Part 11 – The Bonde feud [1435-1437]
As Karl Knutsson Bonde began his rebellion, he managed to gather a large amount of supporters in a surprisingly short amount of time. Many knights and soldiers, veterans of the war of privileges, joined his side. A perhaps surprising amount of these were not Swedes, but Danes who had lost land or livelihood to the damage that the rebellion in Denmark had brought, now they hoped to win it back in Sweden. Karl Knutsson also had the support of some of the higher Lords of Sweden, who brought levies from their own lands. He had managed to bribe them with land concessions in the territories left masterless by Engelbrekt’s rebellion, even though he secretly made plans to keep it all to himself. Finally, Karl Knutsson of course also had the forces he could raise from his own possessions, which weren’t insignificant. All in all, the rebel forces numbered somewhere between a thousand and two thousand. As these forces with great haste seized most of central Svealand, left unguarded since the Dalecarlians had pulled back, rumours quickly spread that Karl’s host was far larger. Reports of atleast three thousand rebel soldiers quickly spread across the country.
The King’s situation was delicate. He could return to Denmark and gather forces from all of the union, if so he could perhaps assemble an army capable of crushing Karl. Doing so would however mean that Sweden would virtually be unguarded until he returned, and Karl might use the opportunity to seize even more land, perhaps he’d even win over more of the country to his cause. It would also leave Eric’s position in Denmark weaker, and while he doubted that the nobles there would dare rebel so soon after being defeated, the Duke of Schleswig was another question entirely. After the death of his little brother in 1433, Adolph had become sole ruler of the Duchy and now poised a real threath to the remaining royal holdings in southern Jutland. If the King took troops out of Denmark, who was to say Adolph would not seize the opportunity to take the rest of Schleswig?
The other option was of course to stay in Sweden and try to defeat Karl with local forces. This would mean a much more even battle, but perhaps a more controlled one. The Swedish high nobility was already angry with Eric over his comments at Vadstena, and while they’d likely oppose Karl because he cheated them of new lands, they’d hardly fight wholeheartedly for the King either. Eric was left with two local sources of support then. One was the burghers of Stockholm and other coastal towns, from which a sizeable militia could be raised. The other was the peasantry, especially Engelbrekt’s Dalecarlians. Garnering their support may well tip the scales of power and both sides were sure to court them for their support. Soon word spread that the King was attempting a middle solution, he had returned to Denmark and left command of the local Swedish forces to the noble Eric Puke, a long time rival of Karl Knutsson.
Swedish militiamen, the “sword-staff” type of polearm was a popular melee weapon of theirs.
“Have you heard? Have you heard of the King’s plans? Only just have you thrown out one of his evil bailiffs before he wants to put another in it’s place. Freemen, take up your arms and join me! I will govern you according to your ancient rights!”
Karl looked around, he thought the speech he had made was pretty good. But to his surprise there was no cheering, no sympathetic yelling. Only a deadly silence. The crowd of peasants looking on seemed thoroughly unimpressed. Then one of them, Karl couldn’t see which one, yelled.
“Is that your hangman standing next to you, eyeing up our necks?”
They weren’t having it.
“I heard you slaughtered peasants at Leksand! Why should we join a murderer?”
Something had gone very wrong. The crowd began booing and shouting at him, he had to get out of here. As Karl got up on his horse and rode away with his followers he thought of his situation. Just a few months ago the peasants had been in open rebellion against the King, now they seemed to love him. Sacrificing Jösse Eriksen must really have made quite an impression on them. But there had to be something more than that, Karl had heard the accusations of him killing peasants far to many times now for it to be a coincidence. It was probably that old sack of bones Eric Puke, he had alway had a certain way to rile up the crowds. He must have taken the King’s party and ridden around spreading vile lies of Karl, that was the only way they could believe such nonsense.
“Should we try going further north?” Karl’s nephew Nils asked. They had been around most of southern Dalarna now trying to gather support amongst the peasants, to no avail. His own loyal forces were holding out in Västmanland and Närke, but it was not a secure grip that he could be certain would last.
“No Nils, I think we need to get back to Örebro and re-think our strategy.”
