| Battle of Uppsala (1520) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Dano-Swedish War (1512-1520) | |||||||
 Danish commander Otto Krumpen | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kalmar Union |  Sweden | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Otto Krumpen | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| c. 6,000 men | Unknown, but greater than the Danish | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 2,000 men | Greater than the Danes' | ||||||
The Battle of Uppsala also called the Battle of Good Friday was a bloody battle in Uppsala in the Dano-Swedish War (1512-1520).
Denmark and Sweden had continued their war after an armistice in 1517. The Danish moved their army up through central Sweden. On January 19, 1520, the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger was wounded in a battle with the Danes on the Åsunden ice outside Bogesund. He tried to move back to Stockholm, but died of his injury’s two weeks later. [1] On Good Friday of the same year, the Danish forces were stationed in Uppsala awaiting orders to attack Stockholm. In March 1520, an agreement was concluded between the Swedish council and the Danish commanders, where it was concluded that Christian II would become king of Sweden in return for granting amnesty to Sten Sture's followers. However, Christina Gyllenstierna, Sten Sture's widow, refused to give up and she took over the leadership of the resistance against Christian II. She and her followers still controlled Stockholm and important Swedish castles. The Danish troops were prepared to take Stockholm. In April 1520, the Danes were in Uppsala, while Swedish troops gathered in Västerås with support from Dalarna and Stockholm. [2]
The Danish army was mostly build up of highly trained and armed merchants from France, Scotland and Germany, which gave the Danes an advantage from the start. The Swedish army was build up of poor equipped peasants. A Estimated 7,000 people participated in the battle. [3] [2] [1] That gave the Danes an advantage from the start. But the Swedes compensated for this with the terrain. On the morning of Good Friday, April 6, the Swedes attacked the Danish forces in Uppsala. The Swedes assumed that the Danish commanders were in the church at mass and that their troops were unprepared. The Swedes attacked the city from the northwest, west and south, but it is not certain exactly where the battle took place. Good Friday 1520 brought a heavy snowfall which made it difficult for the Danes, who at first had difficulty organizing themselves. The guns misfired and their horses slipped. [2] The Swedes first managed to push the Danes back. But instead of holding their positions, the Swedes began looting and ravaging the city, which gave the Danes time to regroup and gather for a counterattack and defeat the Swedish peasant soldiers. [1]
On Easter Eve 1520, Uppsala's population, which at the time consisted of roughly 2,000 people woke up to wailing and death. The Danish casualties amount to about 2,000. The Swedish casualties are unknown. [3]
Christina Gyllenstierna claimed the battle to be a Swedish victory. Christian II wrote to his north german relatives that the Swedes had lost 12,000 men. Both statements cannot be seen as reliable, since propaganda during the war was widespread. [4] The memory of the battle is partially overshadowed by the drama surrounding Stockholm bloodbath that took place later in autumn that year. [2]
In 2001, workmen making improvements to a road uncovered a mass grave containing some of the thousands who fell at the Battle of Uppsala. Archaeologists went on to recover the remains of about 60 men aged in their 20s and 30s. Their skulls and bones had cut marks showing where they had been struck by swords and other weapons. [5] The grave contained some whole skeletons, while others were reduced to random limbs and articulated sections, as well as co-mingled remains of multiple individuals tossed together. From what the archaeologists could observe 52 skulls, 60% showed evidence of sharp force trauma, from these, they averaged about 2.7 wounds per person. Some heads had as many as 5 cuts, implying that they could have been outnumbered, that the Danes were very angry and went for overkill, and/or that the Swedes had little to no protective headwear. [6]
The Stockholm Bloodbath was a trial that led to a series of executions in Stockholm between 7 and 9 November 1520. The event is also known as the Stockholm massacre.
Gustav I, commonly known as Gustav Vasa, was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm (Riksföreståndare) from 1521, during the ongoing Swedish War of Liberation against King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Gustav rose to lead the Swedish War of Liberation following the Stockholm Bloodbath, where his father was executed. Gustav's election as king on 6 June 1523 and his triumphant entry into Stockholm eleven days later marked Sweden's final secession from the Kalmar Union.
Christian II was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in joint rule with his uncle Frederick.
Sten Sture the Younger, was a Swedish nobleman who served as the regent of Sweden, during the era of the Kalmar Union.
