Martin Neuding Skoog

In the winter of 1464, the Swedish bishop Kettil Karlsson (Vasa) instigated an uprising against King Christian I of Oldenburg who at the time ruled all of Scandinavia. In order to crush the uprising the king quickly responded with a war campaign against the insurgents. In April his army was ambushed in Halla forest in Vastmanland by forces commanded by the bishop. In the battle that followed the king was defeated and fled back to Stockholm. The study of medieval warfare in Sweden has hitherto yielded little interest among scholars. The aim of this article is thus to add to this sub-ject by investigating these events from a military point of view. The article address the question of the actual geographical location of the battle, what elements the two clash-ing armies composed of, further, what really happened during the course of the battle and finally how the battle ended and what the military consequences were.

In 1493, King John of Denmark entered into a formal treaty with the grand prince of Muscovy, which was later renewed and discontinued only with the fall of King Christian II. The treaty generated frequent embassies to Copenhagen and Moscow. The treaty was clearly aimed against Sweden and posed a serious strategic problem there. It also provides a backdrop to the diminished Swedish political trust in the Olden burg kings. Several medieval papal bulls prohibited Latin Christians from contact with infidels and schismatics. This papal embargo represented an over-arching policy that all within the Latin Christian community were expected to observe. The need for trade required degrees of embargo and in effect, the embargo only prohibited trade and interactions with infidels that may harm the Christian community-especially arms trade and offensive alliances. The Danish-Muscovite alliance was a clear breach of this embargo. Earlier studies have not, however, appreciated the significance of this alliance in the larger international context. This article studies the role of Muscovy in the conflicts between Sweden and Denmark from 1493 to 1523. How did the Oldenburg kings utilise the treaty to pursue their strategic goals? What were the Swedish repercussions? Did the Oldenburg kings publicly acknowledge their Muscovite liaison? How did the larger Latin Christian community react? What does this treaty tell us about political change in early sixteenth-century Northern Europe?

This paper aims to study the interconnections between the military-institutional transformation and social organization in local Swedish society during the course of the Sixteenth century. During this period, the emerging new Swedish state bureaucracy transformed the largely autonomous peasant militia into state-controlled regular army units. In this process the political status, goals and agency of the upper peasant strata are studied. This social group applied novel strategies in order to adapt favourably to changes. Through cooperation and continuous bargaining with the emerging new state, this group largely lost its age-old martial identity in exchange for a new beneficial political position in local society. Thus, changes in the military organization also accentuated an increased social stratification within peasant society.

Printed in: Militärhistorisk tidsskrift 2015:1 (Stockholm 2016), pp. 45-88.

In this article I show how the tactical concept of light infantry skirmish-line fighting style was introduced into the Swedish line infantry regiments during the reign of Gustav IV Adolf (1792-1809). Up until the end of the 18th century a handful of Jaeger battalions represented the only light infantry units in the Swedish-Finnish army. At this point critical discussions in the general staff identified the demand for a larger proportion of light infantry. The crowns financial strains didn't allow for additional regiments to be organized. The solution chosen was a project to reshape and modernize the existing units to a new flexible standard. Through three sequential infantry reforms ca 1797-1806, skirmish line fighting was introduced as a universal tactical concept in all Swedish infantry regiments. Henceforth the whole infantry was trained to fight as flexible units capable of switching entire battalions (or parts of) from closed order to skirmish lines on the battlefield. This concept even applied to the quickly formed Landwehr battalions of 1808-1809. Success in this respect depended on frequent training and competence both among privates and officers. In this article I both study the discussions leading up to the decisions, the reforms as such reflected in the printed infantry exercise manuals, and to what extent they were applied in the subsequent campaigns, especially in Finland 1808 where they proved decisive in several of David's defensive victories against the Russian Goliath. This reform seem to be the modern threshold of tactical infantry doctrine prevailing up until the introduction of industrial warfare, although additional research on the post-Napoleonic 19th century still needs to be done to secure this claim.

