War Against Sigismund - Decisive Events

Decisive Events

After the fall of Kalmar, Duke Charles found himself with major trouble on his hands. The Polish army attracted Swedish followers and Stockholm, lacking military defence, was easily taken with the help of the nobility and officers of Götaland. After this event, the cavalry of Uppland joined up, and new forces were mobilised in Finland and Estonia.

A group of envoys from Brandenburg, Prussia and Mecklenburg shuttled back and forth between Duke Charles’s and Sigismund’s camps for three weeks, trying to rescue the peace. Despite their great efforts, they failed. Sigismund sailed with his infantry to Stegeborg Castle on August 11. The cavalry went to the same place by land. Charles’s situation was hardly optimal. The only bright spots were the escapement of Göran Nilsson Gyllenstierna, the ex-commander of Stockholm, from the city, and the Swedish navy's refusal to join forces with the Poles.

Sigismund now had control over Stockholm, the key to Sweden. However, Sigismund and his fleet sailed into a violent storm: hundreds of men were thrown overboard and perished. This incident dramatically changed the situation. Suddenly, the King was in an exposed position. On August 22 he landed at Stegeborg with merely 100 men, a position worsened by the presence of Charles’s rested army nearby. Sigismund's men had anyway taken the fortresses of Älvsborg and Gullberg in other parts of the country. In the area around Stegeborg, Duke Charles had withdrawn to Linköping, from where he could block the troop supply to Sigismund. The King was surrounded by in all 5,000 men.

On August 28, Duke Charles and his men set out from Linköping. They camped at Mem, a few kilometres northwest of Stegeborg. At the same time, negotiations between the parties were ongoing. The Duke requested clear-cut answers from Sigismund, which the King interpreted as indicating that an assault was impending. His own army was in a trap, but he counted on help from other forces elsewhere. Hans Vejer was ordered to attack the Swedes in the back, from the west; another commander, Farensbach, drew up his forces in order of battle in front of the enemy. Charles immediately responded.

At the morning of September 8, the Swedes attacked Sigismund in the Battle of Stegeborg. The Swedes got off to a real nightmare start, and after a few hours, Sigismund’s victory was clear. Being magnanimous, the King ordered the killing to stop.

The losing Swedes quickly withdrew to their camp at Mem. The losses amounted to 300 men, but the loss of prestige hurt Charles the most. He felt himself extra humiliated by Sigismund’s magnanimous behaviour. The strain grew so big that the normally stubborn Charles wanted to abdicate and escape the country with his family. A few senior officers managed to persuade Charles to stay, however.

The negotiations were resumed and they led to a two day ceasefire. During these days, there was plenty of maneuvering among the forces. Sigismund summoned more soldiers from Poland, at the same time as the Swedish navy sailed towards the coast. The King was in charge of the situation until the Swedish navy, commanded by Joachim Scheel, anchored outside Stegeborg. Because of unfavourable winds, they had not been able to do this before. But once they had got there, the tables turned again. Since Scheel brought with him new forces, Charles could raise the stakes in the negotiations. The navy also blocked any reinforcements to Sigismund from Poland.

Sigismund immediately felt threatened and treated the blockade as a declaration of war. For this reason, he and the Poles left Stegeborg on September 20 to march on Linköping. Duke Charles’s army immediately followed. The night to September 25 minor detachments skirmished with each other.

The morning of September 25, 1598 the armies clashed in a major engagement at the Battle of Stångebro. Duke Charles won a decisive victory which forced Sigismund to agree to harsh terms. Charles demanded that the King send home his entire army, but that he himself was to stay and await a Parliament. Also, a number of Swedes who had sided with Sigismund were captured. These were later executed in the Linköping Bloodbath of 1600.

The agreement was sealed with a dinner between Charles and Sigismund on Linköping Castle. The King, who was under pressure, fearing for his life without his army and having realised that he had lost the political battle, fled during the coming days to Poland. At the same time as the peace treaty was being signed in Linköping, conflicts were taking place in Dalarna. There, a pro-Sigismund bailiff, Jacob Näf, had tried to raise up the Dalecarlians against Duke Charles. Chaos ensued. Näf was executed, and the Dalecarlians set out on the so-called Neaf Campaign (1598), burning and killing down to Brunnbäck ferry. In Västergötland, Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm, illegitimate son of Duke Charles, defeated the rebellion.