Sweden: Military History and Notable Events

1438 - 1439 - David’s Rebellion (All Facts)

• Peasant revolt in what is today upper Finland led by David of Ania, a peasant leader who mobilized resistance in response to increasing tax burdens

1520 - Stockholm Bloodbath / Stockholm Massacre (All Facts)

• Massacre of King Christian II of Sweden’s enemies in Stockholm

• Massacre after which, a survivor, Gustav Vasa, organized a peasant uprising against Christian II and the Danes

1521 - 1523 - Swedish War of Liberation (All Facts)

• War in which Gustav Vasa and his rebel Swedish forces and peasants rose up and defeated King Christian II and his royal Danish forces, thus ending the Kalmar Union

• War during which Stockholm was captured by Vada and his rebel Swedish forces as they drove the Danes from Sweden, ending the Kalmar Union after 126 years of the Scandinavian Union’s existence

• War after which Gustav Vasa became King of Sweden

1527 - Diet of Vasteras (All Facts)

• Swedish Parliamentary session which

  • sanctioned Lutheranism as the official and administrative religion of Sweden

  • replenished Sweden’s royal treasury by confiscating the wealth of the Catholic Churches in Sweden

    • As a result, Vasa used the funds to build up the Swedish navy

1558 - 1583 - Livonian War (All Facts)

• War in which Tsar Ivan IV and his Russian forces were defeated by Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Transylvania, and the namesake confederation

• War which Tsar Ivan IV began due to

  • his ambition to transform Russia, which, at the time, had a rudimentary agriculture and little industry; by taking control of the Baltic and its ports, as they had already become, at the time, important centers of international trade and offered the prospect of benefit from the more advanced western countries of the time

• War in which Tsar Ivan IV

  • sent his troops into the namesake kingdom / confederation in a lightning strike designed to secure the Baltic region for Muscovy (Russia) and give it an outlet to the west

• War in which Tsar IV and his Russian forces

  • seized several large towns and fortresses

  • disputed with one another in Moscow and ultimately destroyed their momentum

  • may have overreached themselves during that period of the Tsar’s imperial expansion, but the Baltic region would have been a considerable prize nonetheless

• War which saw

  • The Siege of Narva

  • The Siege of Pskov

• War during which

  • the namesake Order of Knights managed to improve its military and diplomatic posture, still being the area’s main defense force

  • Riga (modern-day Latvia; of the namesake confederation / order) put itself under the protection of Poland

  • the namesake confederation was partitioned as Sweden and Denmark were poised to take over (modern-day) Estonia and Courland

• War which ended when Russia made peace with Poland gave up its claims to the Baltic state of Livonia

1563 - 1570 - Northern Seven Years’ War (All Facts)

• War in which Sweden fought against Denmark, Norway, Poland, Lithuania, and Lubeck

• War which ended with the Treaty of Stettin

1570 - Treaty of Stettin (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Denmark and Sweden, which ended the Northern Seven Years’ War and restored the prewar frontiers of the states involved

1593 - Uppsala Synod (All Facts)

• Decree issued by Sweden’s nobles during the reign of King Sigismund of Sweden, from the House of Vasa, it

  • was the most important synod of the Lutheran Church of Sweden

  • adopted the Augsburg Confession, imposing on (the Catholic) King Sigismund of Sweden the continuation of Lutheranism as the state religion of Sweden and thus curbing King Sigismund’s Catholicism

  • imposed new restrictions on the Swedish crown

1597 - 1599 - War Against Sigismund / Battle of Stangebro (All Facts)

• War / Battle in which Duke (and soon to be King) Charles IX and his Swedish forces defeated King Sigismund and his Polish-Lithuanian forces

• War / Battle in which Duke Charles IX, having gained the support of the Lutheran states against the members of the Swedish council, inflicted a defeat on his Catholic nephew

1609 - 1618 - Russo-Polish War (All Facts)

• War in which King Sigismund III and his Polish-Lithuanian forces defeated Tsar Vasily IV and his Russian and Swedish forces

