Karl the Ninth and the Baltic Sea

Karl the ninth and the Baltic Sea, speech 23rd of October 2008

Almost 400 years ago Karl the ninth passed away on Nyköpingshus, the 30th of October 1611.

Karl was an important person in Sweden and its surroundings. His career stretched over thirty years in which he served his country as duke, entrepreneur and eventually even king.

Strangely, no one has ever written a full biography on him, up until now.

In Sweden we call him Karl, but he would be called Charles if we were make an English translation of the name. Here today I will refer to him as Karl.

I will start by describing the different periods in Karl’s life, focusing a bit more on his later days. This is because the elderly Karl had control of the Swedish foreign politics which is an interesting topic.

Karl was born the 4th of October 1550 on Tre Kronor, Castle of Stockholm.

He was the youngest son of four. His parents were Gustav Vasa and Margareta Leijonhufvud.

His eldest half-brother named Erik was born in Gustav Vasa’s first marriage with Katarina of Sachsen-Lauenburg. She died at young age and he then married with Margareta in 1536. Together they got the son Johan, several daughters, the son Magnus and finally in 1550 Karl.

The blood line of the royal house had started off with Gustav Vasa in 1523.

He was an elected king, as were all the medieval kings. However Gustav wanted to change this. He arranged for the power to stay within the family by pointing out his oldest son, Erik, as the heir to the throne. From now on Sweden would have a king selected by birth instead of people.

1 The other three sons would later become dukes over major parts of the country. Johan got Finland, Magnus got Östergötland and the youngest, Karl, got Södermanland, Närke and Värmland.

Gustav Vasa was a man with high ambitions for Sweden, he cut of the dependence of Denmark which had been in a union with Sweden for over a century.

He took control over the church, brought much of the monastery’s land to the state creating a solid ground for the economy. The first steps from Catholicism towards Protestantism were thereby taken in Sweden.

That was Gustav Vasas most important change during his long reign, apart from making the throne inherited in the family.

Gustav Vasa passed away in 1560 and thus the throne was inherited by Erik, the Fourteenth.

The other brothers, all according to Gustav Vasa’s will, became dukes. Johan, Erik’s younger brother, came in conflict with Erik since he maintained foreign contacts with Poland, acting entirely on his own without consulting the king. He even married the polish princess Katarina Jagellonica.

Johan refused to stop his contacts with Poland despite the anger of his brother and Erik and Johan fought a small civil war, but Erik being the king, was quickly victorious and Johan was jailed at the castle of Gripsholm.

Karl grew up during Erik’s reign. We know little about his studies but we do know the name of his teacher, Jean de Herboville, who was a French Calvinist.

Karl took an early part in the war against Denmark. He was only fifteen when he successfully conquered the fortress of Varberg. It should be mentioned though, that his part in the action is not very clearly described, and his heroism has probably been exaggerated.

2 Now to a short summary of the situation in Sweden during the middle of the 16th century:

Sweden and Finland

Sweden and Finland was naturally bound since at least the 13th century.

The main part of Sweden was Mälardalen across the Baltic Sea, to the part called egentliga Finland, near Åbo. Many noble men had built castles, to maintain and protect their land against enemies in all forms – the times had been quite violent and noble men had to protect themselves from the king as well as from peasants and foreign enemies.

Over 90 percent of the Swedish population lived in the countryside.

Only a tiny minority of the people lived in towns. Although in our eyes they would have looked more like small villages rather than towns, sometimes there were only a few farms lying together, forming a so called town.

The biggest city was Stockholm, with about 8000 inhabitants in the late 16th century. The king resided there most of the year, but he also travelled around a lot visiting the major castles in the country.

Stockholm was not a capital city in the same sense as it is today – the services around the king followed him on his travels and were not permanently located in Stockholm.

Other important cities were Kalmar in the south, Lödöse in the west, Åbo (Turku) in Finland and Nyköping south of Stockholm.

The population living in the countryside was mainly dependent on farming. Bad weather could decrease or even destroy a whole harvest. These bad years came regularly and it must have been stressful for the farmers not having a solid source of food and income.

