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This PowerPoint describes a military campaign in southern Sweden 445 years ago, in 1567 during the Nordic Seven Years War. Through studies of old maps, in archives and by battlefield archaeology our research project has been able to reconstruct some of the events during this violent conflict. The excavations and metal detecting has been concentrated on the Hovmejan site, the scene of a minor battle - a skirmish where professional Danish soldiers outflanked and overran Swedish forces consisting of some regular troops but the where the majority were local militia. The finds tells us of a slaughter...
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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)