day, a last reminder of Sweden’s colonial ventures in Africa, North America and the Caribbean.
22. Karl XI and the Scanian War
Karl X died February 13, 1660, having ruled the Swedish Empire at its height. By the Treaty of Roskilde Denmark turned over Trondheim (in Norway), Blekinge, Skåne, Halland (permanently), Bohuslän and Bornholm to Sweden. Karl had conquered and then lost Poland. He had lost Sweden’s colony in America and her trading posts in Africa except for Karlsborg, which would succumb within three years. He did manage to keep Sweden’s Baltic possessions and those in northern Germany, but these were threatened by wars in Livonia and Swedish Pomerania.
Peace negotiations had been ongoing for a year with France as primary mediator. The biggest impediment to progress was Karl himself insisting on terms even more generous than those of Roskilde. Once this obstacle was removed, negotiations proceeded rapidly.
The P
eace of Oliva was signed on May 3, 1660, between Sweden and Poland-Lithuania, Austria and Brandenburg. Sweden retained Bremen, Verden, Wismar and Swedish Pomerania. In addition, her possession of Livonia was finally recognized by the Commonwealth. For the first time a Polish king, John Casimir, officially withdrew his claim to the Swedish throne, though he would use the title of king of Sweden for the rest of his life. The Vasa feud was finally ended.
On June 9 the treaty of Copenhagen established peace between Denmark and Sweden. By its terms Denmark regained Bornholm and Norwegian Trondheim, but Sweden kept Blekinge, Skåne, Halland and Bohuslän, as well as previously won Jämtland and Härjedalen. Though he lost Poland and Prussia, Karl X had pushed the contiguous territory of Sweden to its present borders at the expense of Denmark.
The war with Russia was concluded at the settlement of Kardis in 1661 with Muscovy returning the parts of Livonia, taken including Dorpat. Thus Swedish Baltic possessions were also preserved, including Livonia, Estonia, Ingria and Kexholm.
All in all Sweden emerged from the war and the peace negotiations in an excellent position. This was due in part to her ally France being the mediator, but also because her military reputation was at its height. The near conquest of Poland had certainly caught the attention of the European states and the speed with which Karl had crushed Denmark was astonishing. Only the united forces of several nations had saved Denmark from annihilation.
It had taken the combined navies of Denmark and the Netherlands to blunt Swedish domination of the Baltic and the Sound. Sweden’s military prowess was respected and feared. It was her lack of population and substantial economy that were her weaknesses. This was to become apparent during the coming peace.
Meanwhile, Poland and Russia, freed from Swedish wars, hammered away at one another for another five years. Finally, the two exhausted protagonists concluded a thirteen and a half year truce on January 30, 1667. A period of peace settled over northern Europe for the first time in centuries, marred only by the Dutch war with France (1667). Sweden and her neighbors were given a breathing space to recuperate from the devastation and deprivations of war.
The death of Karl X left Sweden, once again, with a child monarch. Karl XI was just four years old. His mother, Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, was staunchly anti–Danish. He had the best of tutors, but struggled in his studies, probably due to some form of dyslexia. He would become proficient in only Swedish and German. As an adult he was naturally shy and entertained at court only when required for state occasions. This reticence would cause problems in his marriage to the Danish princess. She was fond of lavish social events and entertainment, functions Karl did not enjoy and considered frivolous. His aversion to studies meant that he spent much of his youth in outdoor activities. Hunting and playing war games with his companions occupied his time. He took little interest in government, leaving the country in the hands of the Regency.
Chief of this governing group was Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, son of Jakob de la Gardie and Ebba Brahe. As part of his education Magnus spent time in France where he became a great admirer of French culture and acquired a social polish not common in Sweden. He returned to his native country in 1644 at the outbreak of war with Denmark intending to launch a career in the military, but his French manners, sophistication and handsome presence made an impression on Christina. The queen kept him at court, showering him with favors. He was made a colonel in the Lifeguard and betrothed to Enfrosyne, the queen’s cousin and sister of the future Karl X. Christina played him off against Axel Oxenstierna as she made him a member of the Council of State at twenty-five. In 1648 he became second-in-command to Field Marshal Karl Gustav Wrangel in Germany and participated in the siege of Prague. A year later he was made a field marshal and governor-general of Livonia. At thirty he was state treasurer. Along with his political rise he was given lands, several hundred farms in Sweden, the islands of Wollin and Ösel, and the county of Pernau in the Baltics.
In 1652 de la Gardie became ill and was bed-ridden for some six months. When he recovered he found he was no longer one of the queen’s favorites. He was shunted aside, even losing his office of treasurer. At Christina’s abdication Magnus hoped to regain his former status at court. He was returned as treasurer, but was employed in diplomatic missions by Karl X which kept him abroad.
In June 1655 de la Gardie was again made governor-general of Livonia and put in command of all forces between the Düna and Lake Ladoga. He proved to be a poor military commander and suffered several reverses during the war. As the war in the Baltics wound down he was given the diplomatic commission of conducting the peace negotiations at Oliva and here he showed considerable aptitude.