• War in which King Sigismund III proclaimed that his own son, Ladislaus IV, be the new Tsar of Russia

• War during which the Poles pressed home their advantage by occupying Moscow while the Swedes entered Russia

• War during which the Russians forced the invading Poles to capitulate and, incensed by Polish and Swedish advances into their lands, the Russian people organized against them

  • This operation was undertaken by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky

• War during which Poland had Smolensk in its possession by the end of the “Time of Troubles” and used it as the base for the offensive

  • At one point during the war, this caused serious concern to Tsar Michael, who had been grappling with a host of domestic problems which he inherited when he assumed the throne

  • Somehow, in response to this development, Moscow withstood the assault by the Polish forces

• War which ended with the Truce of Deulino, which was signed after the failure of the offensive which brought Polish troops near Moscow after they ran short of ammunition and provisions and withdrew

1609 - 1611 - Siege of Smolensk (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Sigismund III of Poland-Lithuania and his Polish-Lithuanian and Cossack forces defeated Russia and their combined Russian and Swedish forces in the Russo-Polish War

1610 - 1617 - Ingrian War (All Facts)

• War in which Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedish forces defeated Russia and its forces

• War which ended with the Treaty of Stolbovo

1611 - 1613 - Kalmar War (All Facts)

• War in which King Christian IV and his Danish and Norwegian forces defeated King Charles IX and King Gustavus Adolphus and their Swedish forces

• War which began when King Charles IX provoked King Christian IV of Denmark into declaring war by Sweden’s constant hostility towards Danish ships in the Baltic Sea

  • War in which, within weeks of such provocation, the Danes had taken the strategic namesake stronghold, infuriating King Charles IX so much so that he challenged King Christian IV to a duel, but the Danish-Norwegian King scornfully rejected such a challenge

• War in which King Christian IV of Denmark was determined to gain full power over the Baltic, after having already controlled the Sound, without which it was landlocked

• War which had a serious effect of drawing resources from Sweden’s Russian front towards their front against the Danes

• War which featured a young Gustavus Adolphus leading the Swedes, which featured his modernized army, equipped with units of reindeer-drawn sledges and skiing units

• War in which Denmark’s capture of Kalmar turned the tide firmly in the Danish direction

• War which ended with the Treaty of Knared

1613 - Treaty of Knared (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Denmark and Sweden, which ended the Kalmar War

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Sweden gave up Finland

  • Sweden allowed Danish merchants to enter Livonia

  • Sweden gave Denmark Alvsborg as a surety

1617 - Statute of Orebro / Ordinance of Orebro (All Facts)

• Policy issued by the Riksdag under King Gustavus Adolphus, which

  • banned Catholicism

  • was a move aimed against those who wanted to restore Catholicism to Sweden rather than an act of direct religious persecution towards Catholics

1617 - Treaty of Stolbovo (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty between Russia and Sweden, ending the Ingrian War

• Peace Treaty which effectively ended the occupation of northern Russia by Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedish forces

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Sweden agreed to evacuate Novgorod and other areas of northern Russia

  • Sweden agreed to renounce its claim to the Russian throne

  • Sweden agreed to renounce plans for expansion towards the Whit Sea

  • Russia had to pay an indemnity of 20K silver roubles to Sweden in exchange

  • Sweden retained the southern coast of Finland

  • Sweden retained its contact with its Estonian possessions

  • Russia (Muscovy) was cut off from the Baltic

  • Russia did not get back the towns conquered by Boris Godunov prior to the “Time of Troubles”

1618 - 1648 - Thirty Years’ War (All Facts)

• Conflict

  • between Catholics and Protestants in Germany following the failure to reconcile them via the Peace of Augsburg

