The Club War (also Cudgel War, Finnish Nuijasota, Swedish Klubbekriget) was a 1596/97 peasant uprising in the kingdom of Sweden against exploitation by nobility and military in what is today Finland. The name of the uprising derives from the fact that the peasants armed themselves with various blunt weapons, such as cudgels, flails and maces, as they were seen as the most efficient weapons against the heavily armoured enemies. The yeomen also had swords, some firearms and two cannon at their disposal. Their opponents, the troops of Clas Eriksson Fleming, were professional, heavily armed and armoured men-at-arms.
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“... it is a commonplace that men like war. For peace, in our society, with the feeling we have then that it is feeble-minded to strive except for one’s own private profit, is a lonely thing and a hazardous business. Over and over men have proved that they prefer the hazards of war with all its suffering. It has its compensations.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)