War and Game

The Battle of Oland (30-31 May 1564) was an important episode in the bitter Swedish-Danish struggle of 1563-70. The Swedes lost their new flagship, the Mars, after repeated attacks by the Danish ships and their Lubeck allies under Herlof Trolle. The Mars was successfully boarded on the second day of the battle, caught fire, and blew up. Both fleets then withdrew for repairs.


In the Baltic in the Sixteenth Century, there was conflict between Denmark and Sweden, including a long period of war from 1501 to 1520 when the Oldenburg kings, who ruled in Denmark and Norway, tried to gain control over Sweden. In 1517, Christian II started a series of intensified attempts to gain control over Sweden. In 1524, the Danes recognized Gustavus Vasa as King of Sweden. Gustavus joined Frederick I of Denmark in defeating Lubeck and resisting an attempt by Christian II to regain the Danish throne (1534-36), but in 1563 the two powers went to war. Sweden's sole outlet to the North Sea, Alvsborg (Gothenburg), fell to the Danes in 1563, prompting Erik XIV of Sweden to seek a new route through southern Norway. Trondheim fell to the Swedes in 1564, much of southern Norway was overrun in 1567 and Oslo was taken, but the Swedes were held at Akershus. From 1565 until 1569 the Swedes held Varberg, to the south of Alvsborg.

Erik relied on native troops, which he transformed by training them in the combined use of pikes and firearms in linear formations. He made the pike the basis of offensive infantry tactics. Frederick II of Denmark used German mercenaries who were usually more successful, severely defeating the Swedes at Axtorna: Erik's troops fought well there but were poorly commanded. The Danish army managed to advance as far as Norrkoping in late 1567 before being forced to retreat by the weather.

At sea, 1563-70 saw the first modem naval war between sailing battle fleets in European waters, as Denmark and Sweden fought for control of the invasion routes. The Danes were supported by the semi-independent German city of Lubeck - no longer the great sea power it had been but still able to make an important contribution. Both sides sought to destroy the opposing fleet, and seven battles were fought between 1563 and 1566. The Swedes, under Klas Kristersson Hom, with their modem bronze artillery, systematically used stand-off gunfire to block Danish boarding tactics: sheer weight of metal was decisive. Both navies expanded greatly, and in the late 1560s the Swedes may have had the largest sailing fleet of the period. Both sides were exhausted by 1568, and peace was agreed without any territorial gains to either side.

Warfare on land in the Baltic involved relatively few battles. Sieges were more important, while devastation was used to reduce opponents' fighting capability. This conflict is far more than a footnote to the history of European warfare, being an important reminder of the growing prominence of Sweden and Russia. The tactics employed were less formalistic than those developed in western Europe, and the troops sometimes less specialized in weaponry, but their warfare was well-suited to the eastern European military circumstances of great distances and small populations.