In the winter of 1464, the Swedish bishop Kettil Karlsson (Vasa) instigated an uprising against King Christian I of Oldenburg who at the time ruled all of Scandinavia. In order to crush the uprising the king quickly responded with a war campaign against the insurgents. In April his army was ambushed in Hälla forest in Västmanland by forces commanded by the bishop. In the battle that followed the king was defeated and fled back to Stockholm. The study of medieval warfare in Sweden has hitherto yielded little interest among scholars. The aim of this article is thus to add to this subject by investigating these events from a military point of view. The article address the question of the actual geographical location of the battle, what elements the two clashing armies composed of, further, what really happened during the course of the battle and finally how the battle ended and what the military consequences were.

In this essay I outline my forthcoming research project on military enterprisers in sixteenth century Sweden and the Baltic Sea area. The aim is to present and discuss productive research problems on the subject of mercenaries. During the Thirty Years war, the Swedish strategies for contracting mercenaries are a well-known phenomenon. In my thesis I also show how contracts with German companies of mercenaries became an established practise for military recruitment in Sweden already during the 1490s. The century in between is a fairly pristine area for further research on this matter. Previous research has ascertained the presence of mercenaries in Swedish service during the early Vasas. Though, the question of why and how the Swedish state contracted foreign mercenaries during the sixteenth century have seldom been studied – neither the business strategies of the enterprisers themselves. The primary aim of this study is not to study mercenaries as military assets from a traditional state perspective, but to study the military enterprisers themselves as commercial agents on the Baltic market.

[The essay is published in Swedish but results of the study will be published in English]

The aim of this article has been to create a general survey of some of the seemingly most common polearms in Sweden towards the end of the middle Ages, to date their general occurrence and to compare them with the contemporary European military development. Text sources, pictorial evidence and archælogic finds are considered. Firstly, a peculiar kind of spear – the “Shaft sword” (Stavsvärd) – was a part of the infantry armament in all groups of society (i.e. noble retainers and their retinues, burgers and peasants). Archaeologic evidence suggests that these weapons were actually made from reused sword blades, just as the German landsknecht Paul von Dolnstein attests when on campaign in Sweden in 1502. Almost all of the references to this weapon are grouped around 1500-1520, which indicates a fairly narrow time span for the use of this specific type of weapon. Further, the type does not seem to have any equivalent on the continent and is assumed to be a fairly regional weapon. It is unknown whether it was also used in Norway or Denmark.
Secondly, war hammers (Polyxor) seem to have been around for a longer period and there is evidence of its use from early 15th century and up to the mid-16th century. The term “Polyxa” is borrowed from the continental word pollaxe, but late medieval Swedish sources imply that the Swedish term was rather a collective name for several similar weapons – in a few cases proper pollaxes, but much more commonly the infantry war hammer, which was of similar shape but without an actual axe head – similar to the Luzern-hammer. Just like the shaft sword the war hammer was common in all groups of society, also frequently used by the peasantry. The fact that the different types of weapons were not restricted to specific social groups – and common all over late medieval society – might be explained due to the fact that a large proportion of the Swedish peasantry was allodial and took an active part in the warfare side by side with the nobles and burgers. Thirdly, the halberd (hillebard) appears in the sources around 1500 in the hands of noble retinues and burgers. Only one picture ascribes it as a peasant weapon. But there is no trace of it in the sources before 1500, and apparently it was introduced rather late in Sweden compared to the continent. Forth, the pike (spets) is not mentioned as a Swedish infantry armament before 1520, and thereafter only appears in the new royal companies – not in local society. In the 1520ies and 1530ies the king Gustav Vasa tried to adapt the Swedish forces to the German standard, arming them to an extent with halberds and pikes. During the Dacke feud in 1542–1543 this armament was largely abandoned in favour of crossbows and firearms. During the Russian war 1555-1557 halberds and pikes was reintroduced as defence against the Russian cavalry.
The appearance and development of these weapons in late medieval Norway is fairly unknown to the author. Therefore, hopefully this article might encourage some Norwegian research on the matter in order to develop Scandinavian comparisons.

