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Home , Deluge (history), House of Vasa, Rurik dynasty, Swedish Crown, The Deluge (novel)

IMAGES: DARIUSZ CABALLERTOS-BLOGGER DARIUSZ IMAGES: Paintings by Dutch artist Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668) of Polish-Swedish “’”. Swedish soldiers in blue and yellow colors, Polish soldiers in red or crimson. (1655-1660) — When overwhelmed ‘’ By John Bechtel he is considered one of the most catastrophic in global rode, plunder was their pay. recorded history for warfare, religious hatred, famine, natural disasters, Serfs remained with the land when Freelance Writer and disease. In , only three of 100 years were without war! The the property was bought, sold, traded, T30 Years War, from 1618 to 1648, is generally considered one of the most or confiscated. Peasants were equally depraved, barbarous, and useless conflagrations in the history of the world. poor but enjoyed greater autonomy Note to our readers: It was as if the world had just achieved adolescence with a horrific, terminal to relocate if they could find the Our story involves states that are case of acne. It was however, out of this boiling cauldron that Sweden rose as means to do so. All preferred to live known today as Germany, the Netherlands, one of the great powers of Europe, and simultaneously the Polish-Lithuanian near fortified castles behind whose , Poland, , Estonia, , Commonwealth, by far the largest state in Europe, began a long decline walls they could flee for protection Turkey and France. Complicating our task is and eventually disappeared from the map altogether. The story of this 17th if word arrived, again on horseback, the fact that during much of early modern century brings us some surprises, explains a lot about how we got here, and that trouble was on its way. Gangs history these nation-states were still in also reminds us of a dismaying truth: the political boundaries and place of bandits, marauders, and ordinary the process of formation and, except for names may have evolved, but human nature has not. We learn from history in murderers were distinguished from France, some were not well known by their our endless efforts to not repeat it. armies by the sheer numbers of the current names. We also need to note at In the early 17th century there was little centralized power, and in most latter, their orderly formations, and the outset that there are multiple spellings regions power was loosely based on land forcibly occupied by knights and their occasional possession of cannon for all of the place and people names, warrior leaders. Might made right, and the winners took all and hung on for knocking down walls of castles. such as Casimir and Kasimir, Khmelnitsky to their gains as long as they could. Mercenary armies fought wars, usually, Political identity and loyalty were and Chmielnicki, tsar and czar, Tatar and unpaid soldiers whose reward was plunder. Even today in all parts of the more directed to the leader of the Tartar, Hapsburg and Habsburg. Finally, a world there exists vast family wealth that has its origins in and is a vestige of military unit rather than unformed word of caution about dynastic names that conquest and pillage of foreign territories from bygone generations. or inchoate nationhood, and it was include Roman numerals: the numbers in Surprisingly, war did not interfere that much with daily existence in the not uncommon for a Frenchman to the names come from a variety of sources 17th century, the period that is the focus of this article. Life during war was lead an invasion into France, or a Pole SPAINFORUM MAP: Europe configuration at the beginning of the 17th century. and do not necessarily indicate any birth not that different from life in peace, except for the intensity and frequency of to participate in subduing Poland. order in the . So, Charles IX might theft, murder, rape, cruelty, torture, and famine. Even in peacetime, travelers Soldiering was a way to eat and Germanic people. There was little that wealth by the number of the peasants have lived after Charles X! Alternatively, could lose count of all the gallows with decaying corpses or wheels with broken survive, and for the lucky few, to be could be called patriotism. on their land. There was a built-in there might be more than one John III. For bodies they encountered on the road. People lived in small villages often vast rewarded with lands and peasants of For the nobles, the land was the incentive to invade neighboring areas this reason,I add the Roman numerals in distances from other communities. War was a lottery. News traveled very their own. When Sweden invaded the currency of wealth, because with as the only means to prosper. It was parentheses or leave them out altogether slowly, and existence would continue as usual—until it didn’t, and unknown Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in it came the peasants who tilled the incumbent on the nobles to protect if not necessary for reader comprehension. armed men showed up on horses in your village to rape, kill, and burn the mid-17th century, most of their ground and fed everyone else. The their peasants in exchange for their everything they couldn’t steal, to the ground. Regardless of in whose name they soldiers were Prussians and other hired nobles counted and compared their (Continued on page 18)