3 The local community in Sweden was distinguished by understanding and people worked and lived together in household’s that were the smallest part of society.

Sweden was a huge country in relation to its number of inhabitants. In size the country could match both Spain and France, but in the middle of the 16th century only about 600 000 people inhabited Sweden and Finland together.

The population was increasing quite quickly though, and around the year 1600 there were about 1 million residing in the same area. By that time Sweden also had control over Estonia, which was an area with a relatively large population.

Karl and the domestic power

Karl was the youngest of Gustav Vasa’s sons, and seemed to have a long way to the throne.

When he was born it did not seem likely he would ever get his hands on any considerable power. He started his career as a duke over three main districts in Sweden: Södermanland, Närke and Värmland.

He ruled his lands with great efficiency, had nearly as much control over his inhabitants as the king, and increased the growth of the economy in his area. He gave farmers reduced taxes if they wanted to cultivate new soil.

He encouraged Finlanders to settle down in his lands, especially in Värmland, where they used a special technique to cultivate the soil, called “svedjebruk”. They burned down the forest in large areas and cultivated the scorched earth. This gave up to three times the harvest regular soils did.

4 Karl was also interested in trade. In Nyköping, the biggest city in his lands, there were often ships arriving from harbors in Germany and Netherlands.

Erik had gotten the throne after Gustav Vasa in 1560. He got mentally ill in 1567 and his half-brothers Johan and Karl started a revolt against him. Karl had experience as a warrior since he had fought in the Danish war on the Swedish west coast a couple of years earlier.

This experience was valuable in the revolt against Erik and they succeeded in taking military control over Stockholm. And thus in 1568 Johan became the new king, while Karl got to be duke over his lands.

For 24 years Johan ruled his kingdom Sweden. He fought a long war against Russia, which ruined the Swedish economy.

He got a son with his wife Katarina Jagellonica, named Sigismund in 1566. Katarina was a member of the Jagello family of Poland, which of tradition often had held the Polish throne. Their son was appointed in the Polish election to the throne in 1587 and Sigismund then became king of Poland.

When Johan died in 1592, Sigismund was in Krakow.

Karl formed a meeting in Uppsala in the beginning of 1593, where the priesthood assembled and took the decision to forbid Catholic mass to be held in Sweden. No Catholics could be put in service of the State anymore.

Sigismund had to sign this document when he arrived in Sweden by September 1593. He was crowned, but had soon to return to Poland.

In his absence, Karl used the document from Uppsala for his purposes. He dismissed several royal offices because they were of Catholic faith.

In Söderköping he assembled a meeting in 1595, which strengthened his influence. Especially he managed to receive support from the farmers.

Sigismund could not do anything to protect his demands of power over Sweden.

5 In 1598 he sailed with an army to Sweden to try to force a military settlement with Duke Karl, but he lost and was defeated in a battle near Linköping, called the battle of Stångebro.

He was pronounced dismissed from the Swedish throne in 1599, and Karl had almost gotten kingly power.

Karl and Finland in 1597 and 1599

One of Karl’s weakest points in Sweden was Finland, due to the long distance and to the time it took to travel or even send letters over there. In Finland Claes Fleming had gained much power before passing away in April 1597. As soon as Karl heard about this, he started to act in order to gain control over Finland.

In late August 1597 Karl went onboard a ship that took him to Åbo. He had both men and artillery with him. His goal was to take Finland by military force.

After only a few days of shooting against the walls of the castle in Åbo, Fleming’s widow Ebba Stenbock gave up the defense.

Karl had to return to Sweden and continue the battle against the king in late autumn 1597. As soon as he had left Finland, Åbo and other major castles were taken by those who were allies to the king.

When Karl had defeated Sigismund in 1598, he had to turn his attention to Finland again. Several military leaders, such as Arvid Stålarm, Axel Kurck and Arvid Tavast, remained on Sigismund’s side in the conflict.

