Northern Seven Years' War
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The Northern Seven Years' War (also known as the Nordic Seven Years' War, the First Northern War or the Seven Years War in Scandinavia) was the war between Sweden and a coalition of Denmark-Norway, Lubeck and Poland, fought between 1563 and 1570. An inflexibly imperialistic orientation of both Sweden’s and Denmark’s ruling monarchs combined to revive the old hostilities among the countries neighboring the Baltic. The combat, as was characteristic of the period, was cruelly pursued with the main purpose to conquer the opponent and annihilate him. Many border towns and cities were conquered and pillaged; some were burnt to the ground. The fighting continued until both armies had been exhausted, and many men died. The resulting peace was a stalemate, with neither party gaining any new territory.
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The Context of the Northern Seven Years' War
The Nordic Kalmar Union, which lasted on and off from 1397 to 1523, collapsed as the result of Swedish resentment of Danish domination. A successful rebellion in 1471, led by the Sture family, had firmly established Swedish independence by 1503. But by 1520 Christian II of Denmark had easily reconquered Sweden, and took a bloody revenge for the rebellion from the Kalmar Union. All though the exact events are not certain, a number of noble men and women, as well as leading citizens of Stockholm, were executed in the so called Stockholm Bloodbath, and the corpse of recently deceased chancellor Sten Sture was allegedly dug up and burnt. The unwarranted violence was condemned by the Pope, and repugnant even to the Danes, and on returning home Christian II was forced off the throne by his own councilors. He was replaced by Frederick I, who was crowned in March of 1523.
In Sweden, the power vacuum combined with the Danish revolt, allowed Gustav Vasa with the support of peasants and the Hansa towns of Lübeck and Danzig to consolidate control of Sweden and claim the throne in June 1523.
Gustav Vasa’s Sweden was weak in 1523. Access to the west was virtually completely blocked by Denmark-Norway which continued in union. Sweden’s access to the East was limited to a 20 kilometer stretch on the Kattegat at Älvsborg Fortress (where modern Gothenburg was later founded). Further, Denmark controlled the Baltic, limiting Sweden there.
Gustav Vasa took an action which did not bear immediate fruit in the Nordic Seven Years' War, but was to have a lasting impact on Sweden’s fortune; he changed the military structure in Sweden. In 1544 he used the old Scandinavian concept of Uppbåd (the ability to call up some fraction of men from each district in an emergency) to establish the first native standing army in Europe. The men served in standby, remaining at home in peacetime, and being paid by tax concessions, but were required to assemble and drill. This system was expanded. By 1560 when Gustav Vasa died, every ten peasants were required to provide one soldier who must serve anywhere domestic or foreign as required by the king.
The Immediate Cause of the War
The start of the war has been attributed mainly to Denmark's displeasure over the Kalmar Union being dismantled. This displeasure was shown several times during Gustav Vasa's reign of Sweden, for example when Danish king Christian III included the traditionally Swedish insignia of three crowns into his own shield. The Swedish interpretation was that Denmark continued to claim Sweden.
This and other events created a dangerous environment, especially after Gustav Vasa’s and Christian III's deaths - both countries now had young and hawkish monarchs, Erik XIV in Sweden and Frederik II in Denmark.
More controversies arose - Erik XIV in the beginning of his reign - obstructed Denmark's plans to conquer Estonia.
In February, 1563 Swedish messengers had been sent to Hessen to negotiate Erik's marriage with princess Kristina. The messengers were restricted to Copenhagen. Erik himself turned down requests to remove Denmark and Norway's symbol in his shield. Lubeck, upset over obstacles of trade that Erik had introduced to hinder the Russian trade, joined Denmark in a war alliance. Poland soon joined, wanting control of the Baltic trade.
The War
Initial phase
In May, the first movements of the war started. A Danish fleet under Jakob Brockenhuus sailed towards the Baltic. At Bornholm, on May 30, the Swedish navy under Jakob Bagge fired upon the Danish fleet even though war had not officially been declared. A fight arose that ended with Danish defeat.
German royal emissaries were sent to negotiate a peace, but at the meeting place of Rostock no Swedes appeared. August 13, 1563 the war declaration was a fact in Stockholm, Denmark and Lubeck. That month, Danish king Fredrik II attacked Älvsborg. In the beginning of the war the Danes advanced from Halland with an army of professional mercenaries of 25,000 strong and captured, after three days of bombardment and a 6 hours assault, Sweden’s gateway to the west, Älvsborg fortress, was lost on September 4th.
This caused Sweden to be cut off from the Baltic sea. Erik then attacked Halmstad, without result; the Swedish counterattack was driven back by the professional Danish army. After the kings departure from his army, Charley de Mornays stepped in as the commanding officer and was beaten by the Danish at Mared.
At sea a battle broke out near Öland on September 11th, whereafter the war took a pause.
Attacks by land
Sweden occupied the undefended Norwegian province of Jemtland, which was quickly reconquered by a counterattack by forces under command of the Norwegian governor of Trøndelag.
In 1564 the Swedes marched under Claude Collart and occupied the Norwegian provinces of Jemtland, Herjedalen and Trøndelag, including the city of Trondheim. Initially welcomed in Trøndelag, their ill treatment of the Trøndelag natives laid the groundwork for the later resistance to Swedish invasion. Although repelled from Trøndelag, they continued to occupy Jemtland and Herdalia. These provinces were later recaptured by Norwegian forces.