• Conflict in which

  • 4.5M-8M people were killed from

    • the battlefield

    • plague and disease

      • the constant maneuvering helped to spread disease

    • famine

      • the constant maneuvering laid waste to vast tracts of farmland

        • Crops were destroyed

  • German towns lost as many as 50% of their populations from

    • being razed to the ground by siege and fire

    • plague borne by countless armies

  • the European continent was nearly destroyed

• Conflict which began

  • with the Defenestration of Prague and Bohemian Revolt

  • when Bohemia elected itself a new Protestant as king, Frederick V, previously the elector of Palatine, to replace the Habsburg King Ferdinand II, whom the Bohemian estates had previously “accepted” as king

• Conflict during which

  • The Protestant Union was dissolved

• Conflict during which

  • Johann Tserclaes (Count of Tilly) and his Catholic forces sacked the Heidelberg University Library

  • Bavaria (as well as Spain and Austria) invaded France with their armies and advance units of the Bavarian cavalry arrived in the Parisian suburbs

    • These armies invaded France but were driven back

  • Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedish forces invaded Pomerania and Mecklenburg to counteract recent Habsburg military successes in the war

• Conflict which saw

  • The Bohemian Revolt

    • The Defenestration of Prague

    • The Battle of White Mountain

  • The Vatellina War (between Spain and Switzerland)

  • The Battle of Lutter

  • The Battle of Dessau Bridge

  • The Sack of Magdeburg

  • The Battle of Breitenfeld

  • The Battle of Lutzen

  • The Battle of Nordlingen

  • The Battle of Wittstock

  • The Battle of Rheinfelden

  • The Battle of Freiburg

• Conflict which involved

  • The Eighty Years’ War / Dutch Revolt (between Spain and the Netherlands / Dutch Republic)

• Conflict which ended with

  • The Peace of Prague

  • The Peace of Westphalia

    • This took three years of negotiation in two cities, Munster and Osnabruck, to bring about the official signing

• Just four years prior to the start of the war,

  • Catholics and Protestants alike in Germany were already preparing for the conflict, which threatened to engulf the whole continent as

    • battle-lines were already being drawn up by then

    • fortunes were already being spent equipping private armies throughout Germany

    • Germany prepared itself to be the battlefield when the war would break out

  • In the Protestant north of Germany,

    • whole cities were ringed with star-shaped walls, bastions, and moats

  • In Catholic Bavaria and in the Rhineland,

    • great new fortresses pierced the skylines

  • intense diplomatic activity was taking place, particularly on the part of

    • Prince Christian of Anhalt-Bernburg

    • King James of England

• Conflict which ended when three successive salvos crashed out from 70 cannons on the walls of Munster to announce that peace came from a war-ravaged Europe after three decades of bitter conflict in which every power became involved both on land and sea

• Conflict after which

  • 100K+ mercenaries had to be paid and returned home lest they turn themselves into robber-bands adding even more torment to a war-weary Europe

  • the high cost of the war caused massive tax demands on both nobles and peasants, both parties of whom threatened revolt

1621 - 1625 - Fourth Polish-Swedish War (All Facts)

• War in which Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedish forces defeated King Sigismund III and his Polish-Lithuanian forces

• War which began when King Sigismund III of Poland-Lithuania claimed the throne of Sweden

1621 - Siege of Riga (All Facts)

• Battle in which Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedish forces defeated the Polish-Lithuanian forces during the Fourth Polish-Swedish War

• Battle in which the sight of Gustavus Adolphus digging assault trenches spurred the Swedish army to victory as the namesake (modern-day Latvian) city surrendered after a hard-fought siege

• Battle in which Gustavus Adolphus, ever at the forefront of his men, came close to death on at least one occasion as his troops advanced under a creeping artillery barrage and stormed the walls

• Battle in which the burghers of the namesake town parleyed, but angered Gustavus Adolphus by describing him as “ruling prince in the kingdom of Sweden” rather than “King of Sweden”

  • While this affront could have meant a full-scale sacking by the Swedish army, Adolphus relented but still claimed the namesake city for Sweden

1626 - 1629 - Fifth Polish-Swedish War (All Facts)