1^ FALL 2018 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | FALL 2018 1& (Continued from page 17) Keeping wealth within noble families ended up in prison in Sweden, with superheated embers burst into flames labor; this was the unarticulated social was inevitable. By the early 1600s, the John being tried for treason. While in in an orgy of bloodletting that came to contract. Peasants generally accepted greatest of these was the Hapsburg prison Catherine gave birth to a son, be known as the Thirty Years War. their lot in life, and envy of others was Empire, based in and which Sigismund (III, of course). Historians credit Gustavus limited to those in one’s social class. reached to Spain, Portugal, parts of John was freed by the nobles, Adolphus with establishing Sweden as Fear, habit and predictability were the the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, whereupon he deposed and imprisoned a world power, and he became famous opioids that made servility sustainable. Germany and the current Czech his brother Eric, and became king with his military victories in Europe’s Republic, parts of northern and all of Sweden, to continue the Thirty Year War, from 1618 to 1648. The rise of royal families of southern Italy, Chile, Peru, Brazil, line. His wife Catherine exerted He is considered the father of modern By the early 1600s, Europe had a and Mexico. The Austrian Hapsburgs considerable influence in Swedish warfare, Sweden’s warrior king. When population of perhaps forty million were Catholic and they competed foreign affairs, had her own chapel, he rose to power at the age of 16, peasants and only a few hundred with the Italian Roman Catholics for and maintained her own staff including Sweden was engaged in three different noble families. Marriages between control of territory and influence. The monks and priests. She initiated a wars simultaneously. such families were used to consolidate was divided, and their counter in Sweden, even land ownership and power, and Protestant enemies were equally divided, attempting (and failing) to convert her unsurprisingly, the supply of potential between the Lutherans and Calvinists. husband to Catholicism. As a matter of fact, after Catherine died, John married PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: mates was limited. There were WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: familial connections between all the Sweden King Gustav Vasa I Queen Catherine, wife of John III an ardent Protestant. royal families on the continent, and Sweden became a modern state Sigismund (III) was raised a marriages within immediate family about 1523, beginning with Gustav strict Catholic by his mother and his members were so common that cousins Vasa, also known as Gustav (I), the most trusted advisors were Jesuits were also in-laws. You were expected to founder of the , and (the Roman Catholic Society of mate within your class. who broke Sweden’s relationship with Jesus). Already an to Peasant loyalties attached to family the Roman Catholic Church. Gustav’s the Swedish throne, Sigismund was names, and so the family names of son, Eric (XIV), acceded to the elected by the Polish-Lithuanian Bourbon and Hapsburg meant more Swedish throne. Eric’s brother John’s Commonwealth to be their king. A few than France and Austria. Palaces (III) greatest achievement seems to years later, when he also inherited the provided not only protection for the have been his marriage to Catherine, Swedish , Sigismund sought to masses, but also emphasized the social a strong-willed Polish Catholic and return Sweden to the Catholic Church, distance between classes. Nobility and the sister of the then king of Poland, and he briefly succeeded in creating a personal union between Sweden and WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: royalty benefitted by the cultivation Sigismund (II). Eric was very opposed King of adoration and otherworldly to their marriage because of Catherine’s the Commonwealth. If the political mystification; they may not have been religion. The couple set up house in map of that time had endured to King Gustavus was justifiably proud gods, but they were next in line. Their Turku, , where John was the this day, Sweden, by whatever name, of his achievements, and he had an ostentation and comings and goings autonomous ruler, and she became would extend from the northern Baltic eye to his place in history and began PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: provided distractions for the masses of the Duchess of Finland. Eric and John WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: south almost to Turkey, and would collecting souvenirs of his victories, King Eric XIV King Sigismund III peasants, and education was reserved went to war over a dispute in what is today include much of central Europe, insisting on his blood-spattered battle for the noble families. now Estonia, and John and Catherine , and ! garments remaining in the growing But it was not to be. Unfortunately collection of the Swedish Royal for Sigismund, his Protestant uncle Armoury Museum, Sweden’s oldest Charles (IX) got him removed from museum, established