Stockholm Bloodbath (1520): Christian II's Massacre in Sweden

The Stockholm Bloodbath was a mass execution carried out in Stockholm on 8 and 9 November 1520 on the orders of King Christian II of Denmark and Norway, only days after he had been crowned King of Sweden. Around 80 or more Swedish nobles, bishops and burghers, mostly supporters of the former regent Sten Sture the Younger, were beheaded or hanged on charges of heresy. Instead of securing Danish rule, the massacre provoked the revolt that brought Gustav Vasa to power and ended the Kalmar Union.

Background: a divided union

Since 1397 Denmark, Norway and Sweden had in theory shared one monarch under the Kalmar Union. In practice Sweden was often governed by regents, chosen by the Swedish council, who resisted Danish kings. From 1512 the regent was Sten Sture the Younger, a member of a family that led the anti-union party.

Sture’s chief opponent at home was Gustav Trolle, Archbishop of Uppsala from 1515, who favoured the union. Their quarrel turned violent, and in 1517 a Swedish assembly declared Trolle deposed and ordered his castle at Stäket to be destroyed. Trolle was imprisoned. The Pope responded by excommunicating Sture and his supporters and placing Sweden under an interdict, a ban on church services.

Christian II, who came to the Danish throne in 1513, saw an opportunity to restore royal power in Sweden. His first attempts failed. After a defeat at Brännkyrka near Stockholm in 1518, he took six Swedish hostages to Denmark, among them a young nobleman named Gustav Eriksson, later known as Gustav Vasa.

Conquest of Sweden

In January 1520 a large Danish army, much of it made up of German and other foreign mercenaries, invaded. On 19 January 1520 it defeated Sture’s forces at Bogesund on the frozen Lake Åsunden. Sture was badly wounded and died on 3 February while being carried across the ice of Lake Mälaren towards Stockholm.

His widow, Christina Gyllenstierna, led the defence of Stockholm for several months. In early September 1520 the city surrendered after Christian promised a general amnesty for past opposition. On 4 November 1520 Archbishop Trolle crowned Christian hereditary King of Sweden in Stockholm’s Great Church, and three days of celebrations followed.

What happened on 8–9 November 1520

On 7 November leading Swedes were summoned to a meeting at the royal castle, Tre Kronor. Trolle presented a demand for compensation and accused those responsible for his deposition of heresy. The decision of 1517, which many of those present had sealed, was produced as evidence. Since heresy was a crime against the Church, the amnesty for political opposition was said not to apply.

On 8 November a church court led by Trolle and other clerics found the accused guilty of heresy. That afternoon the executions began on Stortorget, the main square of Stockholm’s old town. The first to die were Bishop Mattias of Strängnäs and Bishop Vincent of Skara, followed by nobles, members of the council and Stockholm burghers. Some servants and bystanders were also killed. The executions continued on 9 November.

Estimates of the number of victims vary. Contemporary lists and later accounts suggest at least 80 to 90 executions in Stockholm, and some historians reach about 100 by including killings in the weeks that followed. Among the dead was Erik Johansson, the father of Gustav Vasa. Sten Sture’s body was dug up and burned with the bodies of the executed, and Christina Gyllenstierna and other noblewomen were sent as prisoners to Denmark.

Key people

• Christian II (1481–1559): King of Denmark and Norway, and briefly of Sweden, known in Swedish tradition as Christian the Tyrant.
• Gustav Trolle (1488–1535): Archbishop of Uppsala, whose accusations provided the legal basis for the executions.
• Sten Sture the Younger (c. 1493–1520): regent of Sweden from 1512 until his death.
• Christina Gyllenstierna (1494–1559): Sture’s widow, who led the defence of Stockholm.
• Gustav Vasa (1496–1560): a former hostage who escaped and led the uprising against Christian.

The uprising of Gustav Vasa

Gustav Eriksson had escaped from captivity in Denmark in 1519, fled to Lübeck and returned to Sweden in 1520. After the massacre he went to the province of Dalarna to raise the peasants and miners against the Danish king. According to the traditional story, the men of Mora at first refused, then changed their minds and sent skiers after him as he headed for Norway; this journey is commemorated by the Vasaloppet ski race.

The revolt spread quickly. In August 1521 Gustav was proclaimed regent at Vadstena. With ships and loans from the German city of Lübeck, his forces besieged Stockholm, and on 6 June 1523 a Swedish assembly at Strängnäs elected him king. Stockholm surrendered later that month, and Gustav made his entry into the capital at midsummer 1523.

Christian II also lost his Danish throne. Rebellious nobles turned to his uncle, Frederick I, and Christian fled to the Netherlands in April 1523. After a failed attempt to return, he spent the rest of his life as a prisoner in Danish castles until his death in 1559.

Consequences

The Stockholm Bloodbath destroyed the last real chance of a united Scandinavian monarchy. Sweden became an independent kingdom under the Vasa dynasty, while Denmark and Norway remained united until 1814. Gustav Vasa built a strong central state and, from 1527, broke with Rome and confiscated church property, beginning the Swedish Reformation that followed the path opened by Martin Luther.

Gustav also used the massacre in his propaganda. In 1524 he commissioned a large woodcut showing the executions, known in Sweden as the Bloodbath Plate, which survives through later copies.

Who was responsible?

Historians have long debated where the main responsibility lay. Christian II clearly approved the executions and gained most from them, since they removed the leaders of the Sture party. Archbishop Trolle supplied the charges, and some historians also point to Christian’s adviser Didrik Slagheck, a cleric from Westphalia who played a leading part in the proceedings. When the killings caused outrage abroad, Christian blamed Slagheck, who was executed in Copenhagen in January 1522.

Myths and facts

• Myth: The victims were Protestants killed for their faith. Fact: The victims were Catholics. The heresy charge was a legal pretext based on their part in deposing an archbishop, and Lutheran ideas had barely reached Sweden in 1520.
• Myth: The story of Gustav Vasa’s flight on skis is a precise record. Fact: It comes mainly from chronicles written decades later, including one by Bishop Peder Swart in the 1560s, and its details may have been embellished to glorify the king.
• Myth: The Bloodbath immediately ended the Kalmar Union. Fact: It triggered the revolt, but Danish forces held parts of Sweden until 1523, and Danish kings went on claiming the Swedish crown for years.

Timeline

• 1517, November: A Swedish assembly declares Archbishop Gustav Trolle deposed.
• 1520, 19 January: Christian II’s army defeats Sten Sture at Bogesund.
• 1520, 3 February: Sten Sture dies of his wounds.
• 1520, September: Stockholm surrenders after a promise of amnesty.
• 1520, 4 November: Christian II is crowned King of Sweden.
• 1520, 8–9 November: The Stockholm Bloodbath.
• 1521, August: Gustav Vasa is proclaimed regent at Vadstena.
• 1523, 6 June: Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden at Strängnäs.

Why it matters

The Stockholm Bloodbath was meant to secure Danish rule over Sweden but had the opposite effect. It turned Sweden decisively against the union and created a founding story for the modern Swedish state. Its memory long shaped Swedish attitudes to Denmark and made Gustav Vasa a national hero, whose dynasty later produced Gustavus Adolphus and gave its name to the warship Vasa.