The Danish mercenary army was superior to the Swedish peasant army in all but one respect; the professional army would not fight until their pay was current. Because only a fraction of the army would march, Denmark had to give up the plan to take the Kalmar fortress and settle for an attack on Stockholm instead. In August, Erik attacked Blekinge and his army occupied it cruelly, the Danish soon reclaimed this.
New battles
On May 30 a battle broke out between the Swedish navy and the Danish navy (now under the direction of Herluf Trolle) between Gotland and Öland. Swedish commander Jakob Bagge was captured, but the battle was a draw. August Klas Kristersson Horn become the new commander and beat the Danish at Ölands north tip August 14th.
Horn attacked the provinces Hallandia and Scania in 1565, and made several attempts at Bahusia and Uddevalla. The Danish burned old Lodose in the province Westrogothia. Against the Danish army, Erik marched the army himself at first, but then again turned command over to someone else, this time to Nils Boije, who August 28th took Varberg. The Danish under Daniel Rantzau beat the Swedish at Axtorna 20th October.
At sea the Swedes fared better. Horn - commanding the Swedish navy - hunted a Danish/Lubeck fleet up against the German coast where most of it was destroyed. Upon this victory Horn steered for Oeruend and levied a toll on passing ships. A while later he delivered a successful battle on the Mecklenburgish coast, at Buchow. The Danish were beaten again at sea by Bornholm on July 7. This ensured the command of the Baltic to the Swedes.
In January 1566 Sweden unsuccessfully laid siege to the Båhus Fortress in Norway’s Bahusia province. Daniel Rantzau moved his forces into Westrogothia. At sea the Swedes continued their success, Horn returned to take king toll charges in the Baltic without any interference from the Danish. Another battle at sea outside of Öland occurred the 26th of July. It resulted in the complete destruction of the Danish navy in a storm. Horn was now called to command troops on land, where he died September 9th.
Swedish cruelties on land
Sweden invaded the Norwegian Østerdal, crossing Hedmark and occupying Norwegian territory as far west as Skiensfjord. They devastated the country districts, burnt Sarpsborg and massacred the military garrisons.
1567 continued the attack against Norway. Sweden invested Akershus Fortress in Oslo. When they were defeated, they retreated north into Hedmark and the Opplands, burning Hamar Cathedral and destroying the bishop’s fortified palace Hamarhus.
Double-edged successes
Spring time came and Erik XIV turned insane. This incapacitated the Swedish warfare. Even the Danish were exhausted and did no serious attacks until October when Rantzau attack with about 8,500 man into Småland and Östergötland. He arrived in November and burned every field, house and livestock he could. An attempt to cut his retreat off over the Holaveden failed, and in the middle of February 1568 he returned to Halland. This same year Erik was dethroned and another break occurred in the war.
Attempts were made to make peace between the fighting nations during these years. Some negotiators that attempted this included dukes of Pommern, French messenger Charles Dancay, Emperor Ferdinand I and Emperor Maximilian II.
But since Eric XIV and Fredrik II showed no love for peace, the attempts failed. In 1568, Swedish duke Johan began negotiations with Denmark and November 18th 1568 this led to a draft of peace in Roskilde. This however was turned down by the Swedes. In 1569, war stirred again. The Danes attacked Varberg and reclaimed it on November 13th. The Swedes on the other hand now had great success in Skåne.
Peace negotiations
At this point, both armies were exhausted. This led to further negotiations toward peace. In September 1570 a peace negotiations meeting began in Stettin and peace was finally reached on December 13, 1570. The Swedish king withdrew the claims to Skåne, Halland, Blekinge and Gotland, while the Danes withdrew their claims to Sweden as a whole. In addition, the Kalmar Union was declared dissolved.
The Swedes ransomed Älvsborg with 150,000 riksdaler (currency of the time). The disputes concerning the three crowns insignia was pushed for future arguments.
The Consequences
Perhaps the most significant consequence of this war was initiation of a standing Swedish army. This war, followed by a virtually continuous involvement of Sweden over the next century in other wars, produced a military capability which made Sweden, for a period, the greatest military power in the north.
This war, with its extreme destruction and wanton civilian casualties strengthened the hatred between Swedes and Danes, while polarizing the until-then ambivalent Norwegian opinion to one of fear and resistance to Sweden.
The invasion routes of Norway also presaged the attacks on Norway in the next century and defined Norwegian defensive policy.
References
- A History of Sweden by Ignar Andersson; Frederick A. Praeger; 1956
- The Northern Wars, 1558-1721 by Robert I. Frost; Longman, Harlow, England; 2000; ISBN 0-582-06429-5
- History of the Norwegian People by Knut Gjerset, The MacMillan Company, 1915, Volumes I & II
- The Struggle for Supremacy in the Baltic: 1600-1725 by Jill Lisk; Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1967
- Fra Bondeoppbud til Legdshær by Trygve Mathisen, Guldendal Norsk Forlag, 1952
- Sweden - The Nation's History by Franklin D. Scott; Southern Illinois University Press; 1988; ISBN 0-8093-1489-4
- East Norway and its Frontier by Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 1956
- The Heart of Norway by Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1953.
- Sweden and the Baltic, 1523 - 1721, by Andrina Stiles, Hodder & Stoughton, 1992 ISBN 0-340-54644-1sv:Nordiska sjuårskriget
Categories: Swedish wars | Danish wars | Norwegian wars | Norwegian history | Swedish history | Scandinavian history | History of Denmark