four years before the Swedish throne and assumed his Gustavus’ death in 1632. He encouraged place. For almost the next 70 years, the looting as the just spoils of war and Swedish House of Vasa controlled the developed a reputation as an avid raider thrones of both Sweden and the Polish- of book collections and antiquities from Lithuanian Commonwealth, beginning vanquished territories. Perhaps he saw with Catholic Sigismund in Poland and himself as the creator of a new, northern his Protestant uncle Charles in Sweden. , humiliating his enemies, bringing Charles (IX) was succeeded in plunder home to Sweden by the death by Gustavus, who rose to boatload to bestow as gifts to his friends, military prominence during the and founding cultural institutions filled Thirty Years War. The lengthy conflict with stolen goods. within the divided Swedish House of As an interesting footnote to Vasa destablized much of the rest of history, Gustavus was succeeded by his Europe. The Reformation and Counter daughter Christina when she was six MAP: PAGES.UOREGON.EDU MAP: PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: Reformation were winding down, and years old. She began to rule when The Hapsburg European Dominions at time of The Deluge. King John III King Charles IX Christendom was at war with itself. The (Continued on page 20)

1* FALL 2018 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | FALL 2018 1( MAP: AUGUSTINAS ŽEMAITIS AND TRUELITHUANIA.COM PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG Lithuania had formed aCommonwealth other state on Poland Baltic. the and Hanseatic there League, was only one Dutch, and rapidly the disintegrating Commonwealth The Polish-Lithuanian today had not ifChristina abdicated? details! What would map the like look such minor, seemingly unanticipated known asDeluge. The History turns on Polish-Lithuaniathe Commonwealth, successor, Charles invaded (X)who and moved to Rome. It was Christina’s 28, converted back to Catholicism she was 18,abdicated she when was (Continued from page 19) The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealthat its peak,overlaidovermodern map. 2) Queen Christina In addition to , the Danes,

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SCANDINAVIAN PRESS feared acentralized government, so characteristics. Commonwealthnew had some unique south. inthe This and north almost to Black the Sea inthe extended from Sea Baltic the more sizeof thanthe twice France and century,17th Commonwealth the was Lithuania Union. inthe By mid- the Polandthe entire was gifted Ukraine by unpredictable Muscovy (Russia), and sought protection from restive the and inhabitants, perhaps more. Lithuania a multi-ethnic population of ten million encompassed 400,000 square with miles, Union the in 1569,called of , that Crown Princess Christina,takingOathofFidelitytotheStatesSweden. The noblesCommonwealth the of King CharlesX interests. Thus the elected regents Commonwealth to advance their thronethe of Polish-Lithuanian the aspired to put candidate their on neighboring state and principality andwhimsical reactive, at best. affairsthe of state. Foreign was policy trained hands and skilled tending to There was no bureaucracy, and no current king handpicking his successor. thatdeath so there was no chance of a successor could only held after be his inheritance, and of election the his nobles; he could not become king by Moreover, he by would elected be the he could not one be of own! their could not from be Commonwealth; the had to come from he aforeign country; agreed onthey having aking, but he As you might imagine, every

PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG occasions Polish the magnates voted complicated. Onno less than three royal families, things could get very With intermarriages these all between families to grow inpower and territory. families was atime-honored way for one, and marriages royal between manybecause of neighbors the had Lithuanian Commonwealth was for having aking at Polish- inthe all kingtheir under control. keeping rising the merchant class and existing hierarchical order, including freedom to maintain status the quo and system as Freedom; Golden the their veto, and magnates the referred to their thethis liberum legislation. called They One dissenting vote any could kill any changes impossible. virtually approved by others, all thereby making of could which veto any measure any , the single voting member before magnates the for favors. figurehead reduced to negotiating morenever be than an emasculated armies of nobles. the Theking could an army. He had to rely on private the taxation, and he could not conscript government. He had no right of of ability the to form acentralized could to they deprive him everything magnates of Commonwealth the did status of noble the families. place to enrichment personal and Commonwealth took adistant second at same the time. The fate the of had ahung with election, two elected Moreover, occasionally Republic the noblesthe argued with each other. years,several with no king at while all resulting ininterregnums lasting hadsometimes contested they elections powerful. To make matters worse, of “own” their didn’t become too didn’t to care, seem as long as one highest