The Battle and its AftermathTracing the Danish military campaign of 1567

Claes B. PetterssonJönköping County MuseumSweden

Småland the most peaceful place you could ever imagine…?

Astrid Lindgren

The Nordic Seven Years War 1563 - 70The first ”Modern” War in Scandinavia

The Siege of Älvsborg 1563

The Paths of WarDevastation!

Västbo Hundred – an example

The situation according to the Tax Registers - Smålands handlingar 1566:3

Tax paying farms and villages in the region:

Red = burnedPink = plunderedBlue = desertedOrange = reduced tax Yellow = normal tax

The Campaign of Daniel Rantzau 1567-68

A decisive blow against the heartland of Sweden…

The Danish Army

8500 people • 4000 soldiers on foot• 3000 cavalry• 900 wagons• 12 field guns

• Included are a large number of mercenaries from Scotland and Germany

• The troops are trained, provided with modern arms, well led and battle wise…

Rantzau’s Raid – the Route through Småland and Östergötland

Metal detecting in a dense forest

Battle-field-work in May 2011

Bergsliderna – a forgotten battlefieldLocal militia facing professional soldiers…

Bolt from a crossbow

Swedish encampment

Main defensive position

Advanced position

The Swedish defensive position and encampment on October 31, 1567

Wheellock with pyrite in place

DaJönköping, late autumn 1567

„Ein Kloster, welchs der Konig zu Schweden angefangen hat

zubefestigen, ligt oben in dem Stettlein an einem schönen

fliessenden wasser. War also statlich mit hohen wellen, tiffen

graben vnd pasteien zubefestigen angefangen, dass sie es

vor vnser macht, wo sie sich selbst getrauet, leichtlich hetten

halten konnen.” (Rördam 1884:20)

Jönköping castle excavated today 445 years later!

Daniel Rantzau – the first eyewitness

The first picture Early 17th century fortifications

Consequences I

A No Mans Land...• How many people starved to death during the harsh winter of 1567-68?• How long did it take for the wounds to heal?

Parishes that disappeared

Vallgårda 1567…a village that never

recovered

Site of Vallgårda Church Fireplace / baking oven

Clearance cairns & fields

Unwelcome Guests – Västra Jära village

GPR - Searching for a church

The village in 1849

Farmland used for the Danish encampment on October 30th, 1567

Went up in flames on October 31th….

The road, the village and the site of the church

Jönköping Castle in 1690 – impressive but untested…

Consequences II

Plans for a modern fortified town - 1624

A gunsmiths workshop, excavated in 2004

Jönköping evolves into a key fortress and a centre for supplying arms to the Swedish army

…but no monuments commemorates the

suffering and the men fallen in 1567!

The official silence & the living traditions…

The Danish bullets left their marks…(Ödestugu church, East of Jönköping)

Danish soldiers graves …or Roman Iron Age?

A rich oral tradition in the region explains almost all strange structures as traces from the Border Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries…

…and ”new” finds appear(the misericorda from Lilla Älgås)