De la Gardie returned to Stockholm in June 1660 to find the government in the midst of a quarrel over who would run the country until Karl XI’s maturity. The dead king (Karl X) had left a will naming a Regency consisting of the queen mother, Karl X’s brother, Duke Adolf Johan (who was to be high marshal), Per Brahe (high steward), Magnus de la Gardie (chancellor), Herman Fleming (treasurer) and Karl Gustav Wrangel (high admiral). The House of Nobility objected to the choices. They didn’t like Adolph Johan because he was a difficult man and detested Herman Fleming for his zealous advocacy of the reduktion. In the end the Noble Estate won out. Johan was replaced by Lars Kagg and Fleming by Gustav Bonde as treasurer.
De la Gardie, as chancellor and head of government, was saddled with a cabinet he had no voice in selecting and didn’t like. In addition to the members of his own Regency, Magnus’s leading opponent was Johan Gyllenstierna, who did not have de la Gardie’s admiration for France and favored an alliance with Denmark and the Netherlands.
Given the strong divisions in the Swedish government it would have taken an Axel Oxenstierna to gain control and impose his will. Magnus was no Oxenstierna. Though at times he showed great energy and resolution, was skilled in debate and knew how to use the authority of his office to effect, he lost heart easily when things went badly. He often wearied of the demands of his office and sought refuge outside Stockholm at his estates where he indulged in building projects, collecting art and landscaping design. During these absences, the other members of the Regency would take over and move the government on a different path. This situation meant Sweden had a government that shifted direction, not staying on one even course in either foreign policy or domestic affairs. Both these areas were affected by Sweden’s financial crisis.
Christina’s extravagance and Karl X’s wars had left the country deeply in debt. The new treasurer, Gustav Bonde, came up with an austere budget so that the debt could be paid by the time Karl XI reached maturity. One of the areas cut was the military, a military Sweden needed to maintain peace with her neighbors. But during the Regency’s rule Sweden’s army and navy suffered a decline in readiness.
De la Gardie argued for an alliance with Sweden’s traditional ally France as the best way to stay out of war, but Johan Gyllenstierna led an opposition that urged an alliance with the maritime countries of the Netherlands and Denmark. Direction in Sweden’s government was not consistent.
In 1666 Bonde died and de la Gardie was able to influence the country’s financial policies to a greater extent. But his adversaries won a political triumph when Sweden joined an anti–French Triple Alliance with England and the Netherlands in 1668. However, de la Gardie engineered an alliance with France, signed in April 1672, that guaranteed a subsidy of 400,000 riksdalers per year to maintain a 16,000 man army in Pomerania. This was to be raised to 600,000 if Sweden was at war, presumably with enemies of France.
Denmark, that same year, joined a coalition of Leopold I (holy Roman emperor), Brandenburg, Brunswick-Celle, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Hesse-Kassel. In May 1673, Denmark signed a treaty with the Dutch, who agreed to subsidize a war fleet of 20 vessels and a 12,000 man army.
The tension between Sweden and Denmark was exacerbated by Sweden’s promotion of ties with Holstein-Gottorp, one of a patchwork of duchies at the base of the Jutland Peninsula
. Swedish interests in the area dated back to Viking Hedeby and, more recently, to Karl X’s marriage to Hedvig Eleanora of Holstein-Gottorp. This was a region Denmark intended to dominate.
1672 also saw Karl XI reach the age of eighteen and become the head of state. That same year war broke out between France and a coalition of England, the Netherlands and Brandenburg. Both Denmark and Sweden tried to remain neutral, even attempting to act as mediators between France and Brandenburg. Both were threatened with non payment of subsidies if they didn’t join the conflict.
In 1674 England withdrew from the war, but the Empire and Denmark joined the anti–French coalition. More pressure was applied by France for Sweden to engage her enemies. By September 1674 Sweden had 22,000 men under arms in her German territories thanks to French money. The war threatened Bremen and Verden. Sweden could not maintain a large army in Pomerania much longer. She had to act.
In December 1674 Karl Gustav Wrangel pushed into Brandenburg with 13,000 troops. Another 25,000 men were scattered in garrisons in Swedish German territories. The thrust into Brandenburg was rather tentative by Swedish standards, as if the country’s heart was not really in this conflict. Wrangel fell ill and his deputy, Helmfelt, also was incapacitated. Command fell to Mardefelt, a fortifications engineer, not a field general.
Frederick William retreated in the face of the vaunted Swedish military machine, burning crops and supplies before the advancing army. On June 18, 1675, the main Swedish force had taken up a position at Alt-Brandenburg above the Havel River near Berlin. Volmar, Wrangel’s half-brother, bivouacked on the other side of the river.
Frederick William saw his chance and drove a column between the divided Swedish army, capturing the bridge at Rathenow. In an attempt to rejoin the main army, Volmar moved his troops to Fehrbellin, but found the bridge destroyed. While repairing the structure, the Swedes were caught in the valley where Frederick shelled them with his artillery, then attacked with cavalry and infantry. The Swedish rear guard held off the Brandenburgers until Volmar could get his troops across the repaired bridge. Though not a major battle the Swedes did lose 600 men and retired from the field, technically a defeat.
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