bidder. Commonwealth was up for to the sale neighboringthese states. In essence, the assiduously courted, and bribed, by and Lithuanian magnates were being at and powerful all, influential Polish but Commonwealth. the In no time advanced interests the of everyone It purpose as primary ifthe seems Poland had aparliament of sorts, Once aking was the elected, The Polish-Lithuanian magnates status quo. status were with protecting obsessed the magnatesthe of Commonwealth the and land grabbing. For most the part, were not above adventures personal strong king), but individual the nobles centralized power and coordination (a empireseeking would which require ten million. It was not aggressively and Moldova with apopulation of Ukraine,Belarus, western Russia, ofparts Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Lithuania Commonwealth included was about one million. The Poland- population of Sweden at time the with to which pay soldiers. the The buttrained military little money Germany.northern It had awell- Russia, Estonia, and Latvia, of parts included Finland, of parts western The at its zenith even millions, died. royal families quarreled, thousands, countries and war. evencivil When thetwo in endlessbetween conflict Commonwealth. This system resulted as king of Catholic their a member of Protestant the Swedish million square it miles, could up take waswhich to eventually encompass six (1598-1613) Troubles of Russia’s Time about 1648. Map ofEurope

In still-forming the , autonomy and risk weakening their opted to give distant the regions more or navigable rivers, tsar the sometimes distances covered to be on horseback empire. of daunting the Because rural to reach farthest the boundaries of the to two years for messages from tsar the barred from regaining Swedish the thwarted and by forever deposed being ambitions His Commonwealth. Swede sitting on throne the of the Sigismund Catholic (III),the neighbors to engage inmischief. provided an irresistible temptation for any state with no one on throne the ofin 1613.In , aperiod establishment of Romanov the Dynasty Feodor Ivanovich, in1598,and the last Russian Tsar of the Dynasty, interregnum death the of between the comprisinghistory years the of Smutnoe vremya), of Russian aperiod Troubles время, (Russian: Смутное came known to be as Russia’s Time of retribution. showing up with alarge army in riskweigh of the eventually big of ideas rebellion, he always had to of leader adistantif alocal region got gamethe of rewards and punishments, (andties to empire. obedience) the In (Continued on page 22 ) One such opportunist was This firstdecade the 1600s of SCANDINAVIAN PRESS

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MAP: WWW.VIGNETTE.WIKIA.NET (Continued from page 21) occupied the modern-day territory were still trying to was reduced from ten million to six throne because of his Catholicism, of Germany and central Europe; regain the Swedish million and that the overall devastation he looked elsewhere. He now saw the and are both crown. Two Swedish was only exceeded by what Poland Russian interregnum as his chance parts of modern Romania. This region, armies entered from experienced in WWI or WWII. to secure his place in history by as Voltaire famously stated, was neither Baltic ports in 1655 conquering Russia and converting Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. It under the direction of Why The Deluge? was not comprised of nation-states but Charles ((X). them from Orthodox Christianity back The Swedish invasion of 1655 to of hundreds of principalities and small The Prussians to Roman Catholicism. A look at the 1660 was nicknamed The Deluge (Potop communities that later organized into (northern Germany) map reveals his notions weren’t as far in Polish) because even though in the kingdoms. Many of these tiny fiefdoms joined the conflict fetched as first appears. were suzerainties of the Hapsburg in 1656, and the end it was something of a stalemate, The Polish-Lithuanian WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: Empire. Transylvanians it began a period of decline in Polish King Jan Casimir II Commonwealth already controlled (Romania in the history. Eventually, Poland was carved , a Russian city only 200 of their lives trying and failing to regain The Khmelnitsky southwest) thought up in its entirety by the three powers miles from Moscow. Sigismund III sent the lost . Altogether, Uprising this was a good time of Russia, , and Austria, and his army into Moscow on September Sigismund and his two sons managed In the 1600s, the areas now known to advance their disappeared from the map of Europe for 21, 1610, and backed by his troops, to occupy the throne of three different as Belarus and Ukraine were parts of territorial claims on 123 years, from 1795 – 1918. he pressured the local , clergy, empires during their lifetimes: Sweden the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Commonwealth land. According to historical sources the and citizens of Moscow to accept his for eight years (1592-1599), the throne Ukraine was and still is a borderland WWW.COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG PHOTO: At the beginning Swedish invaders destroyed 188 cities Khmelnitsky’s entrance into Kiev by artist Mykola Ivasiuk. 