The Chronicles of Sweden: A Swedish MEIOU and Taxes AAR

[The Number 9]

Great to see you back ! Congratulations on the degree.

And now we have a new king ! His father did so many great things for Sweden, it could be hard to succeed him.

 

[Oohforf]

Great to see you back and congratulations on your degree! Sweden is looking nice and secure with it's increased Baltic lands and Polish alliance.

Will King Erik expand in the same direction as his father or look for lands in a new direction entirely?

Sweden is currently hemmed in by the Muscovites to the East and the Polish-Lithuanian Union to the immediate south...it looks like Baltic and Russian expansion will have to be paused for the time being. There may be other targets available, however...

That's quite the reign, hopefully Erik will be able to continue his father's legacy. Is there a growing power on Europe right now that could be a potential threat?

The Polish-Lithuanian Union is by far the most potent player in Sweden's immediate neighbourhood. There are other power blocks, however. I'll be releasing an update on Europe in general at the beginning of the next century!

 

[Oohforf]

Erik I Ulv, elected king of Sweden
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Erik Karlsson was the eldest son of Karl VIII and Margriet of the Low Countries, and was probably born at Kalmar Castle in 1467. Soon after his election in 1490, he summond a Riksdag at Västerås, where he strengthened the Riksdag of the Estates as an institution meant to wield power second to that of the king himself.

1491 saw the marriage of Erik to Selma of Brunswick, daughter of Julius I von Welf. Little is known about the early reign of the queen herself; she did not involve herself in politics or affairs of state, instead devoting herself to the faith and the maintenance of her own household. The king and queen did not spend much time in Stockholm itself, but held court all across the country. Sources state that Gripsholm Castle was Queen Selma's favourite seat.

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The 1490s

The 1490s in Sweden saw changes in Swedish foreign policy, inflationary problems, and oppositional voices arising from both the magnates and the clergy. Upset with the increasingly centralized state and the growing power of the monarch, the kingdom's magnates wanted to see reforms which increased their privileges. In his fight to decrease state corruption and establish a hereditary monarchy, Erik chose to ignore their concerns, pressing forward with his reforms.

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The primate of the Roman Catholic Church of Sweden and Archbishop of Uppsala during this time was Jöns Ragvaldsson, a zealous advocate for religious orthodoxy. Austere and outspoken, Ragvaldsson threw sharp criticisms at the king, noting his relative indifference towards the communities of Eastern Orthodox "schismatics" in the eastern part of the kingdom and his perceived impiety. Not wanting to initiate an overt conflict with the church, the king had no choice but to suffer his criticism in silence. Hostility between the crown and the church would persist for decades to come.

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Finally, after many decades of a tenuous peace, tensions had nearly come to a head once again between Denmark and Sweden, the two perpetually bickering kingdoms of Scandinavia. King Erik had decided to press his claims to the province of Bahuslen, infuriating King Hakon VII. Paired with the perpetual severing of relations since Queen Ulrika's conquest of Skåneland, it appeared as if the two kingdoms were heading once again down the road to war.

After the birth of numerous daughters and multiple stillbirths, Queen Selma finally gave birth to an heir - Gustav - at Stockholm Castle on 23 January 1498. The new prince was immediately recognized as heir apparent, which flew in the face of Sweden being an elective monarchy.

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Europe, 1499

Europe at the end of the 15th century was a continent coalescing into large power blocks. To the southwest, Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire had long since fallen to the Ottoman Turks, who then expanded their influence across the Balkans and deeper into Anatolia. Such victories had struck fear into the monarchs of Poland and Bohemia, who were undoubtedly gearing up for future conflict with the Turkish sultans.

To the north and the east sat the Polish-Lithuanian Union and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, the former of which was by far the most powerful polity in the region. Muscovy had annexed the majority of Russia's other duchies and princedoms, and was apparently poised to invade the Steppes belonging to the Crimean Khaganate.

