Siege of Älvsborg (1612)

Siege of Älvsborg (1612)
Part of Kalmar War
Christian IV conquers Älvsborg
Date 5 – 31 May 1612 Location Älvsborg Fortress, Västra Götaland, Sweden Result Danish Victory Territorial changes Älvsbrog falls into control of Denmark-Norway
Belligerents
Denmark-Norway	Sweden
Commanders and leaders
Christian IV	Olof Andersson Stråle
Strength
Around 10.000 men and an unknown amount of canons	600 men
Casualties and losses
Unknown, but large 5 ships damaged, 1 sunk	450 men

The Siege of Älvsborg was a Siege of the Swedish castle of Älvsborg by a Danish army under the command of Christian IV in the summer of 1612 as part of the Kalmar War. Despite the Swedes putting up a good fight, they had to surrender in the end to the larger Danish force with the Swedish commander Olof Andersson Stråle surrendering to the Danes

Background

In April 1611, Christian IV of Denmark declared war on Sweden due to the Swedish king Charles IX claimed supreme power over Finnmark, a strategic region for trading routes located along the Atlantic–White Sea that for a long time had benefited Danish-Norwegian kings with resources like fish and furs.

Älvsborg Fortress was one of Sweden's most important fortresses due to it's location, since it was easy to control shipping throughout the country from the city. It also had direct access to the north sea making trading from the sea easier. Therefor it was important for Christian IV to control the city in order to block Sweden from getting cargo from the north sea, and possibly connecting Denmark and Norway by land in the future.

On 5 of may a portion of the Danish army group under the command of Christian IV had reached the city and put Älvsborg under siege. On the 14th the rest of the army had made it to the city and had completed the siege.

Siege

On the 5 of may Christian IV and a portion of his army had reached Älvsbrog and made camp, sieging the city. However Christian IV had to wait for the rest of his army before making a move. The rest of the army arrived on 14th of may, but two days before in the night between the 11th and 12th Christian IV had started shooting on the Castle and had even began digging a bit closer to the city. With the entire army group now putting the city under siege, Christian IV demanded the Swedish surrender. However the Swedish denied, saying that if they didn't get reinforcements in under 14 days they would surrender the castle. Christian was having none of it and started shooting at the castle again killing a few.

On the 22nd the danes manged to shoot a hole in the wall making Christian IV order a storm of the castle. The Swedes determined to defend the castle manged the hold the storm of the Danish horde off by exploding the entrance inflicting alot of casualties. After this the storming Danes retrieved back to camp. However the damage done by the Danes had Inflicted alot of Swedish casualties, however when Christian on the 23rd asked the Swedes for the surrender of the castle again, they again denied the, saying they would take a day to think it over.

In the moring of may 24, the Swedish commander Olof Andersson Stråle and the rest of his army moved out of the castle, surrendering it to the Danes. Älvsborg was now under Danish control for the rest of the war

Aftermath

On the 28th a portion of the army which had besieged Älvsborg had made it's way towards Guldborg which they also proceeded to besiege. Christian IV also attended the siege the day after. However the Swedes on this castle was not as ready to defend the castle as the ones on Älvsborg. However, the Swedes refused to surrender the castle until the danes had shown dominance. Christian proceeded to fire a few shots on the city making the swedes surrender guldborg on the first of June

Bibliography

Liljefalk, Axel. Kalmarkrigen : et Bidrag til de nordiske Rigers Krigshistorie : efter trykte og utrykte Kilder.

F.H. Jahn: Historie om Kalmarkrigen Köpenhamn, 1820 (in Danish)

Jonas Hedborg: Kungl. artilleriet. Yngre vasatiden 1985 (in Swedish)