From August 1599 Karl made an attack aiming towards the main parts of Finland. He was merciless against his enemies, those who refused to give up support for the king until they were defeated had no mercy to expect afterwards.

6 In Viborg Arvid Tavast and his son Ivar and several other noble men were executed.

When Karl left Finland in November 1599, also the castle of Åbo had fallen in his hands. Several men were taken hostage. Others were executed on the spot in Åbo.

Back in Sweden, Karl saw to it that the noble men were rightfully punished. Their crime was that they had supported the legal king of Sweden and that they refused to regret this.

Four noble men were executed on the main square in Linköping in Mars 1600. With that done, Karl had no powerful enemies left within the borders of Sweden.

Karl’s view of the neighboring countries in 1602

Karl made his way to power in Sweden by force. He had started a war against the legitimate king, Sigismund which he had also won and claimed both the throne and power.

In Sweden’s neighboring countries Karl was seen as a rebellious person. They did not know how to address him, if they would even negotiate with him or just ignore him and instead continue to keep in touch with Sigismund.

Christian IV of Denmark had negotiated with Sweden in 1599, but wanted Karl to send legal representatives from Sweden, called riksråd. Karl had to reinvent this institution to be able to negotiate with Denmark.

Sweden was in a vulnerable situation in 1602. Since the year 1600 the country was involved in a conflict with Poland and also had problems with the relationship to Denmark and thus was in a desperate need for an ally.

Karl made a statement over the situation, which is dated to the 15th of June 1602.

7 In this statement he brings out some interesting things about the neighboring countries.

He starts off acknowledging that Sweden has three neighboring countries: Denmark, Poland and Russia.

He then proclaims how Sweden should act to achieve and hold peace with these countries.

His thoughts about Denmark were mainly that he didn’t have any understanding in their demands. The Danish wanted to have the three crowns, a symbol which both countries claimed the right to. Denmark also wanted control over the northern part of Scandinavia, called “lappmarken”. Karl also wanted to point out that it was Denmark that had broken the understanding in Stettin from 1570.

With Poland he knew that Sweden could give Pernau and Dorpat to gain truce for eight years. But he had no plan to go through with this agreement that Sigismund had proposed. The reason why Karl wouldn’t do this was because he was unsatisfied with Sigismund’s proposal.

The situation with Russia was different. Karl thought that Sweden could have peace with Russia for as long as they liked, but that Russia eventually would make demands on Viborg, Narva and Reval. What Sweden would have done in that case he didn’t say in this document.

This was Karl’s thoughts about how Sweden could obtain and maintain peace. We shall move from his thoughts to the reality, where we easily can recognize the map which he had drawn over the countries surrounding Sweden.

The War against Poland from 1600 to 1605

Karl had taken the throne from Sigismund, who still reigned in Poland. He therefore knew that he would get Poland as an enemy for the rest of his own reign.

8 Karl sailed to Reval in Estonia in August 1600. He pretended that it was an action taken only to restore peace. He officially stated that he had no ambition to invade Poland.

He brought his family with him, a sign as good as any that this operation was planned to last for a while. Karl investigated how Russia would react in the nearest future, but didn’t get any clear answers from them.

The operation began with a march towards Pernau, a coast city in Estonia.

The city was one of the biggest and best protected in the Baltic States, Karl’s army could by no means take it by force. They had to surround the city and wait for them to starve. In one month of isolation on the 4th of October they finally opened the city for the Swedes.

Karl’s propaganda still titled that this was a war in defense and in the beginning a very successful one. Sigismund and Poland had initially no chance to stop the Swedish invasion.

The Polish parliament thought that the war with the Swedes was Sigismund’s private business, mostly because they saw it as a conflict with his uncle Karl. Therefore the Parliament gave no troops or money to Sigismund who couldn’t build an army to stop the invasion.

Sigismund had about 2 000 soldiers in the region, in what today is Latvia and Lithuania, while Karl had 12 000.

During the winter 1600 to 1601 the parliament realized that this conflict was not an isolated issue between Sigismund and his uncle and was finally given money. He then started to recruit soldiers to form stronger companies. The new Polish troops were especially excellent soldiers on horseback.