The long wars between the crowns of England and France had resulted in a French victory and the full conquest of English holdings on the continent. England itself had chosen to isolate itself in the British Isles, expanding its influence in Ireland and solidifying its ties with Scotland. To the south, the crowns of Castile and Aragon had wrapped up the Reconquista and had stamped out Islamic and Judaic heathenry among their conquered populations.

Finally, the Holy Roman Empire was experiencing upheaval as it concerned the success of the Calixtine Movement, which put a Hussite ruler on the Bohemian throne. With Hungary joining a Personal Union under the Bohemian monarch and its subsequent acceptance of Hussite doctrines, Bohemia had the military might to began its own illegal and unbridled conquests across the Empire. With the Pope and the princes of the empire failing the subdue the Calixtine Movement, the authority of the emperor himself was severely weakened, setting the ground for future conflicts in the decades to come.

 

[generalis Julius Caesar]

With luck, Sweden shall grow only in power, and the lion of the North shall weather out the coming storms.

 

[Oohforf]

Back once again!

Polish-Muscovite War (1504-1505

In early 1504, King Henyrk III of Poland and Lithuania invaded the Grand Duchy of Moscovy and called upon the Swedes to join the war effort. King Erik obliged and mobilized his armies to march upon Ingria. Aside from the Finnish coast, the Swedes engaged the Moscovites and their allies in Karelia, winning numerous battles in the region.

The Swedish armies were able to capture Muscovite fortresses around the Gulf of Finland, while the Poles and Lithuanians captured and sacked the cities of Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, and the capital at Moscow.

Despite his victories, King Erik soon grew discontented with the numerous Polish-Lithuanian victories, and knew that a peace deal would place Sweden at a significant disadvantage relative to Poland. The Swedes decided to engage in secret peace negotiations with the Muscovites at Gdov. Sweden would return their territorial gains to Muscovy in return for an extended peace. Knowing that meaningful gains against the Muscovites would be nearly impossible so long as Poland held the upper hand in the alliance, Erik settled for laying a foundation for a potential future against their increasingly powerful state. On the 15th of January 1505, King Erik dissolved his alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Union.

Second Northern War and the Harrying of Norway (1505-1507)

As the war against Muscovy availed Sweden nothing, King Erik was not content with the idea of completing his rule without achieving meaningful territorial gains for his kingdom. With the Poles still engaged in Russia, the king noted that they would be unable to provide their Danish allies with any meaningful help to provide their Danish allies with any meaningful help. The Swedes declared war, intending on seizing Norwegian territories held in personal union with the King Olav VI of Denmark. The Scots would eventually join the war on the side of their Swedish allies.

Knowing that Denmark held relative dominance over the Öresund and the Baltic, King Erik ordered that naval engagements against the enemy were be avoided during the most initial stages of the war. Instead, the Danish army was allowed to cross into Skane to lure them into pitched land battles. On the 13th of July, 1505, Henrik Skytte met and defeated the Danish armies led by Peder Adeler outside of Helsingborg.

With Skane and the Göta älv region relatively safe from retaliation, the Swedes launched an offensive into Norway. Bahus was quickly seized and Oslo was put under siege. Simultaneously, an army of 2000 Dalecarlian militiamen led a foray into the hotly contested territory of Jemtland, seizing the region for Sweden in November 1505. By late March of 1506, the Dalecarlians were able to push deeper into Norway, taking Trøndelag and the provincial capital of Trondheim.

Oslo was taken and put to the torch, with the surrounding countryside and adjacent provinces seeing the same treatment. By late 1506, the majority of Norway was under Swedish occupation, with Bergen put under siege by the Dalecarlian militia. King Erik called for maximum devastation in Norway, wanting to siphon as much loot from the country as possible. Skytte contemplated joining up with the Dalecarlians but decided against it upon receiving news of a new Danish landing in Skane. Skytte marched southwards and crushed the final Danish offensive.