• War in which Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedish forces defeated King Sigismund III and his Polish-Lithuanian forces

• War which ended with the Truce of Altmark

1629 - Truce of Altmark (All Facts)

• Truce signed between Poland-Lithuania and Sweden, which ended the Fifth Polish-Swedish War

• Truce which marked the annexation of the coast of Livonia by Sweden

1631 - Sack of Magdeburg (All Facts)

• Incident in which Johann Tserclaes and his Holy Roman forces and Catholic League defeated and destroyed the namesake Protestant German city during the Thirty Years’ War

• Incident which is considered the worst massacre of the Thirty Years’ War

• Incident in which 20K people died, the bodies having been so numerous that they were thrown in wagonloads into the Elbe River

  • Incident in which 5K of the town’s inhabitants, mostly women, survived

• Incident during which

  • the whole fury and savagery of war descended on the namesake German town

  • drunken soldiers of nine nations reeled among its smoldering ruins, dragging captive women as they sought wine in charred cellars

  • the town fell to a two-pronged attack, and by then the horror began

  • the largely Croat and Walloon soldiers conquered it and then rioted, murdered, raped, and looted

  • a monk herded 500 women into the namesake town’s cathedral for safety

  • fires spread across the town, fanned by a strong wind, as the namesake town ended up becoming a roaring furnace which burned soldiers and citizens to death without discrimination

• Incident in which

  • many people believed the people of the namesake town brought the massacre upon themselves after they refused to help Dietrich von Falkenberg prepare his defense against the besieging army of Johann Tserclaes

  • even as Tserclaes was beginning his final assault, the namesake town’s people were pleading with the defenders to surrender

1631 - Treaty of Barwalde (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Cardinal Richelieu of France and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in which France finances Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years’ War in order to pursue an anti-Habsburg foreign policy

1631 - Battle of Breitenfeld (All Facts)

• Battle in which Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedish forces and John George of Saxony and his German Lutheran forces defeated Johann Tserclaes and his Holy Roman forces and Catholic League during the Thirty Years’ War

1632 - Battle of Lutzen (All Facts)

• Battle in which Gustavus Adolphus, Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, and their combined Swedish forces defeated Albrecht von Wallenstein and his Holy Roman forces and Catholic League during the Thirty Years’ War

• Battle in which Gustavus Adolphus was killed

1634 - Battle of Nordlingen (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ferdinand III of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, the Catholic League, and Spain and his Holy Roman forces defeated Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and the Protestant German Princes and Sweden during the Thirty Years’ War

• Battle during which Ottavio Piccolomini contributed to his commander’s downfall and went on to distinguish himself in the Holy Roman victory

• Battle after which

  • France feared its result would lead to the revival of the Holy Roman Empire’s dream of universal domination and thus served as a pretext for its entry into the Thirty Years’ War

  • Sweden’s influence in southern Germany ended

• Battle which brought about the ceasefire which, in turn, brought about the Peace of Prague

1636 - Battle of Wittstock (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Swedish defeated John George of Saxony and his Holy Roman forces during the Thirty Years’ War

1638 - Treaty of Hamburg (All Facts)

• Pact between France and Sweden signed in the namesake town in Germany during the Thirty Years’ War

1648 - Peace of Westphalia (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (Habsburgs), France, Sweden, and their dozens of allies; which ended the Thirty Years’ War

• Peace Treaty which

  • guaranteed the full sovereignty of the German states from the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain)

  • guaranteed total religious freedom in German states for Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists (with the exception of the hereditary lands of the Habsburgs)

• Peace Treaty in which

  • the Habsburgs

    • recognized the independence of

      • the Protestant German states (from the Catholic Holy Roman Empire)

      • Switzerland (from the Holy Roman Empire)

      • The Netherlands (from Spain)

  • France

    • acquired as reparation

      • Alsace

      • other territories

  • Sweden

    • acquired Pomerania

      • This gave them dominance in the Baltic

• Peace Treaty which

  • was signed in conjunction with the Treaty of Munster, in which the Habsburgs recognized the independence of the Netherlands (the Dutch Republic) from Spain