Eric Puke and some of his supporters as imagined hundreds of years later.
Karl was fairly certain that his forces were the strongest in Sweden right now, peasants or no peasants. If the King was away to try gather a large army of his own, this would be the perfect time to strike. Karl’s ambition was limitless, it always had been. Sure, a more equal divisions of avaliable lands would probably have enabled the nobiltity of form a united front, which in turn would mean the King would be forced to accept their demands, but that was not Karl. He was destined for greatnes, first he’d take these lands, then he’d use that base to build further support. One day, he was certain, he would rule all of Sweden, perhaps the entire union. Karl just needed to not let this opportunity go to waste.
Karl began gathering his troops in Örebro in central Sweden, his plan was to spend the winter there and come spring, he would march west and threathen Stockholm. He had no intention of actually taking the city, but if news of Karl making gains would reach the King then perhaps he could come to negotiate and recognize Karl’s dominion over the lands he had claimed. While wintering news came to Karl of peasant forces gathering north of Västerås. Apparently Puke had been able to convince the peasants of Västmanland and Uppland to side with the King. Karl however saw an opportunity in this, if he could defeat this force quickly then that would be an additional show of force against the King. Perhaps he wouldn’t even need to besiege Stockholm at all if he could just defeat Puke now. Thus, in the dead of winter Karl and his forces set out to find their enemy.
Central Sweden gets cold in the winter, cold and wet. The risk of losing his forces to exposure was great, as was the risk of local peasantry acting as spies and saboteurs for loyalist forces. Thus, while marching east, Karl let his soldiers force themselves upon the local peasantry. The stole food, cattle, and threw peasants out of their huts to freeze in the snow while they sheltered inside. Karl accepted that the peasantry had already sided against him and believed the lies of his cruelty, so what did he have to lose? As Karl got deeper into Västmanland, more accurate reports of the enemy forces became avaliable. Most stated that their forces numbered less than a thousand, significantly less than Karl’s own. Emboldened by this, Karl divided his forces and hurried onwards. By splitting up, he hoped to envelop Puke’s forces and cut off their retreat, luring them into a trap. As the forces met near Hälleskogen, it was time to see if his plan would work.
As the 15th century progressed plate armour became widespread in Scandinavian armies, for those who could afford it.
Eric Puke had not been sitting idle while Karl had been rallying his forces in central Sweden. As Karl had correctly assumed he had travelled to Bergslagen, both to discredit Karl there and to try persuading the peasantry to join the King’s cause. However he had not travelled alone. Disguised, he had been accompanied by none other than King Eric himself, who had sent his royal ships away to give the impression he had left Sweden. The King had joined Puke for a very specific reason, for the third time Eric met with Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson. Unlike last time though, the King now admitted he was the one coming to ask for help. While Engelbrekt’s opinion of the King had significantly increased after he handed over Jösse Eriksen to the Dalcarlians, he still wasn’t quite certain he would risk the lives of them to support the King against Karl. After all, there was merit to Karl’s argument, who was to say that Eric wouldn’t put a bailiff like Jösse Eriksen in charge again? Eric promised Engelbrekt that he would be given a seat in the privy council, that the good of the peasantry would always be considered when important decisions were made, but Engelbrekt remained indecisive. Frustrated, the King left for Stockholm to gather support, perhaps he would have to return to Denmark after all. At the same time Puke made it southwards, intending to try and hold off Karl with the forces he had been able to gather.
Then Engelbrekt recieved news of how Karl had treated Västmanland’s peasantry, and he was filled with the same rage he had felt when he first called the Dalecarlians to revolt. Not only rage, but a real worry that Karl Knutsson would be no better, perhaps worse, than Jösse had been if he was left in charge of much of Sweden. So he travelled around Bergslagen, telling the men to take up their axes again, and then hurried southwards. Legend would have it that Engelbrekt’s forces arrived in the nick of time, the very same morning that Karl would begin his attack on the peasant forces of Puke, who had entrenched themselves behind felled logs as best they could. It is uncertain when he actually did arrive, but what is clear is that Karl did not know that he had done so when he ordered the attack. Karl’s forces attacked from many directions, but the enemy was both higher in numbers and better equipped than they had anticipated, as well as motivated by Engelbrekt’s presence. In addition to this, much of Karl’s flanking forces had been surprised by the Dalecarlian reinforcements coming from the north and could not coordinate their attacks. Karl was forced to retreat, losses had been high on both sides.