The article is a study of the Danish campaign in western Sweden in the summer of 1502. It examines the causes of conflict, the development of the military campaign, the contents of the opposing Swedish and Danish armies, the battle of Älvsborg and the murder of the knight Erik Eriksson Gyllenstierna. Apart from the Paul von Dolstein pictures, which has previously often been the main source when describing the campaign, a number of preserved swedish texts sources are also applied to create a somewhat different picture than that which has dominated in previous reserach. For instance the actual battle of Älsborg seems to have ended in a stalemate, rather than a danish victory.

During the Finnish war of 1808-1809, beside the regular army, the Swedish king Gustav IV Adolf also organized an additional Landwehr of around 30 000 men – composing a third of the Swedish fighting forces during the war. Short of proper training, armament and uniforms the Landwehr battalions still took part in the campaigns. The paper addresses the question of how the Landwehr was organized, how the men were conscripted and how both privates and officers were clothed, equipped and armed during the campaigns. Written sources, pictorial evidence and museum artefacts alike are considered as sources in the paper. The result was a motley mixture of old uniforms, surplus arms and civilian clothing. But to some extent the soldiers were also issued a special Landwehr uniform coat in grey and blue, and proper army uniforms of standard issue.

Published in: Kronans kläder. Armémuseum Meddelande 70 (Stockholm 2010), pp 70-113.

During the early 17th century the first attempts was made to establish a domestic textile industry in Sweden. The overall argument of this article is that it was the rise of the Swedish military state that initiated this development. From the 1620ies and onwards the Swedish army was frequently involved in both continental wars and quarrels with its neighbours. This caused a constant demand for quality wool to produce uniforms for tens of thousands of soldiers. The dire need of woollen cloth to make uniforms was the impetus for the process of establishing factories. They were largely private initiatives but to a large extent financed by the Swedish crown. Although constant economic failures and bankruptcies characterised these factories, the crown kept refinancing them in exchange for cloth. At the end of the 17th century several lasting factories were established. Though, during the Great northern war (1700-1721) these factories proved to be largely insufficient in producing the quantity needed. During the 18th century a system was established where the factories were assigned to supply a number of fixed regiments with cloth. Even this proved problematic, and it was not until after 1800 that the Swedish army managed to establish reliable supplies of cloth for the army. Although a by-product of this process was the establishment of a domestic textile industry in Sweden.

Medeltidens slutskede var en omtumlande tid i Nordens historia. Erik Peterssons bok Furste av Norden. Kristian Tyrann ar ett ambitiost forsok att brett skildra denna period och att teckna ett nytt personportratt av den gatfulle siste unionskungen.

This study examines military migration in the late medieval and early modern Baltic Sea region in order to map out the directions and patterns of mercenary movement prior to the emergence of national armies. The results illustrate the high degree of the markets' interconnectivity and points to the transnational or even global character of military migration in the North well before the Thirty Year's War, conventionally perceived as the threshold conflict in this context.

This paper aims to compare militia organizations in two peripheral late medieval kingdoms: Portugaland Sweden. In the Portuguese case, the «besteiros do conto» (crossbowmen) militia is the object of study,whereas in Sweden, the rural «uppbåd» peasant militia is analyzed. In this study, these two objects are comparedin terms of origins, organization, leadership, relation to state or royal power, forms of service reimbursement,strategies of recruitment and training, campaign performance, estimated professionalism and impact on martialsociety. The aim is further to assess on what points we find similar developments, but also how they differ andthe possible reasons for it

Publicerad i: Politiska rum - Kontroll, konflikt och rörelse i det förmoderna Sverige 1300-1850 (red. Mats Hallenberg & Magnus Linnarsson) (2014), pp 119-141.

