Background
When King John III died in 1592 his son Sigismund, King of Poland since 1587, acceded to the Swedish throne. Then conflicts arose. Duke Charles, the oldest living son of Gustav Vasa, did not approve the accession of Sigismund, his nephew and a Catholic, to the government of a realm that could just as well be his.
After Sigismund had been crowned King of Sweden February 19, 1594, he decided that no Parliaments (riksdagar) could be summoned without the King’s consent. Despite this, Charles summoned a Parliament at Söderköping in autumn 1595, at which he managed to get his will through. The Duke was appointed Regent with “the advice of the Council”, meaning that he was to govern Sweden together with the Privy Council during the King’s absence from the Realm. Soon afterwards, the nobility of Finland, led by the Sigismund-appointed Governor, Klaus Fleming, rejected these decisions. They sympathised with the King and considered Charles a rebel. As a counterattack, Charles instigated a rebellion against Fleming, the Cudgel War, among the farmers in Ostrobothnia.
Fleming managed to quell the revolt but died in April 1597. Roughly at the same time, a letter arrived from Sigismund’s headquarters in Poland stating that he would not accept Charles as regent. The Duke then used a tactic which his father had employed, namely to resign from office. However, the response was not what Charles had been hoping for: the King accepted Charles’s resignation and invested complete power in the Privy Council.
Despite the difficult situation, Charles summoned another illegal Parliament the same year, this time in Arboga. Only one of the Privy Councillors showed up. The reason was that Charles’s goal of deposing Sigismund had now been revealed, and the men understood that a serious revolt was brewing. When Duke Charles threatened the absent men with severe punishment some of them lost courage. Erik Gustavsson Stenbock, Arvid Gustavsson Stenbock, Erik Larsson Sparre, Erik Brahe and Sten Banér fled immediately to Sigismund.
Thus, Duke Charles was able to assume control over a large share of the powerful castles in the country, and in this manner achieved control over almost all the Realm. The problem was Finland, where Klaus Fleming’s widow guarded Åbo castle. But after psychological warfare, Charles and his followers managed to take the castle in Turku (Swedish: Åbo). It is said that when the Duke entered the castle chapel he saw Klaus Fleming’s body lying in a coffin. He is said to have said: “Hadst thou now been alive, thy head would not have been in great safety.” Then Fleming’s widow Ebba Stenbock is said to have approached the Duke and responded: “If my late husband had been alive, Your Grace would never have entered herein.”
When Sigismund found out about what had happened in Finland he lost his patience. The King could not accept Duke Charles’s unrespectful actions. He decided to use force.
Read more about this topic: War Against Sigismund
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