Kalmar Bloodbath (1505)

Kalmar Bloodbath (Swedish: Kalmar blodbad) was a politically motivated mass execution that was carried out in Kalmar, Sweden on July 1505. The public executions included that of the mayor of Kalmar, the city Councillors and a number of the leading burghers of Kalmar by John, King of Denmark, as retaliation for assisting the Swedes in retaking the city of Kalmar from the Danes in 1503.

In 1501, John, King of Denmark, who had also been king of Sweden since four years past, was deposed by the Swedish nobility who reinstated Sten Sture the Elder. In May 1504, peace was made between Sweden and Denmark on condition that a meeting by the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian Riksråd were to take place in Kalmar in July 1505. When the time came, the situation in Sweden was unstable and the Swedes cancelled the meeting. King John did not accept this and traveled to Kalmar with the Danish and Norwegian riksråd all the same. There, he assembled a court and judged the Swedish nobles Svante Nilsson (regent of Sweden), Nils Klausson, Sten Kristersson, Trotte Månsson (Eka), Erik Turesson, Åke Hansson (Thott), Erik Johansson Vasa, Tönne Eriksson (Thott) and Peder Turesson (Bielke) to confiscation and imprisonment for Lèse-majesté. To demonstrate power, he had the leading citizens of Kalmar arrested and executed for siding with the Swedes. [1] [2] [3] [4]