This article examines the spread and impact of the German landsknecht culture in Sweden 1489-1530. The article initially describes the establishment of the landsknecht culture as such, and further argues that it should be understood as a subversive yet exclusive order, with rules and ideals partly detached from late medieval society. The study also relates the contemporary German critique of the culture, which came largely from a religious standpoint. The second part of the article examines the impact of the landsknecht culture in Sweden. Preserved text sources are applied in order to establish when the culture actually can be said to have reached the Swedish realm, and also what the initial reception was. Further the article applies a number of preserved wall paintings and altar pieces from Swedish churches depicting landsknechts. This enables a study of how the culture was perceived and considered at the time in Sweden. The throughout impression is that the landsknechts were considered disgraceful godless figures in Swedish society towards the end of the middle ages. A slightly more positive trend can med noted in the church art towards the end of the 1520ies, which also coincides with the new king Gustav Vasa’s long-lasting enlistment of German landsknechts in royal service.

Published in: Adam Heymowski: polak na pograniczu kultur i epok [en polack mellan kulturer och epoker] (Elżbieta Szwejkowska-Olsson red.) (Skultuna 2011), pp 111-117.

In the collection of the Royal Armory in Stockholm  two late 17th century coats are preserved which were taken as a war booty at the battle of Narva in 1700. Several attempts has been made to identify the origins of these coats, and they have traidtionally been labled "polish coats". In the article I relate to previous reserarch and argue that the russian reseracher Vladimir Velikanov are right in claiming that the coats are in fact russian military coats, conforming to the 1699 military uniform prescription of Peter the Great.

Printed in: Krig. 22 försök (ed. Mattias Hessérus & Peter Luthersson) (Stockholm 2016) Axel och Margaret Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse för allmännyttiga ändamål.

In this essay I discuss mercenaries as a historical phenomenon and its implications to modern warfare. To a large extent mercenaries were instrumental in creating and consolidating early modern states in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. When the role of the military entrepreneurs declined in the 18th century it was not because of declining usefulness but because of an ideological shift. The enlightenment gave birth to nationalism and promoted the concept of citizen armies instead of processional entrepreneurs. But the very negative image of the mercenary figure was by no means a new one. It was in fact established already by the early 16th century generation of humanists – and also by Machiavelli – condemning the whole idea of fighting for profit. During the enlightenment these ideas finally prevailed and for two centuries the common citizen of the European states took to the trenches as a consequence. Many western intellectuals who today promote "democratic" ideals in the third world likewise condemn the use of mercenaries in what could in fact often be described as state-making conflicts in these areas. But why should we deny, for instance, African governments the same tools of political consolidation as were once successfully used in Europe? Could formative steps of state-making just be "skipped" in order to speed up development according to post-modern western ideals?

[In service of the Realm. War, state and society in Sweden 1450-1550]

This thesis examines the military institutions in late medieval Sweden, the military-political transition
during the reign of Gustav Vasa and what consequences the military transformation had for the
process of state formation. In previous research, the period after 1560 is often emphasized as the most
important phase of military and political change. However, this study also considers the interconnections
between warfare and political power during the preceding century, 1450–1550. This period was
characterized by recurring military crises and an increasing geopolitical pressure in the Baltic Sea area,
which incited military and institutional change.
The primary objects of analysis are the military institutions of late medieval society, which are
categorized according to a socio-economic division of nobility, bishops, burghers and peasants.
Additionally, the rulers’ own retinues and the new companies of enlisted foot soldiers – and eventually
also conscripted units – organized during the reign of Gustav Vasa, are also studied.
The changing character of the state – from a coordinating to an organizing state – is central to
the argument. The coordinating state organized the defence of the realm with resources borrowed from
established institutions within local society, by reference to legal duties and by offering tax exemption in
a continuous bargain process. Gustav Vasa (1521–1560), in contrast, persuaded the subjects to pay a tax
in lieu of military service. He organized military units directly through the evolving state administration
and dismantled or incorporated the military institutions of local society into one dominant military
hierarchy. Thus, this is a study of the transition from one military-political system to another.
The centralization of the military institutions also meant a consolidation of political power. The
interconnections between warfare and state building, becomes clear through the argument of synchrony –
the consolidation of political power occurred in concert with military institutional change.
Furthermore, the process was directly preceded by a period of intensive and near constant defensive
warfare. From an international perspective, arguably, the late medieval coordinating state transformed
into an organizing state more rapidly in Sweden than in other comparable countries.