  • represented the failure by the Habsburgs to turn Germany into a Catholic monarchy

1648 - 1666 - The Deluge (All Facts)

• Series of military campaigns which coincided simultaneously within Poland-Lithuania during the namesake years, ending Poland’s “Golden Age”

• Period during which invasion, war, plague, slave raids, and mass murdered reduced the Polish population by almost half

• Period which began when the Cossacks invaded Poland on two fronts after swearing an oath of allegiance to Tsar Alexis of Russia when King John II Casimir failed to make an agreement with them

• Period in which Sweden was alarmed by the Cossack invasion of Poland, and so they descended on Poland themselves from Pomerania and Livonia

• Period in which Brandenburg-Prussia and Transylvania also descended on Poland as a result of Sweden’s actions

• Period during which John II Casimir was in continual conflict with the Sejm over money and constitutional issues

• Period during which many towns throughout Poland were destroyed

1650 - Treaty of Nuremberg (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Holy Roman Empire and Sweden following the prior Peace of Westphalia / Treaty of Westphalia

1655 - 1660 - Northern War (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts which began when Charles X Gustav of Sweden decided to invade Poland-Lithuania and took Warsaw, in a preemptive attack to protect Sweden from a Russian attack

• Series of conflicts over the Baltic Sea, which, like the Mediterranean Sea, was a vital route for seaborne trade, especially with southern Europe, and which

  • possessed prized resources for trade with Mediterranean countries including

    • iron

    • copper

    • salt-herrings (a vital source of food at the time)

    • grain (for the rest of Europe)

    • wood

    • naval supplies (that were in great demand)

  • was of such strategic and economic importance that other European countries supported Denmark-Norway to prevent Sweden from gaining complete control over the Baltic Sea, including

    • the Netherlands

    • the Holy Roman Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia

    • Russia

• Series of conflicts in which

  • Charles X Gustav of Sweden broke off his campaign against Poland to turn on Denmark-Norway in the First Dano-Swedish War

  • Denmark declared war on Sweden in the Second Dano-Swedish War

• Series of conflicts which thus included

  • The First Dano-Swedish War

  • The Second Dano-Swedish War

  • The War of Rupture

• Series of conflicts in which were signed

  • The Treaty of Konigsberg

  • The Treaty of Roskilde

  • The Treaty of Valiesar

• Series of conflicts which ended with

  • The Treaty of Oliva

  • The Treaty of Copenhagen

  • The Treaty of Cardis

1656 - Treaty of Konigsberg (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Charles X Gustav and Frederick William of Brandenburg during the Northern War, which

  • made East Prussia into a fief of Sweden

  • gave Sweden privileged access to and half the customs revenue of the Prussian ports of Memel and Pillau

  • represented a step towards Charles X Gustav and Sweden’s dream of dominating the Baltic

1656 - 1658 - War of Rupture (All Facts)

• War in which Sweden and its forces defeated Tsar Alexis and his Russian forces

• War which ended with the

  • Treaty of Valiesar

  • Treaty of Cardis

1657 - 1658 - First Dano-Swedish War (All Facts)

• War in which Charles X Gustav and his Swedish forces defeated Frederick III and his Danish-Norwegian forces

• War in which the people of Copenhagen fought hard against a besieging Swedish army

• War which began when Sweden invaded from the south of Denmark-Norway, taking advantage of the frozen sea in an exceptionally cold winter to move rapidly from island to island, taking Jutland and Zealand and then attacking an undefended Copenhagen

• War which ended with the Treaty of Roskilde

1658 - Treaty of Roskilde (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick III of Denmark-Norway which

  • ended the First Dano-Swedish War

  • gave Sweden the islands of Skane, Halland, and Blekinge, thus completing Sweden’s peninsula north of the Baltic Sea

