Invasion of Sweden: Prelude to the Polish-Swedish Wars 1566-1600 (Pt. 1)

In 1566 a baby was born to unite two kingdoms. This child was called Sigismund, son of the Polish princess Catherine Jagellonica and John III of Sweden. Young Sigismund was raised by his father to link the two kingdoms his parents descended from. Later, when he was crowned, Poland and Sweden were indeed united under one ruler for a moment in time. But peace was not to last. Sigismund would prevail in Poland but fail in Sweden. The attempt of uniting the two states led Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to fight a series of wars for more than 30 years known as the Polish-Swedish Wars. This video explains how modern historiography recounts Sigismund’s failed attempt to secure power over both, the Kingdoms of Sweden and Poland.

Chapters:
00:00-00:49 Intro
00:49-10:31 Polish-Swedish War Prelude 1566-1600

Bibliography:
Frost, R., Northern Wars, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558-1721, 2000.
Roberts, M., Gustav Adolf and the Art of War (first printed 1955), in: Essays on Swedish History, 1967.Stone, Daniel, The Polish-Lithuanian State 1386-1795 (History of East Central Europe), Washington 2001.
Oakley, Steward P., War and Peace in the Baltic. 1560-1790, Oxford 1993.

[SandRhomanHistory]

Thanks to Bartosz Muscialowicz, there are Polish subtitles for this one as well.

Just a quick correction:

There are two mistakes in our video. One of them is a minor spoiler to the video so maybe read this after you’ve watched the video.
Firstly, Poland-Lithuania was in a real union at the time we’re discussing here. Not a personal union.
Secondly, One of Sigismund’s commanders took Stockholm, not he himself.

[toddbonin]

I really enjoyed this video. In school we learned all about Western Europe, but we missed all the fascinating history of the rest of Europe. Please tell more stories about Sweden and Poland and the Baltic region.

[Astillion]

I'm a swede, and learned a little bit about this in school, but don't remember much. It's really nice that you're delving more into both Swedish and Polish history, which a lot of other history channels don't mention much.

[mac]

I'm so glad to see more videos on the wars of (besides world wars/cold war)
Very underrepresented in western history books/videos

[kamilszadkowski]

The topics you cover recently are just fantastic. Just as your research. Great work, mate!

[kamilszadkowski]

The funny thing is that any time I had an opportunity to talk about the Polish-Swedish Union and Sigismund with people from Sweden they always portray him as some cartoony evil bloodthirsty Catholic.
I always mention the Battle of Stegeborg as an obvious example of how Sigismund cared for Sweden and Swedish people. In fact, during his whole reign, he was always accused of caring for Sweden, a kingdom that rejected him, much more than for Commonwealth.

[Artur_M.]

I love to see the history of the Commonwealth being popularised! Excellent video (my one problem with it was already addressed and corrected by SandRhoman in a comment).

BTW The very election of Sigismund in 1587 was exceptionally tense and disputed, much of which was related to the complex internal Polish-Lithuanian politics, which would take too long to explain. Two armed camps formed on the election field, nearly starting a regular battle. On one side the supporters of the powerful Chancellor and Hetman Jan Zamoyski, who kinda hoped to get the crown himself and was definitely determined to prevent the Habsburg candidate from taking it, on the other his opponents/Habsburg supporters. Plus "neutralists" and Lithuanians staying out of it. The deadlock lasted for 6 weeks until some nobles started going home, before a majority (Zamoyski included) finally agreed on Sigismund, as a compromise. But Zamoyski's enemies, including some powerful magnates, declared Archduke Maximilian III Habsburg the King anyway, and most Lithuanians initially refused to acknowledge the whole election as legit. Maximilian invaded with about 5 000 troops, joined by an additional 1 500 of his Polish supporters (according to Urszula Augustyniak), tried to get crowned in Cracow before Sigismund could get there, but was denied entrance and failed to take the city by force, subsequently being crushed by Zamoyski in the battle of Byczyna (24 I 1588).

[Voytaz]

Just imagine if Poland, Lithuania and Sweden united in the late 16 or early 17th century... That would be most powerful empire in history of European continent! Instead we had series of wars, conflicts and nobility going on personal gain campaigns which has left Commonwealth in crumbles by the end of 17th century. What a shame.

[clintmoor]

I hoped we would see more on the PL-Commonwealth. I'm a very happy history nerd right now!

[Gaavcio]

And today, Poland and Sweden stand united in their love for...



Sabaton

[True_black_swordsman]

When i saw the "kurwa " on the billboard i spilled the coffee all over the place 🤣😂🤣

[deteon]

Fantastic video! 👍👍👍

Greetings from Sweden! 🇸🇪

[wojszach]

One word in Polish to understand entirety of the situation with over half of its nuances

[Quondom]

Poland and Sweden are often neglected by historians, though they both played important roles in European history. John III Sobieski of Poland rescued Vienna from the Turks in 1683, and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden revived the Protestant cause when it was about to collapse during the 30 Years War.

[EnRandomSten]

As a Swede I've actually never heard of this part of our history in detail, cheers!

As thanks for the knowledge I'll provide some language tips ;P.
You pronounce the Ö perfectly however the "K" in linköping and the Å's were a bit off. Starting with the K sound, it usually sounds like how you pronounced it however sometimes it's a "sh" sound or a "soft K" sound like "Cz" in Czechia. Köping is one of those words. others are Kyla (cold), kyss (kiss), kör (to drive. though choir is spelled the same but pronounced with a hard K).

The other letter "Å" is pronounced like a short "O" sound in English, luckily this does not have any strange changes like the "Ö" has so an "Å" is always the same sound.
Lastly just for fun the Ä should be pronounced like the first "A" sound in Damnation, a sort of long hard A.

(also last but not least, I think you guys dropped an R in "Björneborg" at 4:11 :P)

[chrisedrev]

Love your work boys. Always insta-click when I get the notification. :)

[mariushunger]

Imagine sweden and the commonwealth united! They would‘ve ruled the 17th century

[MrGrombie]

I feel like there is a real lack of Polish history in English. So I definitely appreciate these videos.

[vattghern]

Wow accurate PLC borders in foreign video about history
very rare

[adriankowalski]

If Sweden and the commonwealth united then the Baltic sea would be called Baltic lake