Gustav I of Sweden - Further Reign

Further Reign

Gustav encountered resistance from some areas of the country. People from Dalarna rebelled three times in the first ten years of Gustav's reign, as they considered the king to have been too harsh on everyone he perceived as a supporter of the Danish, and as they resented his introduction of Protestantism. Many of those who had helped Gustav in his war against the Danes became involved in these rebellions and paid for this, several of them with their lives.

People in Småland rebelled in 1543, and initially gave Gustav severe difficulties in the dense forests. The king sent a letter to the people of Dalarna, requesting that they should send out letters to every Swedish province, stating that Dalarna would support the king with troops, and urging every other province to do the same. Gustav got his troops, with whose help – and paid German mercenaries – he managed to defeat the rebels next spring.

The leader of the rebels, Nils Dacke, has traditionally been seen as a traitor to Sweden. His own letters and proclamations to fellow peasants focused on the suppression of Roman Catholic customs of piety, the King's requisitions of church bells and church plate to be smelted down for money and the general discontent with Gustav's autocratic measures, and the King's letters indicate that Dacke had considerable military success for several months. Historical records state that Nils was seriously wounded during a battle, taking bullet wounds to both legs; if this is true, his survival may have been surprising in view of contemporary medical techniques. Some sources state that Nils was executed by quartering; others that he was reduced to the state of an outlaw after recovering from his wounds, and killed while trying to escape through the woods on the border between Småland and then Danish Blekinge. It is said that his body parts were displayed throughout Sweden as a warning to other would-be rebels; this is uncertain though his head was likely mounted on a pole at Kalmar. Modern Swedish scholarship has toned down criticism of Nils Dacke, sometimes making him into a hero in the vein of Robin Hood, particularly in Småland.

Difficulties with the continuation of the Church also troubled Gustav Vasa. The 1540s saw him imposing death sentences upon both the Petri brothers, as well as his former chancellor Laurentius Andreae. All of them were however granted amnesty, after spending several months in jail. In 1554–1557, he waged an inconclusive war against Ivan the Terrible of Russia.