With Sweden holding the clear upper hand, King Erik sued for peace. The Treaty of Lönsboda saw Denmark cede Bahus and Jemtland to Sweden. Additionally, they were made to end their long-standing alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Union. The Swedes had scored a decisive victory in Scandinavia.

Founding of Gothenburg and the Swedish-Dutch Alliance

As Sweden now had a significant coastline of her own stretching along the Kattegat and Skagerrek, the king saw the importance of establishing a notable seat of authority in western Sweden and past the contentious Öresund – the existing port at Nya Lödöse would no longer suffice. The town of Gothenburg was founded in 1510 as the capital of Västergötland province. The new municipality was to be first populated by several Dutch, German, and Scottish merchants, all of whom were granted special trade privileges.

Sweden and the Bruce dukes of the United Netherlands also established an alliance between the two kingdoms, strengthening Sweden’s ties to the continent.

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Subjugation of the Magnates

1514 marked a significant turning point in both Sweden’s centralization process and the strengthening of the Ulv dynasty. At the 1514 Riksdag at Uppsala, King Erik abolished Sweden’s medieval elective monarchy and replaced it with his own hereditary monarchy under the House of Ulv, with his eldest son Gustav being granted the Duchy of Finland as heir apparent. The magnates of the realm protested heavily but were unable to do much as the Ulv monarchs had successfully diminished their powerbases over the last century.

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A Prussian Monk vs Christendom

Initially King Erik viewed the religious developments on the continent with little interest, dismissing the preachings of "Martin Luther" as the start of yet another local heresy that would inevitably be crushed by Rome. However, a common perception held towards the Roman Catholic Church among many Swedish scholars at the time was that it was a stagnant and increasingly decadent organization, one which was all too happy to enforce its will upon the nation despite Sweden’s distance from the Holy See. Reformist tracts from Prussia and Germany slowly trickled into Swedish scholarly circles. In 1519, the king decided to take his own personal official position on the “Lutheran Question” and chose to adopt a cautionary message, signalling his hypothetical support for some reforms yet reiterating the authority of Rome in Sweden.

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By 1522, the University of Stockholm was openly holding debates on Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. Fearing the ire of the Pope, the king contemplated an Act of Suppression against reformist tracts in Sweden, but died in 1523 at Tre Kronor Castle before anything meaningful could be enacted.

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By establishing his own hereditary monarchy, Erik I was Sweden’s first truly autocratic ruler. Erik would be succeeded by his eldest son Gustav, who ordered that he be buried at Riddarholmen Church.

 

[Moridin997]

Glad to see this return

 

[Crossl3ones]

Your great return comes alongside a great addition to this Swedish saga. The humbling of the Danes and the establishment of a hereditary monarchy will surely place Erik's reign up upon a pedestal. I am curious to see if the breaking with Poland and favorable terms of peace with the Muscovites will make an old ally an enemy, and an old enemy a new ally.

Looking forward to the next update, welcome back!

 

[HistoryDude]

And so the Reformation begins.

And Sweden has a coast, which will prove useful...

 

[Oohforf]

Gustav I Ulv, King of Sweden​

Gustav Eriksson arrived in Stockholm days after his father’s death at the head of a handsome procession. He held a sumptuous coronation at the Stockholms domkyrka and took the title of arvkonung, or “hereditary king”, wishing to push forward the new reality of his realm’s newly centralized monarchy. Receiving the highest education possible, the new king was a true prince of the Renaissance and was fluent in German, French, Italian, and Latin, alongside his native Swedish. Later on in life an attempt at learning elements of Finnish was also made.

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Sweden towards the beginning of Gustav I's rule

The Polish Marriage

Against his father’s wishes, Gustav had in the years prior entered into marriage negotiations with Wladyslaw III of Poland independently. A year after his ascension to kingship, Wladyslaw III’s second daughter, Anna, was married to Gustav and became Queen of Sweden. Thereafter, she was often known as Anna of Oldenburg in her new country. Gustav’s petitioning and subsequent marriage to the Polish princess was a marked departure from the relatively frigid engagement policy used by his predecessor towards Poland in the earliest parts of the century.

