Russo-Swedish War (1495–1497)
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The Russo-Swedish War of 1495–1497, known in Sweden as the Stures' Russian War (), in Russia First Swedish War (), was a border war which occurred between the
Grand Duchy of Moscow The Grand Principality of Moscow, or Muscovy, known as the Principality of Moscow until 1389, was a late medieval Russian monarchy. Its capital was the city of Moscow. Originally established as a minor principality in the 13th century, the gra ...
and the
Kingdom of Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic country by both area ...
. Although the war was relatively short, and did not lead to any territorial changes, it has significance as the first war between Sweden and Moscow. Sweden earlier fought wars against the
Novgorod Republic The Novgorod Republic () was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries in northern Russia, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east. Its capital was the city of Novgorod. The ...
, before Novgorod was formally annexed to Moscow in 1478.


Background


The Österland Border

During the
High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
, the
Kingdom of Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic country by both area ...
had expanded across the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
and
conquered Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or legal prohibitions against conquest ...
the entirety of what is now
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
(referred to by the Swedes as
Österland ''Österland'' () was a medieval term used for the southern part of Finland, one of the four traditional lands of Sweden. The term occurs in documents approximately between 1350–1470 and gradually fell out of use by the end of the 15th centur ...
), and thereby came into contact with the
Republic of Novgorod The Novgorod Republic () was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries in Russian North, northern Russia, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east. Its capital was the city of ...
. The border between Sweden and the Republic of Novgorod was fixed by the 1322
Treaty of Nöteborg The Treaty of Nöteborg, also known as the Treaty of Orehovsk (; ; ), is a conventional name for the peace treaty signed at Shlisselburg Fortress, Oreshek (; ) on 12 August 1323. It was the first agreement between Sweden and the Novgorod Republic ...
, which defined it as beginning at
Vyborg Castle Vyborg Castle (; ; ) is a fortress in Vyborg, Russia. It was built by the Swedes during the Middle Ages around which the town of Vyborg evolved. The castle became the stronghold of the Swedish realm in the Karelian region. Throughout the centuri ...
on the
Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...
and then running north, up the middle of the
Karelian Isthmus The Karelian Isthmus (; ; ) is the approximately stretch of land situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva. Its northwestern boundary is a line from the Bay of Vyborg to the we ...
and across Savonia to terminate at the
Gulf of Bothnia The Gulf of Bothnia (; ; ) is divided into the Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea, and it is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland's west coast ( East Bothnia) and the northern part of Sweden's east coast ( West Bothnia an ...
, probably in the area of the Pyhäjoki River, although the treaty is rather vague with regard to the northern segment of the border, presumably because this territory was initially considered to be useless wasteland. Despite the signing of the Treaty, conflicts recurred periodically between Sweden and Novgorod through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Novgorodians were aggrieved by Swedish settlement on their side of the border, particularly in northern Ostrobothnia and eastern Savonia; the building of a Swedish castle at
Olavinlinna Olavinlinna (), also known as St. Olaf's Castle, is a 15th-century three-tower castle located in Savonlinna, Finland. It is built on an island in the Kyrönsalmi strait that connects the lakes Haukivesi and Pihlajavesi (Saimaa), Pihlajavesi. It is ...
() in 1475 was especially provocative. However, Novgorod was not in a position to seek redress for its grievances as the Republic was by then in terminal decline. In 1472 it was defeated by its southeastern neighbour, the
Grand Duchy of Moscow The Grand Principality of Moscow, or Muscovy, known as the Principality of Moscow until 1389, was a late medieval Russian monarchy. Its capital was the city of Moscow. Originally established as a minor principality in the 13th century, the gra ...
, and forced to accept vassal status, and in 1478 Grand Prince Ivan III formally dissolved the Republic and annexed Novgorod to Moscow.


Sweden and the Kalmar Union

In 1397 Sweden had, together with the Kingdoms of
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
and
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, formed the tripartite union known as the
Kalmar Union The Kalmar Union was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden as designed by Queen Margaret I of Denmark, Margaret of Denmark. From 1397 to 1523, it joined under a single monarch the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden (then in ...
. However, by the late fifteenth century its position in the Union had been thrown into question. From 1471 it was ruled by a regent (),
Sten Sture the Elder Sten Sture the Elder (; 1440 – 14 December 1503) was a Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden from 1470 to 1497 and again from 1501 to 1503. As the leader of the victorious Swedish separatist forces against the royal unionist forces led by De ...
and was ''de facto'' independent, but theoretically it was still part of the Union, a large proportion of its political class favoured close ties with Denmark-Norway. Successive Danish-Norwegian kings encouraged this unionist sentiment to try to force Sten to acknowledge royal sovereignty and to re-integrate Sweden fully into the Union. In 1493, King Hans attempted to put further pressure on Sten by concluding an alliance with Grand Prince Ivan, promising that if he managed to take control of Sweden he would restore the Russo-Swedish border to the line stipulated by the Treaty of Nöteborg. Sten thus found himself menaced by hostile powers to both east and west. For his part, Ivan did not entirely trust the promise of territorial concessions from Hans. Calculating that the Swedes would be too preoccupied with the threat of a Danish-Norwegian invasion to deal with a Muscovite incursion into Österland, he decided to seize the vital Swedish border fortress at
Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...
and thus present both the Swedes and Danes with a ''fait accompli''.