  • gave Sweden the islands of Bornholm and territories in Norway

  • thus decisively delineated the mutually recognized boundaries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; boundaries which are almost exactly the same to this day

1658 - Treaty of Valiesar (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Sweden and Russia which ended the War of Rupture

1658 - 1660 - Second Dano-Swedish War (All Facts)

• War in which Frederick III and his Danish-Norwegian forces, with help from the Netherlands, Poland, and Brandenburg-Prussia, defeated Charles X Gustav and his Swedish forces

• War in which Denmark declared war on Sweden, encouraged by the Netherlands and Austria

• Despite the prior Treaty of Roskilde, Charles X Gustav invaded Denmark again

• War in which Charles X Gustav of Sweden was killed

• War in which the courage of Copenhagen saved the Baltic Sea from becoming “a Swedish lake”

• War which ended with the Treaty of Copenhagen

1660 - Treaty of Copenhagen (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Sweden and Denmark-Norway, which ended the Second Dano-Swedish War

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Sweden restored the diocese of Trondheim to Norway

  • Sweden restored the diocese of Bornholm to Denmark

  • Sweden retained Scania and other territories they conquered on their western borders

  • Denmark abandoned claims to southern Sweden

1660 - Treaty of Oliva (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Brandenburg-Prussia, Sweden, and Poland-Lithuania; which ended the Northern War

• Peace Treaty which

  • gave Sweden no additional territory

  • allowed Sweden to keep Livonia

  • confirmed the Duchy of Brandenburg’s sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia

• Peace Treaty in which

  • John II Casimir of Poland gave up his claim to the Swedish throne

1661 - Treaty of Cardis (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Sweden and Russia which confirmed the prior Treaty of Valiesar and which

  • restored the status quo of territorial possessions between Sweden and Russia, with Russia surrendering all gains it had made in the Baltic Sea region

1668 - Triple Alliance (All Facts)

• Alliance formed between England, Holland, and Sweden to defend the Netherlands against France during the War of Devolution

1672 - 1678 - Franco-Dutch War (All Facts)

• War in which King Louis XIV and the French defeated the Dutch, taking many previously Dutch-controlled territories

• War which began when the French crossed the Rhine River and captured city after city

• War in which, to halt the French invasion, the Dutch opened their dykes and caused extensive flooding to the lands France was invading

• War in which French troops conquered Franche-Comte

• War in which King Charles II of England declares war on the Netherlands, thus supporting King Louis XIV and France, in what became known as the Third Anglo-Dutch War, which overlapped with the namesake war

• War in which the Dutch forts in Senegal in West Africa were conquered and taken from them by France

• War which saw the

  • Battle of Turckheim

  • Battle of Salzbach

  • Battle of Fehrbellin

  • Messina Revolt

  • Fall of Ghent (the French capture of which forced the Dutch to the conference table)

• War which King Louis XIV declared in order to crush the Protestant Dutch and seize control of their maritime trade

  • Once the Dutch cut their dykes, and fought ever the more bravely under William of Orange, Louis XIV’s war aims became unfulfilled and he was anxious to make peace

• War during which Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia invaded Bremen, Verden, and Western Pomerania, Sweden’s enclaves in north Germany

  • War whose course was said to have changed drastically due to Frederick William’s intervention, which was said to have

    • discouraged the French who were less committed than prior to that point

    • encouraged Frederick William and his great plan of unifying Prussia

• War which ended with the Treaties of Nijmegen

1675 - Battle of Fehrbellin (All Facts)

• Battle in which Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia and his Holy Roman forces defeated the Swedish forces during the Franco-Dutch War

1678 - 1679 - Treaties of Nijmegen (All Facts)

• Series of Peace Treaties signed between France and the Holy Roman Empire, ending the Franco-Dutch War

• Series of treaties in which France

  • gained Franche-Comte from Spain

  • regained control over the duchy of Lorraine

  • got a rationalization of the frontier in Flanders to give King Louis XIV the “dueling-ground” advocated by Vaubin