Warrior Kings of Sweden: The Rise of an Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

308 Pages·2007·9.401 MB·English

by  Gary Dean Peterson

Warrior Kings of Sweden

Warrior Kings
of Sweden
The Rise of an Empire in the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries
Gary Dean Peterson
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
fefferson, North Carolina, and London
Excerpt from The Story of Civilization: Vol. 6. Reformation, by Will Durant.
Copyright © 1957 by Will Durant. Copyright © renewed 1985 by Ethel B. Durant.
(New York: Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing Group).
Excerpt from The Story of Civilization: Vol. 8, The Age of Louis XIV, by Will Durant
and Ariel Durant. Copyright © 1963 by Will & Ariel Durant; copyright © renewed
1991 by Will & Ariel Chi rant. (New York: Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing
Group).
Excerpts from Gustav Adolf the Great, by Nils Ahnlund» translated by Michael
Roberts» published by Princeton University Press and The American-Scandinavian
Foundation, 1940, © The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Peterson, Gary Dean, 1942-
Warrior kings of Sweden : the rise of an empire in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries / Gary Dean Peterson,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7864-2873-1
(softcover : 50# alkaline paper)
1. Sweden — Politics and government —17th century. 2. Sweden — History, Military—17th century.
3. Sweden — Kings and rulers—17th century. 4. Sweden — Civilization —17th century.
5. Sweden — Politics and government —16th century. 6. Sweden — Kings and rulers —16th century.
7. Europe —History, Military—17th century. 8. Europe —History, Military—16th century. I. Title.
DL704.7.P48 2007 948.5'034-dc22 2007005128
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2007 Gary Dean Peterson. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: top Gustav Adolf the Great (British Library)*, bottom ©2007 Clipart
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www. mcfarlandpub. com
To my grandparents,
Hannah Svensson and Peter Gust Peterson,
who immigrated to the United States
from Smiland, Sweden,
and homesteaded in Montana

Contents
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. First Kings of a United Sweden 5
2. The Kalmar Union 15
3. Gustav Vasa’s Rise to Power and Swedish Independence 22
4. King Gustav I 33
5. War Debt and the Reformation 44
6. Succession and Civil War 53
7. Erik XIV and the First Northern War 63
8. King Johan III and the End of the First Northern War 77
9. A Swedish Prince on the Polish Throne and the Second Northern War 87
10. Sigismund III and Wars in the North 99
11. Karl IX and the Second Polish War 108
12. Gustav Adolf’s Rise to Power 116
13. Gustav Builds His Army 122
14. Gustav Extends Swedish Power in Livonia and Prussia 138
15. Gustav Enters Germany and the Thirty Years’ War 151
16. Gustav’s Court on the Rhine and the Battle of Lützen 166
17. Oxenstierna Takes Control and Prosecutes the War in Germany 174
18. War with Denmark as the Thirty Years’ War Winds Down 184
19. Queen Christina and the Athens of the North 188
20. Karl X—The Swedish Empire at Its Height 200
21. Sweden’s Colonies and New Sweden in America 213
22. Karl XI and the Scanian War 233
23. Karl XII and the Great Northern War 242
vii
viii Contents
24. Karl XII and War in Poland 251
25. Karl XII’s Russian Campaign 262
26. The End of Empire 270
Epilogue 278
Notes 283
Bibliography 285
Index 289
Preface
As the grandson of Swedish immigrants I have always been interested in Sweden, yet in
grade school, high school and even college, any Swedish history I learned I picked up indi­
rectly. In Roman history there were the Goths, who may or may not have come from Swe­
den. There were Vikings, mostly Danish and Norwegian, who ravaged Medieval Europe and
reached North America — maybe. Swedish Vikings, 1 learned, did have something to do with
the early Russian kingdoms. There was mention of Gustav Adolf’s participation in the Thirty
Years’ War and Sweden’s short lived colony on the Delaware. And that was it, except for some
slurs about the country’s neutrality during the two world wars.
I had not an inkling that the boots of Swedish soldiers once trod the streets of Moscow,
that Swedish generals had conquered Prague and once stood at the gates of Vienna. Only
vaguely did I understand that a Swedish king had defeated the Holy Roman Emperor and
held court on the Rhine, that a Swede had mounted the throne of Poland, then held at bay
the Russian and Turk. I missed completely the history of another Swedish king who captured
Krakow and Warsaw, then reversed direction and drove the king of Denmark into a last island
refuge.
It was not until later, reading on my own, that I discovered the story of Sweden’s rise to
power under Gustav Vasa (the first of Sweden’s great warrior kings) in the sixteenth century.
I learned of Sweden’s military dominance of central and eastern Europe under her second great
warrior king, Gustav Adolf, and Sweden’s pivotal role in the Great Northern War at the begin­
ning of the eighteenth century under her last great warrior king, Karl XII, perhaps the ablest
general of his day. For a hundred years Sweden was the international military power of North­
ern Europe, turning the Baltic into a Swedish lake, and establishing colonies in Africa and
America.
This story fills a large void in history as it is generally presented to the American stu­
dent and reader. First, it bridges a geographical gap between Russian history, readily avail­
able in book and course study, and Western European history, as taught in U.S. high schools.
The annals of Sweden, Finland, the Baltics, Poland, Lithuania and Prussia are little under­
stood by Americans. Yet events in this region directly affected the course of Western Euro­
pean history and ultimately that of America.
Secondly, this chronicle spans a period in time generally overlooked in American his­
tory books, literature, movies and television. Medieval Western Europe has been well repre­
sented in all these media. The American Revolution and the Civil War focus attention on the
late 1700s and 1800s, but it was the political and religious movements of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries that produced the climate for European global expansion including the
exploration and colonization of the New World. And it was during these centuries that great
1
2 Preface
strides were made in the advancement of weapons technology, warships and military tactics.
Sweden was at the forefront of this military evolution, both on land and at sea. Besides play­
ing a major role in these military, religious and political events of the era, Sweden took a hand
in the colonization of America and continued to send skilled and industrious people to the
United States well into the twentieth century.
In this book I present a narrative of Sweden’s age of greatness, in terms of her warrior
kings, for the descendants of those immigrants, the posterity of immigrants of other North­
ern and Eastern European countries, students of military history, and the general reader inter­
ested in this neglected aspect of European history. A list of references, organized by chapter,
is at the end of the book for the reader interested in a more detailed study.
I thank Sven Edenström of Ronneby, Sweden, for explaining details and filling in g?ps,
and especially my wife, Pauline, for long hours of editing and critiquing.
Here then is the story of Sweden’s age of greatness, a tale of intrigues and conflicts, of
power and greatness, of suffering and courage, of romance and loyalty, of kings, nobles and
peasants, the story of a people, a nation and an empire.