In 1611 Sweden got a sixteen-year-old king. Within twenty years his armies, with Finnish riders among them, made Sweden one of the great powers of Europe. At home, Turku became the place where Finland was governed, judged, preached to and taught.
A new king and an empire
- A teenage king. Gustav II Adolf became king on 30 October 1611, at sixteen. He took over wars with Denmark, Russia and Poland Well documented.
- Peace in the east. The war with Russia ended with the Peace of Stolbovo on 9 March 1617. Sweden gained Kexholm and Ingria, and Russia lost its coast on the Baltic Sea Well documented.
- A great power. Historians date Sweden’s time as a great power from Gustav II Adolf’s reign until 1721. Finland was part of the realm all that time Well documented.
- Into Germany. In 1630 Sweden joined the Thirty Years’ War, the great war between Catholic and Protestant states in Germany. The king won at Breitenfeld in 1631 and was killed at Lützen on 6 November 1632 Well documented.
“Hakkaa päälle!”
- Riders from Finland. Finland sent soldiers to every one of these wars. The best known were the Finnish cavalry. From 1629 Torsten Stålhandske served in the Nyland and Tavastehus Cavalry Regiment, and he later led the Finnish riders Well documented.
- A name from a war cry. The riders charged shouting “Hakkaa päälle!”, “Cut them down!”. Foreigners made a nickname out of the cry Well documented.
- The cost at home. Every war needed men. Farms had to send soldiers, and many of them never came home Well documented.
Did they call themselves hakkapeliitat?
Probably not. The nickname was given by foreigners, and the Finnish form hakkapeliitta became common only in the 1800s, when the riders of the Thirty Years’ War were turned into national heroes.
Turku’s new institutions
- A court for all Finland. In 1623 Turku got a court of appeal, the second in the realm after Stockholm’s of 1614. Appeals from all over Finland were now heard in Turku, not across the sea Well documented.
- A strict bishop. Isaacus Rothovius, a Swede, was Bishop of Turku from 1627 to 1652. He did not speak Finnish, and at first he wrote that he lived “among barbarians and scorpions”. He set out to make the clergy better educated and the people more disciplined Well documented.
- Know your place. From 1632 a seating plan decided who sat where in the Cathedral. The best pews went to those of highest rank, and seats had to be paid for Well documented.
- A school, then a university. In 1630 Rothovius turned the Cathedral School into a gymnasium. In 1640 Queen Christina founded the Royal Academy of Turku, Finland’s first university (stop 17) Well documented.
- A town on the map. Olof Gangius drew the first known map of Turku in 1634. Merchants from Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland settled in the town during the 1600s Well documented.
- A new clock. Rothovius restored the Cathedral after fire damage and gave it a new organ. In 1638 its tower got its first clock face Well documented.
How do we know?
The court of appeal kept careful records, but almost all of its archive burned in the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. Its early work has to be pieced together from what survived elsewhere.