In late December 1600 a small Swedish army of about 3000 men met a considerably smaller polish army with about 700 men on horses. The Swedes had major problems to maintain focus while they were attacked

9 by the fast and effective horsemen. In two hours time the Swedes had lost 300 men and the rest fled for their lives.

The following years passed without any conclusive battles. The summers were rainy and cold and it led to starvation in the Baltic States in 1602.

The soldiers and common people, the peasants, had not enough to eat. The soldiers tried to make soup from grass and water since they lacked other ingredients.

Sigismund tried to solve the situation by arranging peace negotiations in the summer of 1602.

The condition for peace from the Polish side was that the Swedes gave all of Estonia to Poland. Karl refused the offer and the war continued.

The resource situation for the war got even worse in 1603 and 1604. A major lift in the war activity could not be seen until 1605.

Karl managed to get more money from the Swedish parliament and equipped a massive army of about 11 000 soldiers. He also managed to get his hand on 3000 horses.

The goal for this new operation was to take the important city of Riga, which was one of the biggest cities in the Baltic States which had a very profitable line of trade.

Karl was informed that the Polish army only counted 3600 men on horseback. If the Swedes managed to defeat them, the city of Riga would probably be an easy target.

In the early morning of the 17th of September 1605 the Swedes marched in protection of darkness to a hill, where they took a good position. This place was near the small village of Kirkholm.

At the beginning nothing happened and everyone was waiting. Suddenly the Polish army began to move, as if they prepared for a retreat. But this was only a trick.

10 The Swedes thought that the Polish army started to retreat and began the descent from the hilltop. In that very moment the Polish cavalry attacked. The Swedes had no chance to counter their move.

Four hours of battled followed. The Swedes could not bring forth anything to match the Polish cavalry. When night settled 80 percent of the Swedish army lay scattered over the battlefield. 9000 soldiers had lost their lives in a meaningless slaughter.

After this victory Poland had a great chance to make a major turn over but they failed to take advantage of it. The main reason for this was because they lacked competent leadership and resources to fund the army.

In the summer of 1606, the Swedish army was reinforced. This was the condition for the Swedes to start a more offensive warfare again. Still, however, they lacked the necessary equipment, food and weapons to defeat the Polish army.

Instead of trying to confront the polish army in field the Swedish commander, Joakim Fredrik of Mansfeld, started to loot and ruin the countryside in what nowadays is Latvia and Lithuania.

In the beginning of 1609, Russia entered the war. Sweden signed a contract with Novgorod which was an independent state and city at that time. The contract stated that Sweden would get Kexholm’s county in reward if they crossed the Russian border with at least 5000 men.

Karl had two major goals in his contacts with Novgorod: to limit their influence on trading across the Baltic Sea and try to get an allied against Poland.

Russia was at this time in great disorder and their allies changed over time. In 1610 the war between Sweden and Poland had developed into a war between Poland-Russia and Sweden-Novgorod.

11 A Swedish division led by Jacob De la Gardie succeeded to take Moscow in Mars 1610. A very large Polish army chased the Swedish army and forced De la Gardie and his 5000 men to leave Moscow and Russia after defeat in battle near Klusjino.

At the end of Karl’s reign, his plans seemed to be unfulfilled. And even worse, in 1611 Denmark attacked. Karl died the same autumn leaving his son Gustav Adolf with 3 ongoing wars.

Summary

During his reign, Karl was seen as an instigator of rebellion. Denmark never confirmed Karl as the legal king of Sweden.

The relation to Poland was distinguished by a long and meaningless war. Sigismund still claimed his rights to the Swedish throne when Karl died in 1611.

The conflict with Russia had its roots in two countries struggling for monopoly over trade in the Baltic Sea and was not easily solved. The war was to continue many years ahead.

Although Karl had won two major victories: He succeeded in taking the throne for his own, and furthermore and most important, his son Gustav Adolf would inherit the throne when Karl was gone.

That was Karl’s prime victory in his long struggle for power.