Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
After granting a full amnesty to Sture followers, Danish King Christian II goes back on his word:
over 80 nobles and clergy are arrested, tried and butchered in the 'Stockholm Bloodbath.
1523
The Kalmar Union, which united Denmark, Sweden and Norway for over 130 years, is finally
broken up.
1523
Gustav Vasa becomes the first Vasa king after the Kalmar Union between Denmark, Sweden and
Norway breaks up; he marches into Stockholm and is crowned on 6 June, now the country's na-
tional day.
1527
Reformation parliament passes a law that transfers the property of the church to the state and
places the church under the state's direct control (repealed in 2000).
1563-70
During the Vasa brothers' reigns, there are wars against Lübeck and Poland, and the Danes try
and fail to reassert sovereignty over Sweden in the Northern Seven Years War.
1618-48
Devout Lutheran Gustav II Adolf intervenes in the Thirty Years War between Protestants and Cath-
olics, invading Poland and defeating his cousin King Sigismund III, but dying in battle in 1632.
1628
After a send-off full of pomp and circumstance, the royal warship Vasasinks on her maiden voy-
age, having barely made it out of Stockholm's harbour.
1658
The last remaining parts of southern Sweden still in Danish hands are handed over at the Peace of
Roskilde after Swedish troops successfully invade Denmark across the frozen Kattegatt.