The crossbow was a favourite weapon of the Swedish peasantry, as it evened out their chances against the often better armed and aromoured noble forces they fought.
Around the same time as the battle happened, Eric received a message from Engelbrekt stating he would help the King. Changing his plans the King quickly raised a contingent of soldiers from the burghers of Stockholm. Eric then turned around and made it to Västmanland where he linked up Puke and Engelbrekt. Karl had taken refuge in Västerås castle, where he suddenly found himself besieged by the King and his peasant followers. While he now realized that he could not enforce his will on the King, the peasants also lacked the resources to conduct a lengthy siege, especially in the middle of the winter as it was.
As Eric had begrudingly come to learn, rebellions could rarely be crushed entirely. It was required to work with the people who had once been your enemies. The King had been forced to forgive the rebellious Jutish nobles, even though he defeated them, he had accepted the rebellious Dalecarlians’ terms, now it remained to be seen what Karl would need to be pacified. Karl quickly arrested his fellow rebellious nobles before peace talks began. These would be handed over as a “sign of good will”, which also meant the King was now only negotiating with Karl. At first, demands for halting his rebellion were quite ambitious, he wanted all of Finland, large parts of the area around Stockholm and the island of Öland. This, Karl was quickly informed, was simply not going to happen. At last he settled for parts of Finland, chiefly the castle of Viborg. This seemed like a good deal for both Karl and Eric. Viborg was not royally taxed so all profits from it could go to Karl and it was a periphary region of Sweden, so he would be out of the halls of power.
*
“Karlsstenen” or “the rock of Karl”, local legends said Karl Knutsson Bonde hid under this rock when his forces lost the battle of Hälleskogen.
Thus ended what would go down in history as
Bondefejden, or the Bonde feud. A name that any Swede later studying the event initally would find quite confusing. Bonde means peasant, but the peasantry seemed to almost universally have opposed Karl. In any case Karl handed back the territories he had seized in central Sweden to Eric, but the King himself would soon have to give parts of them out to other high ranking nobles, who felt that Karl getting anything at all for his rebellion was outrageous. This was somewhat counterbalanced by lands confiscated from the nobles Karl had handed over however. In any case, both nobles and peasantry were still stiffly opposed to Eric appoiting “foreigners” to act as royal agents in Sweden. Eric grew increasingly frustrated by this. Germans he could understand, but Denmark and Sweden was supposed to be part of the same union. How then could it be that they considered Danes foreigners?
In any case crisis had been averted for now. Sweden was somewhat pacified both in nobility and peasantry. Crown lands had been somewhat reduced and concessions had been made, but royal authority was still mostly intact. Eric was however really starting to feel the strain of ruling such a large and diverse realm as he did, with all it’s various customs and laws. In the quiet of his mind, the King began making plans to remedy this, but they were still far off. News came almost daily from Denmark that he needed to return and sort out all manners of issues arising there and he still hadn’t visited Norway since his coronation 12 years ago. There were few people Eric felt he could truly trust in Sweden. Thus, a few years after the Bonde feud was over Eric sent his youngest son Olaf to Stockholm. He asked Eric Puke and Engelbrekt to act as guardians for him. This was supposedly a sign of trust between the Swedish privy council and the crown, but with the second goal that Olaf one day could act as an important agent in Sweden. Eric could swear by God that he needed more of those.
Viborg castle, which Karl Knutsson Bonde could rule as a fief after his rebellion, a comfortable position, if one of de-facto exile from Sweden.
*The rock is called
Pukestenen, and local legend has it that Eric Puke hid there after a battle fought at the same location, even though he won that battle in otl, but later was killed. Chiefly because of this, it is just considered a local myth.
I think Eric needs a break more than anything.