War

In late 1495, Ivan sent Princes Daniil Shchenya and Vasily
Shuisky The House of Shuysky (Shuisky; ) was a Russian family of boyars and tsars, a cadet branch of the Rurikids. The surname is derived from the town of Shuya, of which the Shuiskys gained ownership in 1403. From 1606 to 1610, Vasili Shuisky ...
to lay siege to the Swedish castle of Viborg, whose commander Knut Jönsson Posse happened to be married to one of Sten Sture's cousins. After a siege of three months, the Muscovites attempted to storm the castle in late November, but a massive explosion killed a large number of the attackers and stopped the assault in its tracks, and the siege was lifted soon afterward. The explosion went down in Swedish and Finnish folklore as 'the Vyborg Bang'. The Muscovites subsequently switched tactics, and rather than trying to seize Swedish castles they instead attempted to force them into submission by ravaging Österland. Over the winter of 1495-6 Muscovite forces under Vasily Kosoy and Andrey Chelyadnin devastated the country around Tavastehus (), while other Muscovite raiding parties managed to get all the way to the gates of
Åbo Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while the metropolitan area ...
(), which was a major humiliation for Sten. The Swedish regent responded by declaring the conflict to be a
holy war A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war (), is a war and conflict which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion and beliefs. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent t ...
, as the Muscovites, being Orthodox Christians, were considered
heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...
by the
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Swedes. In summer 1496 he succeeded in getting
Pope Alexander VI Pope Alexander VI (, , ; born Roderic Llançol i de Borja; epithet: ''Valentinus'' ("The Valencian"); – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503. Born into t ...
to issue a
papal bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...
officially recognising the war as a
crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
against heretics, which was a propaganda boost for Sten and enabled him to impose extra taxes to fund the war effort. These taxes were however very unpopular in Sweden, especially for the Swedish Church, which was already suspicious of Sten for his efforts to encroach upon its traditional freedoms and blamed him for the outbreak of the war with Moscow. In August a Swedish force under the command of Svante Nilsson sailed across the
Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...
to attack
Ivangorod Ivangorod ( rus, Иванго́род, p=ɪvɐnˈɡorət; ; ) is a town in Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the east bank of the Narva river which flows along the Estonia–Russia international border, west of Sain ...
, a castle which Ivan III had built to protect
Ingria Ingria (; ; ; ) is a historical region including, and adjacent to, what is now the city of Saint Petersburg in northwestern Russia. The region lies along the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordered by Lake Ladoga on the Karelian ...
against the
Livonian Order The Livonian Order was an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, formed in 1237. From 1435 to 1561 it was a member of the Livonian Confederation. History The order was formed from the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword after thei ...
in what is now
Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
and
Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
. The castle was successfully captured and razed, whereupon Svante returned to Åbo to await reinforcements from Sweden. Sten Sture himself arrived in Österland in early autumn 1496 with a fresh army, planning to overwinter at Åbo and then mount a campaign into Ingria in 1497. However, upon arrival he fell out with Svante Nilsson, who promptly sailed to Sweden and aligned himself with the unionist opposition against Sten. Given Svante's status as the general who had captured Ivangorod, this defection was a major blow to Sten, and in November he was forced to return to Sweden himself to address the gathering unrest against him. He also offered to make peace with Moscow, and a six-year
truce A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...
was agreed in March 1497, bringing the war to an end.


Result

In modern historiography, there are different assessments of the war, for example, there are several works that confirm that the war ended with a Swedish victory. Russian historian disagrees with them. He believes that the end of the war cannot allow us to state the winner, so the war ended in a draw. Another historian, , expresses a similar opinion, he points out that the war did not lead the parties to a decisive result, but clarifies that the war may have ended in a small favor for the Russians. Finnish historian Lena Huldén says that Russia "lacked success" in the war.


Trivia

The conflict is known in Sweden as the Stures' Russian War () after Sten Sture the Elder and Svante Nilsson. Confusingly, Svante Nilsson actually belonged to the Natt och Dag family rather than the Sture family, but he was distantly related to Sten, and moreover his son Sten Svantesson later adopted the surname Sture (and is therefore known as
Sten Sture the Younger Sten Sture the Younger () (1493 – 3 February 1520), was a Swedish nobleman who served as the regent of Sweden, during the era of the Kalmar Union. Biography Sture was born in 1493, as the son of Svante Nilsson (regent of Sweden) and Iliana G ...
), and so Svante is often described as a Sture himself.


References


Sources

* * * * * Palme, Sven Ulric, ''Sten Sture den äldre'', AB Wahlström & Widstrand 1950, Stockholm * Suvanto, S: ''Suomen poliittinen asema Sten Sturen vanhemman valtakautena vuosina 1483–1497'' (''Finlands politiska ställning under Sten Sture den äldres regering 1483–1497''), Suomen historiallinen seura 1952, Helsinki * Jaakkola, J: ''Suomen myöhäiskeskiaika II'' (''Finlands senmedeltid''), Werner Söderström OY 1959 * ''Suomen kansan historia I'' (''Det finska folkets historia''), Otava 1964, Helsinki * Julku, K: ''Suomen itärajan synty'' (''Den finska östgränsens tillkomst''), Pohjoissuomen historiallinen yhdistys 1987, Rovaniemi * ''Finlands historia I'', Schildts Förlags AB 1992, Esbo * Harrison, D: ''Gud vill det! Nordiska korsfarare under medeltiden'', Ordfront förlag 2005, Stockholm * ''Sveriges historia 1350–1600'', Norstedts 2010, Stockholm * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russo-Swedish War (1495-97) 15th century in Finland Wars involving the Grand Principality of Moscow Wars involving Sweden History of the Karelian Isthmus 1490s conflicts Russia–Sweden military relations 15th century in Sweden 15th-century military history of Russia Conflicts in 1495 Conflicts in 1496 Conflicts in 1497 1495 in Europe 1496 in Europe 1497 in Europe 15th century in the Grand Principality of Moscow