The Good Friday battle, Uppsala, Sweden, the 6th of April 1520.
On this day a large Swedish army, mainly made up by peasants, clashed with a Danish force in what's today central parts of the city of Uppsala. The battle has gone down in the history books as the Good Friday battle.
On the following pages I will try to present the background on how a Danish army had found it's way so far from home, some on the actual battle and some info on what happened after the battle.
My sources are the essays published on the Web-site of the " Svenskt Militärhistoriskt Bibliotek", www.smb.nu and the book "Svensk militärhistorisk atlas" with Per Dahl as editor. All these sources are in Swedish, so hopefully this site will be able to compensate that and spread a little light into a compact darkness
Background
To really understand why a Danish army had ended up in Uppsala, we have to go back another 123 years, to the year of 1397. That is the time when the "Kalmar union" is founded, a union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Formally the three counties were to maintain their independence and their national laws, but the king of Denmark was to rule as king of all three. The events that was to come shaped some major characteristics of the Swedish mentality and our military traditions.
The relationship between Copenhagen and Norway were generally good and that part of the union were to last until 1814, but that is another story. Sweden however, turned out to be a constant problem for the king. Compared to Norway, Sweden had a fairly large and strong aristocracy, a group that were used to hold key positions in the royal administration and to run their counties along their own minds. However, it was not a feudal system like the ones in France and Germany, the aristocrats was too week and too poor to enforce such a model. The Swedish lords were more like Sheriffs or Bailiffs, local judges and tax-collectors, playing the delicate game of getting as much out of their territory as possible without causing any major disturbance.
When the royal power moved to Copenhagen, it's influence and control on the local administration deteriorated. It is quite likely that the amount of tax money that ended up in the pockets of the lords increased. To deal with the corruption and the lack of loyalty the king started to appoint foreigners, Danes, Germans and even Italians as new Sheriffs all over Sweden. What could have been a genius move turned into disaster.
The delicate balance of the Swedish sheriff system had been refined over a period of several centuries. The new sheriffs had not a clue on the local traditions, instead they tried to run the business as they were used to back home. The local peasantry soon boiled in anger but lacked military leadership, a lack that the local lords were more then happy to fill. Soon Sweden boiled with rebellions over the brutal methods of the foreign sheriffs, castles were burning and the sheriffs were either killed or forced to run.
The kings answer were the same as any king would present in those days, they hired a band of mercenaries and sent then to suppress the rebellions. The poorly trained Swedish troops could of cause not face these professionals in a fair battle, instead they develop a tactical concept for defence that were still influencing the local doctrines during the cold war.
The Tactical concept
|
|
 |
The
royal troops that were sent to Sweden were mostly hired German mercenaries. They
were well equipped, well trained and many of them were quite experienced.
These troops were used to fight in big squares were their almost 5 meters long
pikes and sharp hailbards. They could defeat almost any opposition.
The Swedes were armed with simple spears and crossbows. They knew that the kings troops are unbeatable in a "fair" battle, so to stand a chance, they had to put the "Danes" into situations where the invaders were unable exploit their advantages.
Most parts of Sweden were covered with endless forests and the road net connecting the various parts of the country were generally very poor. The Swedes built road blocks and made traps along the roads as they passes through the huge wilderness. Here they could ambush the the "Danes" and fight them with much better odds. This tactics were the defender can ether "Hit and run" or if they are lucky, even destroy a superior force has lived on in Sweden and especially in Finland way into the 20th century. The Finns called it "Motti" and used this tactics successfully during the winter war in 1940.
The mercenaries were expensive, so the king tried to force the rebels to a quick and decisive battle, which on the other hand the Swedes tried to avoid. Instead they waited for the time, and the royal money to tick away.
Finally it was time for negotiations. The king promised to respect the Swedish law and only appoint Swedes as sheriffs and the Swedes declare their loyalty to the king. Every one was happy... for awhile... soon however it started all over again. Corruption... foreign sheriffs... rebellions... mercenaries... more ambushes... negotiations...
During the 15th century the Swedish peasantry developed into a short tempered, confident and military quite competent group. From now on, the one who wanted to rule Sweden has to assure that he was accepted by the peasantry. This was also the reason for King Gustav Wasa to introduce the Peasantry as the fourth group in his new Swedish Riksdag (Parliament). He needed them as support against the aristocracy, but he also realised that they were too dangerous to be left out.
My guess is that this period still effects the Swedes. The negativism towards the European Union can quite easily be traced to the fear of once again be put under "foreign sheriffs".