Sweden-Finland 1350-1490 Sweden 1560-1611









Sweden, 1523-1611



A.) Foreign Policy

When, in 1523, the rebel forces under Gustavus Vasa took Stockholm Castle and reestablished Swedish independence, they did so with the aid of a fleet from LUEBECK, to which they were indebted. Relations with Denmark-Norway remained strained. Union king Christian was expelled by the Danes, too; yet the Danes had expelled kings before in the period of the Kalmar Union, and the next king always claimed the throne of Sweden. Then there was the matter of the island of GOTLAND, claimed both by Denmark and Sweden, held by Soeren Norby, a man loyal to deposed king Christian; Gotland, from where merchant ships had been molested, was raided by a Luebeck fleet in 1525 and afterwards was reclaimed by Denmark.
War between Luebeck and the (Habsburgian) Netherlands in 1532 provided Gustavus I. Vasa with an opportunity to double-cross Luebeck and get rid of Sweden's debt, simply by declaring the latter paid; Luebeck's trade privileges were cancelled. Earlier that year Sweden and Denmark had cooperated in foiling deposed union king Christian II.'s attempt to raise a revolt in Scania and reclaim his former domains. In 1534 Denmark and Sweden formed an alliance directed against Luebeck; the Luebeckers were defeated in 1535; peace was signed in 1535 in which Luebeck agreed to the cancellation of Sweden's debt. The TREATY OF BROEMSEBRO (1541) with Denmark resolved Danish-Swedish differences.
In 1555 Swedish Finland was invaded by the Russians; peeace was concluded in 1557, without territorial changes. When the Livinoan Knights and the city of Reval. under pressure from Russia, requested Swedish aid (1558), Gustavus I. denied it.


B.) Domestic Policy

When Gustavus I. Vasa entered Stockholm in 1523, the Danes were expelled, but Sweden lacked a constitution. Sweden's independence had been claimed as early as 1515, when Swedish delegates in negotiations with Christian II. had maintained that Sweden, having laws, statutes and traditions of her own, could not accept a foreign king. In 1523, Sweden's independence was de facto established.
Gustavus I. Vasa had Olaus Petri appointed preacher at Stockholm Cathedral (1524). He dispatched Archbishop Johannes Magnus, an opponent of Lutheran reformation, on a diplomatic mission to Poland; then he called the SYNOD OF VAESTERAAS (1527) which adopted the Lutheran reformation.
Gustavus I. was a pragmatic politician; the Lutheran reformation provided him with an opportunity to reduce the pressing national debt by confiscating church property; it also helped, on the long term, with strengthening Sweden's national identity. Yet Gustavus I. was sceptical of the reformers; in 1533 he fired Olaus Petri as chancellor (to which office he had appointed him in 1531); in 1540 he even had tried him for treason. The same year Gustavus I. created the office of a SUPERINTENDENT of the (Lutheran) church, securing royal control. Gustavus I.'s policy slowed down the process of reformation. The CHURCH ORDINANCE, written by Laurentius Petri, and indicating the end of the process of reformation, was approved only in 1572.
Only in 1528 was Gustavus I. formally crowned King of Sweden. In 1540 Sweden was declared a HEREDITARY MONARCHY (the riksfoerestaenders and kings previously had been elected).

A peasant rebellion in 1542-1543 in Smaaland, under NILS DACKE, after initial successes, was crushed. The Riksdag of 1544 was the first regular diet to meet in 15 years. Here the CLERGY was established as a separate estate, Sweden's diet consisting of four estates - clergy, nobility, burghers and bondes (free farmers). Gustavus I. also succeeded in securing the inheritance of his second-born children - duchies for the sons, dowries for the daughters.

The peasant rising under Nils Dacke in 1542-43 bore some similarities with the German PEASANTS REVOLT, as the rebel peasants demanded a return to what they saw as the old form of government; they killed royal baillifs, burnt down noble estates. In Swedish and Danish historiography (the rising affected both Swedish Smaaland and Danish Blekinge) Nils Dacke is at times compared with Robin Hood.

Lutheran Reformation in Sweden



C.) The Economy

The campaign to reestablish Sweden's independence, especially the Luebeck fleet, had been costly. In 1524 Sweden's national debt amounted to 114,500 marks of silver. Numerous policies were adopted to pay down the debt - additional taxation (causing an uprising in Dalarna and Bergslagen in 1525; another uprising took place in Smaaland and Vaestergoetland in 1529, yet another one at Kopparberget in 1533), the cancellation of deeds by which financial revenues had been granted to noblemen, the confiscation of second church bells (1530). The Lutheran reformation provided an opportunity for the crown to gain the money needed and strengthen the economic position of the crown on the long term by confiscating church property, especially the vast landholdings of monasteries (since 1527). This policy in 1540 even caused Lutheran reformer OLAUS PETRI to strongly protest; King Gustavus I. Vasa responded by having him accused of high treason.
When Luebeck was at war with the (Habsburgian) Netherlands in 1532 and requested aid from Sweden, Gustavus I. Vasa not only refused such aid, but declared Sweden's debt paid and cancelled Luebeck's trade privileges.
The later decades of Gustavus I.'s reign were marked by a policy aiming at maintaining peace, strengthening the institution of kingship and securing the inheritance of his children. Gustavus I. promoted the exoansion of Sweden's mining industry; agents were sent to the mining regions of the continent to recruit immigrants. In this way, new techniques, such as forging (hammering) were introduced to Sweden.


D.) Intellectual Life

Olaus Petri wrote numerous publications, among them theologian ones such as a Catechism and a Chronicle of Swedish History. On the other hand, Swedish educational institutions, so far run by the church, were hard-hit by far-reaching land confiscations. The UNIVERSITY OF UPPSALA in the 1530es closed down, as her revenues no longer sufficed to operate her. As a consequence, Sweden lacked qualified men, in areas such as diplomacy, state administration etc.; the king had to rely on foreigners to an extent that the 1540es are referred to as "the German period".






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Gustavus I. Vasa, from Univ. Boraas, in English, concise
Gustav Vasas liv och leverne, by Anders Thuresson, in Swedish
Where We Come From... Gustavus Vasa¡¯s Struggle for Freedom, 1521-1523, from DHM, on Gustavus Vasa as object of literature and paintings
Biography of Nils Dacke, by Mette Jensen, in Swedish; also from Project Runeberg (scans from Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexikon, in Swedish
DOCUMENTS Portraits of Gustavus I. Vasa, No.1, No.2, from Art Istocracy
Portraits of Gustavus I. Vasa from Dominicus Custos, Atrium heroicum Caesarum, regum, [...] imaginibus [...] illustr[atum] 1600-1602, posted by MATEO, Univ. Mannheim
REFERENCE Franklin D. Scott, Sweden : The Nation's History, Univ. of Minnesota Press 1977
Jerker Rosen, Svensk Historia Vol.1, Stockholm : Esselte (1962) 1983


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 8th 2004

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