The Kalmar Bloodbath ( Swedish: ''Kalmar blodbad''), sometimes described as the Second Kalmar Bloodbath to distinguish it from an earlier massacre in the same place, was the public

mass execution Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members witho ...

of 22 men in

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 41,388 inhabitants in 2020 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, on 16 May 1599. All of the victims were members of the

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

from

Kalmar Castle Kalmar Castle () is a castle in the city Kalmar in the province of Småland in Sweden. History During the twelfth century a round defensive tower was built on Kalmarsund and a harbour constructed. At the end of the thirteenth century King M ...

, and included three

noblemen Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. Th ...

(Johan Larsson Sparre, Kristofer Andersson Grip and Lars Andersson Rålamb) and a priest (the garrison chaplain Birger), all four of whom were

beheaded Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

. The other eighteen victims, comprising secretaries, garrison officers and

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

commanders, were all

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

. The executions took place during the

War against Sigismund The war against Sigismund () was a war between Duke Charles, later known as King Charles IX of Sweden, and Sigismund III Vasa, Sigismund, who was at the time the king of both Kingdom of Sweden (1523–1611), Sweden and the Polish–Lithuanian Co ...

, in which Duke Charles of

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

rebelled against his nephew

Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa (, ; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden from 1592 to 1599. He was the first Polish sovereign from the House of Vasa. Re ...

, who was king both of

and of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Charles decisively defeated Sigismund at the

Battle of Stångebro The Battle of Stångebro, or the Battle of Linköping, took place at Linköping, Sweden, on 25 September 1598 (O.S.) and effectively ended the personal union between Sweden and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, that had existed since 1592. ...

(September 1598), near

Linköping Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

, and Sigismund subsequently escaped to Poland. A garrison loyal to Sigismund continued to hold the strategically-located

, commanded by Johan Larsson Sparre, Kristofer Andersson Grip and Lars Andersson Rålamb. Charles therefore sent an army to lay siege to the fortress in March. The city of

was captured in April, and the castle itself surrendered on 12 May. Four days later, 22 senior members of the garrison, including the commanders Sparre, Grip and Rålamb, were executed without trial. The heads of the three noblemen were subsequently displayed on pikes above the city's western gate. The war ended in complete victory for Duke Charles. Sigismund was formally deposed in July 1599, and his uncle succeeded him, as King Charles IX.

References

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* * Massacres in Sweden 1599 in Sweden Conflicts in 1599 16th-century executions by Sweden War against Sigismund Early modern history of Sweden Political history of Sweden 16th-century massacres Prisoner of war massacres Attacks on castles in Sweden Sieges involving Sweden Sieges involving the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Kalmar {{Sweden-hist-stub

See also

References

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