Sten Sture the Elder was a Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden from 1470 to 1497 and again from 1501 to 1503. As the leader of the victorious Swedish separatist forces against the royal unionist forces during the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471, he weakened the Kalmar Union considerably and became the effective ruler of Sweden as Lord Regent for most of his remaining life.
Christina Nilsdotter Gyllenstierna of Fogelvik was a Swedish noblewoman. She was married to the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger, and led the Swedish resistance against Christian II of Denmark after the death of her spouse. In her own lifetime she was simply referred to as Fru Kristina, but she has become known in history as Kristina Gyllenstierna because of the house of nobility to which she belonged.
The Battle of Bogesund was an important conflict in the campaign of Christian II to gain power over Sweden. In 1520, Christian's army of mercenaries had landed in Sweden, seeking to consolidate Christian's powers over Sweden within the Kalmar Union and to unseat the rebellious Swedish viceroy Sten Sture the Younger. On the ice of lake Åsunden near Bogesund, Christian's army led by Otte Krumpen was intercepted by a force led by Sten Sture.
The Battle of Brunkeberg was fought on 10 October 1471 between the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Elder and forces led by Danish king Christian I. Sture won a decisive victory.
Nils Stensson Sture, born 1512, was the eldest son and heir of Sten Sture the Younger. The so-called Daljunkern, the young leader of an unsuccessful rebellion against Gustav Vasa, claimed to be Nils Sture, and it is a much-discussed question in Swedish historiography whether they really were the same person or if Daljunkern was an impostor.
Lady Ingeborg Åkesdotter Tott or 'Ingeborg Aagesdotter of the Thott', in her lifetime called Ingeborg Åkesdotter or simply Fru Ingeborg, was a Swedish noble, the consort of the Swedish regent Sten Sture the elder. She was the fiefholder of Häme in Finland. She functioned as the de facto queen consort of Sweden for over three decades and participated in state affairs during the reign of her spouse.
Christina of Saxony was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden as the wife of King John.
Nils Bosson Sture (1426–1494) was a Swedish noble and supporter of Sten Sture to be King of Sweden. He is famous for his flanking movement to surprise King Christian I of Denmark's army at the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471. He died as a politician in the Swedish government in Stockholm, a proud man.
The Dano-Swedish War was the first conflict between Denmark and Sweden. The Danes invaded Sweden by sea, but were defeated early at the Battle of Brunkeberg, in which King Christian I of Denmark was wounded by a cannonball. The Danish invasion was repelled, and the Swedes were independent from the Kalmar Union.
The Battle of Brännkyrka took place on 27 July 1518 in Sweden, during a Swedish uprising against the Danish dominance in Kalmar Union, between Danish forces and Swedish rebel troops. The battle resulted in decisive Swedish victory.
The Dalecarlian rebellions were a series of Swedish rebellions which took place in Dalarna in Sweden: the First Dalecarlian Rebellion in 1524-1525, the Second Dalecarlian Rebellion in 1527–1528, and the Third Dalecarlian Rebellion in 1531–1533. The rebellions were conducted by the peasantry of Dalarna against the Swedish monarch, King Gustav Vasa. Mutual reasons for all three rebellions were loss of support of Gustav I among the Dalecarlian peasantry because of the economic crisis, the increased royal power, and the unpopular Swedish Reformation.
Events from the year 1520 in Sweden.
The Dano-Swedish War (1512–1520), is the name of the conflict that lasted 1512–1520 and was part of the Union Wars at the time of the Kalmar Union. The war was between the opponents of the union and the Danish king Hans, later his son Christian II, and ended in 1520 after Sten Sture the Younger died as a result of injuries at Battle of Bogesund and Christian II marched into Stockholm in September of the same year.
The Siege of Tre Kronor, or the Siege of the Royal Castle in Stockholm, was a siege of the Tre Kronor Castle in Stockholm lasting from 17 October 1501 to 9 May 1502 between the Kalmar Union and Sten Sture the Elder's Swedish rebellion. The besieged unionists would suffer from food shortages, and Queen Christina of Saxony would issue a surrender on 5 May 1501 and would leave the castle on 9 May.
The Siege of Stockholm (1520) was a combined naval and army siege of the Swedish capital Stockholm by the Danish king Christian II during the Dano-Swedish War (1512-1520).