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EAA 2013 - Pilzen

Archaeological Perspectives on the Thirty Years' War (session 2013.09.06)

Far Behind the Front.

The Ambitions and Shortcomings of an Aspiring Military State in the 17th Century.

The ascent of Sweden as a major military power in Northern Europe in the 17 th

century is forever connected to the Thirty Years War. The story of King Gustavus Adolphus, “the Lion of the North” and battles like Breitenfeld, Lech, Lützen and Nördlingen became public property and something generation after generation of Swedish schoolchildren had to read about in the 19th and 20th

century. Very little mention of the devastation and the suffering caused by this, the European Civil War of the Early Modern Period, seeped through in these tall tales of heroism and bravery on the battlefield. The so called Age of Greatness, the century between the reign of Gustavus Adolphus and the collapse of the Military State in the Great Nordic War, was treated like a kind of success story. And the maps in our class room and history books became brighter with the new territories constantly added to the Realm…

Fortunately this simplified and nationalistic view belongs to the past. A far more diversified and balanced narrative has taken its place in the post WW II-years. And battlefield – or shall we say – conflict archaeology has proved to be an important agent in this process. Excavations on the actual scenes of the events have provided important details hitherto unknown. And by doing so archaeology has widened our understanding for both military actions and their effects on the local populations that happened to find themselves in the path of war.

But during my brief moment in the spotlight I will try to describe a far more prosaic development. I will deliberately keep away from the front, from the battles and the dubious heroes of the Swedish Army in Germany. Instead, my focus will be on the development of a Swedish 17th century town that we know

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quite well from three decades of archaeological excavations… My aim is to use this site as something of a metaphor, a somewhat oversimplified illustration of Sweden during the Age of Greatness. It exemplifies both the visions for the future, held by the Absolutist State and the consequences these often unrealistic plans had for ordinary people. In this case study the inherent weakness of the new empire becomes evident. It also provides a background to the mobilization of local resources and the logistics that made the Swedish war effort between 1627 and 1648 possible!

1. Let’s begin here. With a propaganda picture of Jönköping, made in 1690. What we see is a fairly large town – from a Swedish point of view – dominated by its huge fortress and the new church. Between them, amidst all the squat wooden houses, is the Göta Hovrätt Court of Appeal.

Although quite exaggerated, this picture is correct in stressing the importance of the military, the administration and the protestant church in the 17th century town.

To summarize the background - Jönköping belongs to a group of Scandinavian towns that were relocated and provided with a new town plan during the 17th century. The aim was to modernize and fortify strategically important cities of the Realm, but lack of funding prevented the fulfillment of many of these projects. The visions of King and Council were at times too far removed from the somewhat harsh realities of a poorly developed country on the fringes of Europe. Even so, these undertakings in the 17th century were on a scale rarely seen in this part of the world before.

2. The emergence of Sweden as a major power in Northern Europe can be traced back to the dissolution of the Scandinavian Union of the late Middle Ages. Although unstable and weak, the union of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland had existed for more than a century. In its place two national-states, Denmark and Sweden, started to compete for the control of the region. The former had been the dominating one since the days of state formation, but the Sweden of the Vasa dynasty was an ambitious upstart of a kingdom. And they had the iron production areas in the Bergslagen province plus the invaluable copper mines of Falun to add strength to the economy. It is worth noticing that the Swedish copper played a role similar to what the silver from Potosí did for the Spanish Empire. The struggle for control of the lucrative Baltic trade led

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to war – like the Seven Years War, described as “the first modern conflict in Scandinavia” and the Kalmar War, the latter a complete disaster beginning the reign of Gustavus Adolphus.

3. Jönköping was a border town; but unfortified during most of the Middle Ages and well into the 16th century. In the following century ambitious plans were made for turning the town into a modern city fortress. It was to be the central link in a chain meant to close the southern border of the realm to Danish attacks. And the impressive fortifications gave shelter to the army supplies and strategic manufacturing. A town for modern times indeed!

