Chapter XVI.
The Swedish King and the Karelian Queen.
"A woman with indomitable wrath, a strong warrior spirit and a wisdom unseen in all of Suomi shall rise to defend our land."
Annals of the Fins.
In 1215 king Håkan IV Stenkil decided to continue the wars against the Finnish pagan tribes of Karelia and Tavastia as a way to legitimize his reign and demonstrate that he was a strong leader for Sweden since he was only eighteen years old.
The first months of the campaign were successful but in the Battle of Kokemäenjoki a Finnish army of 9,982 men stopped them and dealt more than 4,000 casualties to the Swedes, meaning that they lost a third of their army.
In the battle the leader of the pagan army died, the daughter of one of them, Aamunkoi, became leader.
In other battle, the Battle of Salpausselkä, she dealt another blow to the Swedes, the king barely escaped from being captured by the pagans.
Håkan managed to push the Finnish to the island of Virmailansaari in the Päijänne lake, approximately killing 12,000 of them, counting non-combatants in winter of 1217.
In spring of 1218 at Tampere the Swedes were defeated after being ambushed, losing 1,320 compared to the 245 casualties of the pagans, Aamunkoi kept the pressure to the Swedish army, making them retreat to the fortress of Phyäjärvi, where a band of deserters let the gates open at night and then Aamunkoi and her best warriors, stormed the castle and captured everyone in there, except the king, that retreated to Oulu, where he planned to smash the heathens once and for after a massive push to the Baltic Coast.
In december of 1218 he reunited almost 35,000 soldiers, the double of the Finnish army, he pushed them to Jyväskylä, location he reduced to cinder and mangled corpses, he kept advancing, ignoring the fact that his supply line was overstretched and suffering from constant raids or desertions.
The last battle of the war was fought in Hämeenlinna, Aamunkoi received help from all the other Finnish tribes, reuniting a bit more than 26,000 soldiers, the battle was fought in the third day of June of 1219, this day was the official end of the crusade, king Håkan was defeated and captured by Aamunkoi, that exhibited her new trophy to her troops by riding in front of the army with king Håkan naked and bounded.
9,000 Finns died, while Sweden lost more than 22,000 men , mostly due atrition, disease and attacks by the local population.
After the humiliating defeat and parade, Håkan was forced to sign a peace treaty that had few wins compared to the losses (mostly prestige), the treaty divided Finland in two, allowed catholic missionaries to proselytize, forced Sweden to pay reparations and the " Pagan Queen" demanded the aperture of trade routes without taxation that went from Finland to Norway.
Håkan blamed the fiasco to his cousin and general Ragnar, responsible for the collapse of the supplie lines and the commander of the army center, which collapsed after three hours of fighting.
Aamunkoi secured her position as queen of Finland after expelling the Swedes and started the consolidation and modernization of the nation, she married with Aikamieli, a 19 years old soldier that fought alongside her in all the duration of the crusade.
Håkan married with Kristina Magnusdotter of Bjelbo as a way to compensate the family for their tremendous losses in wealth caused by several loans handed to the king, this marriage also secured dynastic continuity and calmed the spirit of Håkan.
The adverse effects were the constant increase of power in the hands of the Bjelbo house and the decline of the Stenkil house in positions of ecclesiastical and political power.
The balance of power once again is shaken in Europe, only time will tell what situations awaits in the day after tomorrow...