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Anna of Oldenburg, Queen of Sweden

1524 Diet of Warsaw

Warsaw in the 16th century​

Warsaw in the early 16th century functioned as the seat of Poland's kings, who also simultaneously ruled as Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Although smaller than Krakow to the south, Warsaw held its own as a large and stately city, well-suited to serving as the capital of the prospering and increasingly powerful polity. In 1524, it would also serve as the location for the trial of the Prussian monk Martin Luther.

At the urging of his companions while traveling in Germany, Gustav was convinced to make himself present at the Diet of Warsaw. The king made no secret of his own reformist views, which brought him into conflict with his father in years past. Gustav arrived in Warsaw a week before the Diet took place.

As per rumors, Martin Luther was apparently secretly placed under the protection of a German prince.​

The king found Martin Luther’s arguments compelling and saw to it that his ideas were even more openly debated throughout his kingdom. Both Queen Anna and the Dowager Queen Selma protested the promulgation of reformist arguments in Sweden and were almost constantly engaged in debate with Gustav, despite the king's rather short temper. Anna was eventually made to stand down however, as Gustav in one instance apparently angrily reminded her of her "position in relation to her lord husband and king, and her duty to follow him in all things".

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In 1526, Queen Anna gave birth to her second child by Gustav I, Karl, at Tre Kronor Castle. As heir apparent, he was immediately granted the title of Duke of Finland.

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The Swedish Reformation

The 1527 Exsurge Domine. The king chose not to intervene in ecclesiastical matters.
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1526 to 1530 saw the arguments of Martin Luther gain even more prominence and acceptance across Sweden. Official contacts with Rome were broken in 1527 and reformers such as Olaus Petri Laurentius Andreae were integrated into the administration.

The 1529 Swedish Bible, created when Sweden was still an officially Roman Catholic state. An official translation was sponsored.​

Aside from his own theological beliefs, Gustav saw the introduction of a full-fledged Reformation as a significant financial and temporal opportunity - the nationalization of church assets would provide the crown with a massive financial windfall, while the chance of crafting a new church in the king’s own image would greatly maximize his own authority. At the Nyköping Riksdag of 1528, often referred to as the “Reformist Riksdag”, the estates of the realm agreed to the following terms:

• The king’s right to seize church assets,
• The economic independence of the church was to be severed and subject to the authority of the crown rather than that of Rome,
• The clergy were to be subject to subject law,
• Only the contents of the Bible were to be taught in Swedish churches, for the sake of removing Catholic doctrine.

The Swedish Reformation moved away from being characterized as "Reform Catholicism" and fully embraced Protestantism at the 1530 Uppsala Synod. Monasteries across Sweden were immediately suppressed and Protestant doctrine was put into place in Swedish churches. Additionally, Canon Law was abolished across all the land. Although Protestantism was adopted by many minor German princes by 1530, Sweden was the first official kingdom to do so. The Reformation had officially begun in Scandinavia.

Gustav did not hesitate to seize the most valuable church lands for the crown.​

Religious mapmode of Europe, 1531​

 

[Oohforf]

Thank you for the kind comments everyone!

 

[Crossl3ones]

That's a pretty big first, no doubt your newly established line of faith will bring you at odds with other powers, but it will be interesting to see if you have set a trend and more protestant nations emerge

 

[Ganholin]

Great as always
How long do you plan playing Sweden?
Do you have any plans for aar in new 3.0 alpha?

 

[Cromwell]

A solid foundation for a new monarch. A new religion and a nice war chest of confiscated wealth.

 

[Oohforf]

Great as always
How long do you plan playing Sweden?
Do you have any plans for aar in new 3.0 alpha?

I'm thinking until maybe the later Enlightenment and the onset of Liberalism. I honestly haven't tried 3.0 yet but if I was to do an AAR for it I think I might go with Russia!