But why Jönköping? A quick look at the map says it all. This was one on the most important junctions in southern Sweden. Roads from east to west met roads coming up from the coast and the Danish counties of Scania and Halland. And the vast lake Vättern could provide 130 km of sailing, straight into the Swedish heartland, with a fine sheltered harbor where the town grew up.

4. The development of Jönköping castle provides a fine illustration to the changing fortunes of the city. Originally a Franciscan friary, it was taken over by the Crown after the dissolution of the religious houses in Sweden during the Reformation. After a local rebellion in the 1540s the buildings were transformed into a royal castle and fortified. It was burnt in 1567 during the Seven Years War and left as a ruin until 1595 when an ambitious plan for modernization and enlargement was begun. At the time of the Thirty Years War the fortress in Jönköping was one of the largest of its kind in Sweden, covering some 10 hectares.

5. The Danish siege and fire of 1612 reduced the medieval town of Jönköping, situated on dry ground west of the castle, to ashes. Now the King and his council acted rapidly. A decision was taken that the town should be re-built on the new site, called “Sanden”. The citizens complained and protested eloquently, but to no avail. The word of Gustavus Adolphus stood firm. The laying out of new plots started in 1614.

During the first years a number of drafts for the new town were made. Some features re-occur like the canals, the inner harbor and the circle of large fortifications, surrounding and protecting the city centre. What we

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see is the plans for a modern city fortress in the Dutch fashion, were the castle and town should interact in the defense and create an impregnable unity.

6. Unfortunately parts of the new plots given away were actually beneath the water of Lake Munksjön. Or situated in a bog called the Morass. Here the peat was found beneath landfill and house remains during the excavations six years ago. The weight of material put on top had compressed the peat, causing more landfill, compressing more etc etc. No wonder that severe floods were reoccurring in the first century of the new towns life…

7. If we now turn to the logistics, excavations from the 1980s onwards have shown the scope of the undertaking. An estimated 20 000 wagon loads of soil had to be transported into the site of the new town during the first 10 years just to build up enough ground for the first houses to be constructed upon.

But more than soil was needed – huge amounts of timber and stone were also carried in. For these transports peasants from the surrounding districts were called upon by the Crown. Even the soldiers from the local garrison were ordered to take part in this work – at least for the areas staked out for the royal manufactures.

8. The landfill had an interesting story to tell. These “clean” strata of sand were first identified in the Royal Chartered Arms factory site in 2004. What we see in the picture is sand – the original beach, covered by debris from the building of wooden structures nearby. But on top of that is more than 50 cm of sand, taken from a site where the archeobotanical evidence tells us of ruderal plants from a dry, built up environment. This was the foundation for the oldest workshops and living quarters in the factory area – the floor planks from a simple barrack, built in the early 1620s, can be seen resting on the sand.

9. Let’s now have a look at the monuments of the Absolutist State – the grand and costly buildings of the 17th century. It’s worth noticing the Swedish Coats of Arms right above the main entrance to Christine Church – named in honor of the daughter of the founder of the new Jönköping. It’s also telling that a stone church was not of the highest priority. Instead the new Court of Appeal was. The symbol of a reformed judicial

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system was built 10 years before work on the church started. The congregation had to endure for another decade or two in its barnlike little timber church. After all, Jönköping was a project for the strong State and its administration!

10.The foundation of two Royal Chartered factories in 1620 was of crucial importance for the coming war effort. The manufacturing of firearms in Jönköping was a craft based upon a long local tradition, transformed into a kind of early industry. It became a high tech world characterized by rapid development and an early example of division of labor.

By centralizing strategic production the flow of vital supplies for the armed forces was secured. Theoretically. In reality most of the local gunsmiths choose to stay in their farms, spread all over the region. And the authorities had to give in. What mattered was the production of guns, not the organization of that production.

