History of Sweden (1523–1611) facts for kids
The early Vasa era was an important time in Swedish history, lasting from 1523 to 1611. It began when Gustav Vasa and his followers took back Stockholm from the Danes in 1523. This happened after a terrible event called the Stockholm Bloodbath in 1520. Sweden then left the Kalmar Union, a union of Nordic countries. This era continued with the rule of Gustav's sons: Eric XIV, John III, John's son Sigismund, and finally Gustav's youngest son Charles IX. After this period, Sweden entered its "Era Of Great Power," known as the Swedish Empire.
Gustav Vasa's time as king brought big changes to Sweden. He led the Protestant Reformation, which meant Sweden became Protestant. He also took over the wealth and land of the Catholic Church. Gustav also worked to unite the different parts of Sweden. When Gustav died in 1560, his oldest son Eric became king. Eric was smart and skilled, but he often argued with his brother and other important noblemen. He fought wars against Denmark, Russia, and Poland. Sadly, he also had periods of mental illness. In 1568, he was removed from power, and his brother John became king.
King John helped make peace with other countries. He also thought about bringing back some parts of Roman Catholicism, but this idea did not happen.
When John died in 1592, his son Sigismund became king. Sigismund was already the ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother. He ruled Poland from 1587 to 1632. He decided to stay in Poland and let others rule Sweden for him. When he heard that the Uppsala Synod had officially made Sweden a Lutheran country, he came back to protest. But the Riksdag of the Estates (Sweden's parliament) had already removed him from the throne. They replaced him with Gustav Vasa's youngest son, his uncle Charles IX. A short civil war followed, which Sigismund lost in 1598. He then left Sweden and never returned.
Contents
How the Vasa Dynasty Began
In 1520, the city of Stockholm was captured by Christian II of Denmark. It became the site of the terrible Stockholm Bloodbath, where many Swedish nobles were killed. By 1521, a nobleman named Gustav Eriksson, who was related to Sten Sture the Elder, gathered soldiers from Dalarna in north-west Sweden. He also got help from the German city of Lübeck. Their goal was to defeat the Danes. In August 1521, his soldiers chose him as their king. This started the Swedish War of Liberation, which lasted until Stockholm was captured in June 1523. After this, Gustav Vasa made sure his rule was strong against any claims from Denmark.
Changes in Taxes and Trade
Gustav Vasa made important changes to taxes in 1538 and 1558. He made many complicated taxes on farmers simpler and the same across the country. Taxes for each farm were also adjusted to match what farmers could actually pay. This meant the king collected more money. More importantly, people felt the new system was fairer.
In 1535, Sweden had a war with Lübeck. This led to the removal of Hanseatic traders from Sweden. These traders used to control almost all of Sweden's foreign trade. With Swedish business people now in charge, Sweden's economy grew quickly. By 1544, Gustav had the support of 60% of all farmlands in Sweden. Sweden also built one of the first modern armies in Europe. This army was supported by a good tax system and government workers. Gustav declared that the Swedish crown would be passed down in his family, the House of Vasa. The Vasa family ruled Sweden from 1523 to 1654 and Poland from 1587 to 1668.
Succession and Conflicts
After Gustav's death, his oldest son Eric XIV became king. During his rule, Sweden joined the Livonian War and the Northern Seven Years' War. Eric also had a growing mental disorder, which caused problems with the noble families. This led to the Sture Murders in 1567 and the imprisonment of his brother John (III). John was married to Catherine Jagiellonica, who was the sister of Sigismund II Augustus of Poland. John led an uprising of nobles, which resulted in Eric being removed from the throne. John then became king. After John, his son Sigismund ruled. However, Sigismund could not keep the throne against Gustav's youngest son, his uncle Charles (IX).
The Reformation in Sweden
Soon after becoming king in 1523, Gustav Vasa asked the Pope in Rome to confirm Johannes Magnus as the new archbishop of Sweden. The previous archbishop, Gustav Trolle, had been officially removed by the Riksdag of the Estates because he was involved with the Danes. The Pope first said no, but then agreed a year later. Magnus was in a difficult position between the king, who wanted reforms, and the Catholic bishops. He was sent on a trip to Russia in 1526 while the king continued the Reformation. Magnus traveled to Rome and became an archbishop in 1533, but he never returned to Sweden.
