Seventeenth- Century Sweden and the Dominium Maris Baltici

chapter 9 Seventeenth- Century Sweden and the Dominium Maris Baltici — a Maritime Empire? Olaf Mörke The dominium maris baltici had been officially mentioned for the first time in 1614.1 With the alliance treaty of The Hague then concluded between the Dutch States General and the Swedish Crown, the former acknowledged the Swedish claim for supremacy over the Baltic Sea. The ambiguity of the concept dominium, oscillating between property and rule, exactly matches the political situation in the Baltic region at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The young Våsa monarchy, existing only since 1523, had succeeded in stabilizing its rule in 1544, when hereditary monarchy replaced the traditional electoral system. Nonetheless the Estates, particularly the high aristocracy, maintained its strong position in the Swedish political system. The king had to deal with their influence until the late seventeenth century. Only during the long reign of king Charles xi (1660– 1697) did the Estates lose their influence over legislation and taxation. Since the late 1670s the king “was very clever in exploiting the conflict between the Nobility and the non- noble Estates, as well as between the aristocracy and the gentry.”2 But apart from the relatively short era of what might be called Swedish absolutism in the last decade of Charles xi’s rule and under his son Charles xii until 1718, the political mechanism of a typical monarchia mixta, the necessity of a permanent reconciliation of interests between the crown and the estates, shaped the development of the Swedish zone of influence in the Baltic in the early modern period. My essay discusses how the territorial development of the Swedish crown and the idea of the dominium maris baltici fits into currently discussed concepts of non-national state forms. The term dominium maris baltici suggests a maritime character of Swed- ish hegemony in the region. The construction of the Våsa, with 64 guns one of the largest and most powerfully armed war ships of its time, underlined the pretension of the young king Gustavus Adolphus to rule the Baltic sea. One should not interpret the sinking of the vessel immediately after its being 1 Schilling 2007, 341. 2 Rystad 1987, 83. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | DOI:10.1163/9789004407671_010 220 Mörke launched in 1628 as an indicator for the early disappointment of that project. The Våsa with her splendidly decorated stern glorifying the regiment of Gus- tavus Adolphus had the task of protecting the supply lines for the Swedish troops in Prussia which fought the army of the Polish Våsa king Sigismund. Si- gismund, king of Poland from 1587 until his death in 1632, and from 1592 until his dismissal by the Swedish Estates, the Riksdag, in 1599 also king of Sweden, had never recognized the loss of the Swedish throne. The conflict between the two branches of the Våsa family, the Roman Catholic in Poland, the Lutheran in Sweden, not only stands for an internal dynastic quarrel. It also indicates the intention of the Våsa dynasty to rule the northern and the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. Keeping Denmark in Check To establish a strong influence in the entire Baltic region was vital for the survival of an independent Swedish kingdom. The Swedish breaking off of the Kalmar Union – a personal union of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under Danish dominance – in 1523 did not terminate the strong Danish position in the Baltic completely. On the contrary, the loss of the Swedish crown probably consolidated the Danish position more than it did undermine it. During the greater part of the fifteenth and the early sixteenth centuries substantial parts of the Swedish nobility had called the union into question. The break of 1523 on the one hand plunged the Oldenburg dynasty, which ruled the kingdoms of the Kalmar Union, into an internal crisis. On the other hand it offered the chance for a new beginning of successful Danish power politics after decades of instability. King Christian ii had succeeded his father Hans on the Danish and Norwegian thrones in 1513. Sweden did not recog- nize him until 1520, when the Swedes had been beaten by his troops and were compelled to accept his kingship. In Denmark he challenged the political and economic position of the aristocratic elite in favour of the citizenry. In 1523 Christian ii not only lost the Swedish crown. Also the Danish Council of the Realm renounced its allegiance to the king. In April 1523 he left Denmark on a ship bound to the Netherlands. An attempt to return to Norway failed in 1532. Until 1549 he spent the rest of his life as a prisoner of his successors Freder- ik i, who died in 1533, and Christian iii, who ruled Denmark from 1534 and Norway from 1537 until 1559. After a civil war, the so called Grevens Fejde, the Count’s Feud, which lasted from 1534 until 1536 and involved among others the city of Lübeck and the Swedish Våsa king Gustavus i, he initiated what has .

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