15-year-old son, the Polish of Poland-Lithuania for 80 years (1587- between Europe and Asia. (Please note: it looked ominous and towns, 81 castles, and 136 churches Wladyslaw (IV) Vasa, as the new Tsar. 1668) and Russia for parts of two years. It is not The Ukraine any more than with the Ottoman Empire. for the Commonwealth. A number in Poland. Some towns and cities like Clearly, the Polish magnates were The father, Sigismund, was connected you would say The France. They are The Ukrainian were the of the most prominent magnates laid dropped in population by 90%, not overreaching in their concerns by marriage to a fourth, the Hapsburg just Ukraine, France.) It was populated Wild West of the Commonwealth, down their arms and cut deals with and many were not rebuilt after the about the propensity of monarchs to Austrian Empire. mostly by Slavic peasants and and the efforts of certain powerful the invading Swedes, and many of invasion. establish ! They had gone and other ethnic remnants of the Lithuanian magnates to colonize Polish King Jan Casimir’s soldiers Finally, in the legacy of Gustavus to such elaborate lengths to prevent The Holy Roman Empire Mongol hordes that had swept through this far-removed region and acquire simply switched sides and joined the Adolphus, the Swedes scraped Poland this from happening, and here is this mid-1600s the region centuries before. Ukraine immense land holdings provoked Swedish forces, which swept everything clean of everything of cultural value as Swede running their state and has them For clarity purposes, the Holy extended almost to the shores of the violent uprisings that weakened before them. They overran Warsaw, they left, from the bizarre (windows, embroiled in Russia’s internal troubles! Roman Empire in the map below , where it shared a border the Republic. A rebellion of the Krakow, and many other towns and chimneys, and stairs out of buildings) to The situation is further complicated Cossacks against the nobles of the principalities were destroyed. the sublime (rare books, manuscripts, by the rivalry and hatred between Commonwealth turned into a mass Polish/Lithuanian resistance and fine art). What they did not steal, three religious empires, the Russian movement and battles involving strengthened, and eventually, the they burned or destroyed. According Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers Swedes realized they could not control to Wikipedia, after The Deluge, Poland the Protestants (Lutheran). raged back and forth. Khmelnitsky the Commonwealth. They gradually became a cultural desert. Sigismund (III) reigned as the King wanted an autonomous Ukraine, and it withdrew, forming new alliances as Most of the stolen items were didn’t seem to matter too much to him of Poland-Lithuania from 1587 to 1632, they went, trading peace by giving away packed onto boats, floated down the if this happened through Poland, the when he was succeeded by his son chunks of Commonwealth land. Jan River to the and Ottoman Empire, Moscow, or Sweden. Wladyslaw (IV). In 1648, Wladyslaw (II) Casimir fled the Commonwealth from there shipped to Sweden. Today, At first, Russia under Tsar Michael was succeeded by his younger brother and gave up his aspirations to regain they may be found in the Swedish Romanov refused to get involved with Royal Armory Museum, in private Jan Casimir (II). This family spent most the Cossacks, to avoid war with the the Swedish crown. Eventually he died collections, Lutheran cathedrals and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As alone in a French monastery. libraries, or even adorning public the Cossacks scored victories against the Over a span of six years, the places. Many of the architectural Commonwealth, the Tsar reversed his period remembered as the Swedish finds from Poland today castles, position, joined with the Cossacks, and Deluge accomplished nothing except palaces, and residences in Sweden. One in 1654 they invaded Polish territory. to weaken the Commonwealth and engrave an invitation to neighboring authority says most cities in Sweden Sweden invades states to seek advantage. It cleared the contain artifacts from Poland and don’t know it. the Commonwealth path for the further development of With Russia invading the the Russian Empire in the early 18th Commonwealth on its eastern border, century. The Commonwealth, between If interested in a tour the ever-vigilant Swedes considered the Swedes and the , gave up focusing on this subject, this a favorable time to invade from a third of its original territory, and please contact there were millions of non-combatant the north. They felt they had good Brekke Tours reasons. They wanted to protect their casualties due to the practice of acquisitions from the Thirty Years War massacring every man, woman, and 1-800-437-5302 on the south side of the Baltic Sea, child in villages and towns as the or MAP: PEPYSDIARY MAP: PHOTO: WWW.EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG PHOTO: and they had a score to settle with the invaders swept through. It is estimated [email protected] King Wladyslaw IV The Holy Roman Empire in the mid-1600s. Polish branch of the Vasa dynasty, who that the Commonwealth’s population

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