Meanwhile, in 1526, Gustav stopped all Catholic printing presses. He also took two-thirds of the Church's tithes (money given to the church) to pay off Sweden's national debt. This debt was owed to the German soldiers who helped him become king. In 1529, he called a church meeting in Örebro. Without officially breaking from Rome, all Catholic rituals were declared to be only symbolic, though they were still kept. Many people in the country still strongly supported Catholicism. So, Gustav chose to make changes slowly by first spreading information about the Reformation.
The final step happened in 1531. Gustav Vasa announced Laurentius Petri as the new archbishop of Uppsala and Sweden. Laurentius and his brother Olaus, along with Mikael Agricola in Österland (which is now Finland), wrote and printed Lutheran texts for many years. There was still strong opposition. Neither Gustav nor his son Eric XIV dared to make very big changes. A complete Lutheran church plan was not presented until the Swedish Church Ordinance 1571. It was officially defined by the Riksdag in 1591, and a final statement of faith was agreed upon by the Uppsala Synod in 1593.
Peasant Rebellions
Gustav Vasa faced several peasant rebellions between 1525 and 1543. The last one, the Dacke War, was crushed. In all these rebellions, religion was a big issue. However, the increasing taxes were also a major problem, and peasants had other complaints too. They were very upset about the king taking and changing Church property. They formally protested against the new "Lutheran" ways. They wanted the old Catholic customs to be brought back.
Attempts to Bring Back Catholicism
Under Eric XIV, the Reformation in Sweden continued much like it did under his father. It kept all the old Catholic customs that were not seen as going against the Bible. After 1544, the Council of Trent officially said that the Bible and tradition were equally important sources of all Christian teachings. This made the differences between the old and new teachings clearer. In many countries, a group formed that wanted to find a middle ground by going back to the early Church teachings.
King John III of Sweden, who was very learned and knew a lot about theology, was influenced by these ideas. As soon as he became king, he tried to bring the Church of Sweden back to "the early Apostolic Church and the Swedish Catholic faith." In 1574, he convinced a church meeting in Stockholm to accept some rules he had written. In February 1575, a new Church plan, even closer to the early Church, was presented to another meeting and accepted, but with much hesitation. In 1576, a new liturgy (a book of church services) was released. It was based on the Roman missal but had many changes.
Despite opposition from Duke Charles and strong Protestants, these changes were accepted by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1577. This greatly encouraged the Catholic side in Europe. John III was eventually convinced to send a group to Rome to talk about reuniting the Swedish Church with the Holy See (the Pope). The Jesuit Antonio Possevino was sent to Stockholm to help John become Catholic. But John would only agree to become Catholic under certain conditions that were never met. The only result of these secret talks was that Protestants became even more angry about the new liturgy. Still, the Riksdag of 1582 ordered every church in the country to use it.
During this time, Duke Charles and his Protestant friends were clearly outnumbered by those who wanted a middle way. However, right after King John's death, the Uppsala Synod, called by Duke Charles, rejected the new liturgy. On March 5, 1593, they wrote an anti-Catholic statement of faith. They declared that the Bible and the three early Christian creeds were the true basis of Christian faith. They also adopted the Augsburg confession, a key Lutheran document.
Sigismund's Reaction
When Sigismund found out about the Uppsala Synod in 1593, he felt it was against his rights as king. When he arrived in Sweden, he first tried to gain time by agreeing to what had been done. But the strong actions of the Protestant group and Duke Charles's determination made civil war unavoidable. At the Battle of Stångebro on September 25, 1598, Charles and Protestantism won. Sigismund fled from Sweden and never returned. On March 19, 1600, the Riksdag of Linköping declared Duke Charles king, calling him Charles IX of Sweden. Sigismund and his descendants were said to have lost their right to the Swedish crown. From then on, the crown would pass to Charles's male heirs.
