Bloodbath du Jour

Wars are terrible things, so it's strange that some of them have funny names, like the War of Jenkin's Ear, or the Sausage Campaign. The Sausage Campaign was just part of a larger war, the War against Sigismund. I'll explain about the sausages in a bit, though I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of the War against Sigismund.

If you look at a historical atlas of Europe for the past few centuries, you'll notice the national boundaries jumping around wildly from page to page. The Swedes and the Danes were constantly fighting each other. The Norwegians and the Finns, having fewer people, often fell under the control of the Swedes or the Danes. Then every so often they'd all join together to fight the Russians.

Sometimes the borders changed after a war. Sometimes it was a wedding that brought changes. For example Prince X from Country A might marry Princess Y from Country B. Their son little Prince Z would then be crowned king of Empire C. If Prince Z could hold it all together that is.

Holding it all together was King Sigismund of Poland's problem in 1598. Thanks to marriage ties, he was also recognized as king of Sweden. But his uncle Charles, a Swedish duke, thought he should be king of Sweden. There was some negotiating back and forth, but eventually a two year war broke out.

Duke Charles got some of the other dukes in Sweden to join him. You would think all the Swedes would gladly join Charles in throwing off the Polish yoke. After all, Sigismund was Catholic and most Swedes were Lutherans. But a lot of Swedes saw their king as the anointed one of God, even if he lived in Poland.

Kings existed to provide security so that their subjects could raise their crops and their children free from the depredations of roving bands of barbarians, and to provide recourse from the greed of their own local dukes. If one of the local dukes got above himself, the king and his army would get lots of support from the peasants when he came to set things right.

So in 1598, Sigismund left Poland with an army a bit too small for the job he wished to accomplish. This army was supposed to travel across the Baltic Sea in Swedish ships, but the ships' owners supported Charles and refused to send their ships. Sigismund had to buy or steal a hundred ships. As so often happens, the course of this war hung on the weather. Bad winds held up Sigismund's ships which gave Charles time to defeat the Finns who were coming to help Sigismund. The retreating Finns left their sausages behind which gave a name to that campaign.

Once Sigismund got to Sweden he did well, almost immediately taking Stockholm. The struggle went back and forth with weather playing its usual role. By the end of the year, Sigismund was forced to return to Poland. He promised to return the next year but he never did, leaving his allies in Sweden to twist slowly in the wind as Charles picked them off.

In July of 1599, the Swedish Parliamnet named Charles King Charles IX. Those who had fought against Charles were imprisoned or killed. On this day in 1600, five nobles who had opposed Charles were publicly beheaded in what is known as the Linköping Bloodbath. Had Sigismund prevailed, it's likely it would have been Charles' neck on the chopping block.

Gerrymander, Polish style