 

[Oohforf]

Gustav I of Sweden, by Jakob Binck

Gustav Triumphs over and Dominates Catholicism (Lady in Yellow) ​

The formation of the Swedish Church continued into the 1530s. One of the most hotly debated topics in the early period of the Church of Sweden was the question of divorce. Among the ongoing debate, the king intervened and reminded the clergy that ensuring the will and authority of the king is important above all else. As head of his church, if he wished to set aside as spouse, he should not be blocked from doing so. Divorce was to be made a reasonable option for all couples.

In February of 1532 Gustav I was officially excommunicated by the Pope Nicholas V. According to the Popish missives, all subjects in Gustav's realm were granted the permission to take it upon themselves to overthrow their king and re-establish the authority of Rome across all the land. Gustav outright dismissed the Papal threat, stating that it had no relevance as Sweden was no longer officially a Roman Catholic nation.

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Gustav came into the personal possession of the County of Stettin in Pomerania upon the death of the last Protestant count. Such an acquisition provided the king with a more direct window into the descending stability of the Holy Roman Empire, which continued to fracture between Lutheran Protestants and Roman Catholics.

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Enforcements War or The Risings against Gustav (Swedish: Verkställighetskrig, Upproret mot Gustav)

Gustav marches off to war​

The Enforcements War, also known as the Risings against Gustav, refers to a series of popular and noblility-driven revolts in the 1530s and 1540s against Protestant doctrines and the centralization policies undertaken by Gustav I. Unrest was widespread across Sweden, but revolts were most vicious in Skane and Swedish Estonia and Livonia.

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There would be no compromise with heresy. All were to conform.

The very first revolt arose in Skane. Led by a local baron by the name of Magnus Lützow, the Danes in the region were furious at the dismantling of Roman Catholic liturgy and the enforcement of Swedish prayer books in Danish churches. Although the rebels had the goal of seizing the region in the name of King Olav of Denmark, he remained neutral in the conflict. Statesman Sten Sture Toll led an army into the region and defeated Lützow at Helsingborg, but died of his own injuries after the battle. King Gustav then took over the army and defeated the remaining Danish rebels at Ronneby. After this final victory, leaders and supporters of the Danish revolt were gathered and executed at Lund, an event which became known as the "Lund Bloodbath".

Revolts in Finland were simultaneously put down under the command of Jakob Prinz.

These victories were short lived however, as by June of 1537 Catholic uprisings had arisen in Livonia, Gotland, and once again, Skane. Gotland in particular was quickly seized as a stronghold for its Catholic rebels. The rebel army in Skane was targeted first, as they were closest to the capital and disrupted Swedish trade in the Öresund.

Battle of Gothenburg, 1538, which resulted in a victory for the crown.​

The war continued on into 1538, when Gustav himself marched upon Visby on Gotland, the most fortified of all the rebel strongholds.

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Visby itself was sacked and all rebel supporters were executed. The king's revenge against the rebels and instigators of the revolt was severe. Important supporters were to be deported from Sweden, while many peasants saw themselves and their families deported to remote parts of Finland and Karelia. Edvard Falkenskjold, leader of the Gutnish rebels, was tortured and executed. His body was then severed into several parts and hung on display in Lund, Reval, and Dorpat as a warning to peasants and parts of the nobility sympathetic to Catholicism alike.

On the 25th of March, 1539, a army led baron Axel Rehnskiöld was defeated by Jakob Prinz as the former attempted to capture Reval. It took until June of the same year for all of Swedish Livonia to be liberated.

With that ended the greatest threat to King Gustav's reign and Protestantism in Sweden. Hardened by the revolt, the king and his immediate successors would only commit themselves even more to the Protestant cause and enshrine into law the full-scale persecution of Catholics for generations to come.

 

[Crossl3ones]

A hard test for the new faith, but one that was overcome. Maybe Rome will be humbled in their backing of future revolts given the bloodbath of failure they inspired. Short but excellent update!