Sweden's Foreign Relations
Sweden had little independent interaction with other countries when it was part of the Kalmar Union. Gustav Vasa's early rule focused mainly on keeping Sweden safe. Since he owed money to merchants in Lübeck, he used help from Denmark to free himself from this debt with a truce on August 28, 1537. This meant that for the first time, Sweden controlled its own waters. However, Denmark was still very powerful, and Gustav was suspicious of them. When Sweden left the Kalmar Union, Denmark and Norway formed their own union (see Denmark–Norway). The Danish king Christian III continued to use the Swedish symbol of three crowns in his coat of arms, showing he still claimed to rule Sweden.
Sweden's eastern neighbor, Russia, was also a concern. The Swedish king was very worried about being on good terms with Ivan IV of Russia, whose power he thought was much greater than it was. Gustav believed Ivan wanted to control all the lands around the Baltic Sea. So, Sweden fought an inconclusive war against Russia from 1554 to 1557.
First Steps into Foreign Conflicts
Eventually, Sweden stopped being neutral and started to build its future overseas empire. In 1560, the last year of Gustav's life, the old Livonian Order was in trouble. After a part of their order became the dukedom of Prussia in 1525, they were left alone between hostile Slavonian groups. The situation became very serious between 1558 and 1560, when many Russian soldiers poured into the land, threatening to destroy the whole area.
In desperation, the last leader of the order, Gotthard von Kettler, asked his neighbors for help. Eric became ruler in October 1560. Later that year, he got Sweden involved in the Livonian War. By March 1561, the city council of Reval surrendered to Sweden. Reval then became an important base for Sweden to gain more land in the area. From that moment, Sweden had to keep fighting and expanding. If they retreated, their important Baltic trade would be ruined.
Eric XIV also stopped Danish plans to conquer Estonia. He even added the symbols of Norway and Denmark to his own coat of arms. Lübeck, which was upset about Eric's actions that hurt their trade with Russia and removed their special trade rights, joined Denmark in a war alliance. Poland soon joined too, wanting to control the Baltic trade.
Growing Conflicts
On May 30, 1563, near Bornholm, the Danish fleet fired on the Swedish navy. A battle began, which ended with Denmark's defeat. German royal messengers were sent to try and make peace. But no Swedes showed up at the meeting place in Rostock. On August 13, 1563, Denmark and Lübeck officially declared war on Sweden in Stockholm. This started the Northern Seven Years' War, which involved tiring battles on land and sea. Eric bravely continued the war until his mental illness in 1567 stopped the Swedish fighting. He was removed from the throne in 1568 and replaced by John. John tried to make peace, and eventually succeeded with the Treaty of Stettin in 1570.
John then joined an alliance against Russia with Stephen Báthory of Poland in 1578. The war between Russia and Sweden over Estonia and Livonia (1571–1577) had been very bad for Sweden. In early 1577, a huge Russian army surrounded Reval.
However, with Bathory's help, the situation soon changed. Six months after his difficult peace with the Polish king, Ivan IV was happy to make a truce with Sweden too. This truce, called the Truce of Plussa, was signed on August 5, 1582. The war was started again by the Russians as soon as the truce ended. This led to the Treaty of Tyavzino, which was much less favorable for Sweden.
Sigismund and Poland
Duke Sigismund of Sweden, who was the son of John III, was raised in the Catholic religion by his mother. On August 19, 1587, he was chosen to be the king of Poland. Sixteen days later, the Articles of Kalmar were signed by John and Sigismund. These articles set out how the two countries would work together when Sigismund became king of Sweden after his father. The articles stated that the two kingdoms would always be allies, but each would keep its own laws and customs. Sweden would also keep its religion, with any changes decided by the Privy Council. Neither the Pope nor any church council could release Sigismund from his duties to his Swedish people. When Sigismund was away from Sweden, the country would be ruled by seven Swedes. Six of these would be chosen by the king, and one by his uncle Duke Charles of Södermanland, who was the leader of the Swedish Protestants. No new taxes could be collected in Sweden while the king was away. Sweden was also never to be ruled from Poland. Any necessary changes to these articles could only be made with the agreement of the king, Duke Charles, the Estates (parliament), and the gentry of Sweden.
See also
- Finland under Swedish rule
- Swedish Estonia
- Polish–Swedish union
- House of Vasa
