Wargaming the late middle ages in Sweden and the Nordics
2023 marks the 500th anniversary of Gustav Vasa being declared king of Sweden and the beginning of an independent Swedish state.
What better way to commemorate this than to wargame the conflicts that led up to this event and immediately followed it?
Entry of Gustav Vasa in Stockholm 1523 by Johan Gustaf Sandberg. Source: Wikimedia/Szilas
The 6th of June 1523 a young Swedish nobleman was unanimously elected king of Sweden by representatives from all of the country’s provinces. The nobleman is named Gustav Eriksson from the family of Vasa and the years before he had fought the last rebellion in a series of wars stretching back almost 90 years to free the Swedish crown from the Kalmar union. He is one of many rulers in Sweden who has relied on support from an increasingly violent peasantry to make his bid for the throne. What makes him different from the others is that he recognizes the importance of a standing army and navy controlled by a central authority, the king. What ultimately gains him victory is the creation of a small navy that can challenge Danish supremacy in the Baltic sea.
Gustav Vasa as he is known today is still a controversial figure in Sweden. He will turn out to be just as cruel, unscrupulous and ambitious as the Danish king he rebelled against. He is more of a machiavellian figure than a national hero as his own and later propaganda will make him out as. Nevertheless he is a key figure in propelling Sweden as a state into the modern era. When Gustav Vasa died in 1560 Sweden was thoroughly different from that day in June 1523 when he was elected king. The state is more centralized and Sweden is a hereditary kingdom. There is a standing professional army capable of crushing internal rebellions and conquering enemy territory. There is a navy that can challenge any of the other states around the Baltic sea.
The 6th of June 1654, exactly 131 years after Gustav Vasa was elected king, his great-grandchild Queen Kristina abdicated from the Swedish throne, ending the Vasa line of rulers in Sweden. Another great-grandchild of Gustav Vasa, John II Casimir, was king of Poland until 1668 when he also abdicated.
A scene from Olaus Magnus ”History of the Nordic Peoples” from 1555 where a king is elected at Mora stenar. The last king elected at Mora Stenar was the Danish king Kristian I in 1467. The king in the picture looks a lot like Gustav Vasa though.
So, basically I want to get some miniatures on the table and play some games. As a timeframe for this project I have chosen 1497-1544. In 1497 the Danish king Hans defeated the Swedish regent Sten Sture. Hans was crowned King of Sweden and reinstated Kalmarunionen (the Kalmar Union). In 1544 Gustav Vasa wrapped up Dackefejden (the Dacke War) and this marked the end of large scale peasant musters fighting in Sweden. After this event war in the nordics was mostly a state affair carried out by professionals and no longer waged by noble’s retinues, peasant musterings and foreign mercenaries. There is a lot happening during these almost 50 years of conflict, war, civil war, rebellion, uprising, raids and invasions.
I will have an unapologetic Swedish-centered view on all of this. After all I am Swedish but also because the source state is not that good and the sources I have access to are written in modern or medieval Swedish. I can make sense of modern Danish and Norwegian but their medieval counterparts are unfortunately beyond my capacity. With that being said, if you have any tips on suitable literature in Danish or Norwegian I am more than grateful for it. I will also use the Swedish names for people, places and events but translate into English or use names in the local language where appropriate or where clarification is needed.
There is a lot of literature covering this period. Unfortunately the focus is seldom on military aspects. Even in biographies of Gustav Vasa an event like his rebellion most of the time only takes up a few pages. One invaluable source has been Martin Neuding Skoog’s ”I rikets tjänst” which deals with Sweden's different military institutions of the era. Another good source, mostly for the illustrations, is Göte Göransson’s ”Gustav Vasa och hans folk”.
Where to start?
The foremost inspiration when it comes to wargaming this period comes from Stuart Mulligan’s Army Royal blog centered around Henry VIII’s invasion of France in 1513. Some fantastic painting, sculpting and research are presented there. There is also an accompanying Facebook group, Army Royal, well worth a visit. A regular poster there has a great instagram account too, dr_rocktapus_paints, and another great blog for inspiration is Camisado which features a lot of Tudor and early renaissance wargaming.
Those are all great inspirations but they only deal with warfare in western europe focusing on english armies. For something a little closer to home I saw a post on a Facebook group by Albin Östberg. He has made a diorama of Swedish peasants ambushing some Danish landsknechts. I have asked to show some images of it here which you can see below. It’s a fantastic piece and he has managed to capture the look of the Swedish peasants just perfect. If you want to see more you should visit the Pike & Shotte 28mm group on Facebook where Albin has posted a lot of pictures and some interesting work in progress shots. I’ll definitely be copying some of his ideas!
So that’s where I am at the moment, reading books and looking at pictures of pretty miniatures. I have ordered some packs of landsknechts from Foundry and some from Warlord Games, including the lovely vignettes. I also have a few boxes of Perry’s ”European mercenaries” and ”light cavalry” to use as a basis for some peasantry and mounted ”svenner”. A special mention should also be made about the very kind people who were nice enough to give me crossbows from several of the Perry-kits for free when I asked to buy them. So big thanks to Mattias, Anton, Dean and Arvid.
I’ll get back as soon as I have something substantial to show.
Some of the stuff on the workbench at the moment. I haven’t got stuck in and done anything with it yet though.
Badly sculpted horses is a common issue for me but these plastic equines might solve my problem.