Northern Seven Years' War

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 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, fought between 1563 and 1570. 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.

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. Successful rebellions in 1471, led by the Bonde-Sture nobles, 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. Although the exact events are not certain, a number of noble men and ladies, as well as leading citizens of Stockholm, were executed in the so called Stockholm Bloodbath, and the corpse of recently deceased Regent Sten Sture the Younger was allegedly dug up and burnt as a heretic. 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 revolt within Denmark against Christian II provided the opportunity for 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 North Sea was limited to a 20 kilometer stretch on the Kattegat at vicinity of Älvsborg Fortress (where modern Gothenburg was later founded). Further, Denmark controlled the Baltic, limiting Swedish movement 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 prerogative 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 coat of arms. 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 added the insignia of Norway and Denmark to his own coat of arms, and refused Danish requests to remove these symbols. 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, on September 4th.

This caused Sweden to be cut off from the North Sea. Erik then attacked Halmstad, without result; the Swedish counterattack was driven back by the professional Danish army. After the king's 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 Jämtland, 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 Jämtland, Härjedalen 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 became the new commander and beat the Danish at Ölands north tip August 14th.

Horn attacked the provinces Halland and Skåne in 1565, and made several attempts at Bohuslän and Uddevalla. The Danish burned old Lödöse in the province Västergötland. 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 Bohuslän province. Daniel Rantzau moved his forces into Västergötland. 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 made no serious attacks until October when Rantzau attacked Småland and Östergötland with about 8,500 men. He arrived in November and burned every field and house and destroyed every head of livestock he could. An attempt to cut off his retreat 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. Negotiators who 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 on November 18th 1568 this led to a draft peace agreement 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

The Northern Wars, 1558-1721 (2000) - Robert I. Frost; Longman, Harlow, England; ISBN 0-582-06429-5
Sweden and the Baltic, 1523 - 1721 (1992) - Andrina Stiles, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-54644-1
Sweden - The Nation's History (1988) - Franklin D. Scott; Southern Illinois University Press; ISBN 0-8093-1489-4
The Struggle for Supremacy in the Baltic: 1600-1725 (1967) - Jill Lisk; Funk & Wagnalls, New York
A History of Sweden (1956) - Ingvar Andersson; Frederick A. Praeger
East Norway and its Frontier (1956) - Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd
The Heart of Norway (1953) - Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd
Fra Bondeoppbud til Legdshær (1952) - Trygve Mathisen, Guldendal Norsk Forlag
History of the Norwegian People (1915) - Knut Gjerset, The MacMillan Company, Volumes I & II
Naval Battles in the Baltic 1553-1850 (1910) - R. C. Anderson