The Results of the Dynastic War in Sweden (1597–1660): Swedish and Finnish Refugees

Abstract

The subject of the publication is a review of the book “Wierni królowie. Szwedzi i Finowie na uchodźctwie w Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku” [Faithful Kings. Swedes and Finns in Exile in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the First Half of the 17th Century] written by Wojciech Krawczuk. In his monograph, the author characterised a medium–sized collectivity made up of Swedes and Finns fleeing their country as a result of the dynastic war between Sigismund III and his uncle Charles of Södermanland. A considerable part of the group settled in the Commonwealth and the kings (Sigismund III, as well as his sons) felt attachment to those people, which manifested itself in taking special care over them. The community, especially noblemen, was of great political importance, reaching in the Crown even senatorial positions. The article presents new calculations of the diaspora connected with the results of the dynastic war. The calculations demonstrate that in the years 1600–1620 there were jointly c. 583 male refugees. Some of them spent abroad merely a few years and returned home; consequently, the number of the refugees was systematically falling (Figure 2 & 3). The social structure of people who left Sweden was presented in the form of Figure 1. It turned out that the nobility made up merely a quarter of the refugees, but it was almost 23% of all noblemen of the kingdom.

Keywords

• Sweden in the 1st half of the 17th century
• Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
• Finns
• Swedes
• refugees in the early modern period
• spatial mobility