11.The other Royal Chartered Factory in Jönköping was quite another story altogether. Here a group of local businessmen were asked to start a large scale production of textiles, mainly cloth for the army and navy. Know-how was brought in from abroad by hiring skilled craftsmen in Germany. They established an enclave in the central part of town, called the German Meadow. There they were settled; being a group favored by the State, well paid and able to uphold a more modern, continental urban lifestyle than their Swedish neighbors. We know of tensions from written sources, and the archaeological material indicates such problems too.

As for the production it started with unrealistic goals and the local raw material, the wool, was of low quality. Furthermore it proved difficult to engage male Swedish workers in the production of textiles. After less than 30 years the manufacturing ended.

12.As the years went by work on the Grand Design of a New Jönköping slowly came to a halt. About half the area planned for the city was actually used in the 17th and early 18th centuries. And although the town was seen as of the greatest importance to the defense of Sweden, there were never enough resources to start building the ring of fortifications in earnest. Instead one generation of simple toll fences followed another. And as only the northern half of the system of canals was dug, the

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ditches and the inner harbor filled with stagnant water… But at least the monumental space in the form of a square had been added.

13. Finally – let’s have a look at the Jönköping castle, its development and find some clues to a troubled building history provided by archaeology. In the early 17th century the castle was enlarged into an artillery fortress with corner bastions, casemated curtain walls and a large bailey; a work led by the Dutch master builder Hans Fleming.

14. Recent excavations in the SE-corner of the fortress have revealed surprising differences in the quality of the walls. The west and north flank of the bastion varied considerably in thickness and where one would have expected solid walls, they turned out to be hollow and filled with debris. This was an example of a surprisingly shoddy workmanship; something that would have endangered the safety of the castle in case of a siege. Furthermore, the bastion Carolus was built on insufficient foundations and had in fact been in danger of a collapse almost since day 1. Fleming himself asked the King in 1617 if the bastion could be torn down, as serious cracks in the masonry had been noticed.

15. Even the mortar in the walls still standing tells the same story about the varying quality. In some parts the lime mortar is an almost perfect mixture, while in other sections such as the makeshift wall from 1612, the adhesiveness must have been low indeed.

16. To sum it up – if the excavated parts of these 17th century fortifications are representative for the quality of all defensive structures surrounding the castle, then the central link in the chain of fortresses was indeed weak. Modern plans and a highly qualified master builder like Fleming could do little if the surveys left out important facts, if the funding was insufficient and the work force was untrained or unsuitable for the task.

17. And to a large extent this is the story of the new city of Jönköping. Although it was undeniably of greatest importance to the Crown, the resources to finish the task of building the fortress town were never present. The Visions may have been grand enough, but the harsh realities were that other projects – such as Gothenburg and Kalmar – had a higher priority. It is also worth noticing the ambivalence shown by the

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Government towards this project when decisions were changed or reversed. So…

The city fortifications stayed on the drawing table

Only about half of the area originally intended for the new town was actually used

The castle might have looked impressive enough, but had a number of concealed weaknesses.

The Royal Chartered Factory meant to modernize textile production in Sweden became a failure.

An economy based on war production was vulnerable. Peaceful times always meant recession – so what was probably the worst crisis ever in the history of the Jönköping came in 1721 when the Age of Greatness ended. But the Westphalian peace treaty of 1648 had also created a notable recession in Jönköping, among other things leading to the shutdown of the Royal Chartered textile factory.

To sum it up – Jönköping may be seen as an almost perfect illustration of the Sweden that took part in the Thirty Years War. It was indeed a country with quite limited resources. But whose leaders aspired on playing a major part in European politics. And where the visions and plans made for the future development sometimes reminds us of the Soviet five year plans of the 1930s. Same disregard for the realities, for the actual costs and for the human suffering the implementation of these plans would bring forth.

But it was also the beginning of an effective administration, of reforms in the judicial and economic system that can be easily traced today. And despite the fact that Swedish armies took part in laying waste large tracts of the Continent it was also a time of international contacts that effectively made Sweden an integrated part of Europe.