Åbo Bloodbath
1599 public execution in Turku (Åbo), Finland / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Åbo Bloodbath (Swedish: Åbo blodbad; Finnish: Turun verilöyly) of 10 November 1599 was a public execution in the Finnish town of Turku (Åbo), then part of the Kingdom of Sweden, in the context of the War against Sigismund. Sweden was by then in the final phase of a civil war, with one faction supporting King Sigismund III Vasa, who also was King and Grand Duke of Poland–Lithuania, and another faction supporting Duke Charles of Södermanland, the later Charles IX, Sigismund's paternal uncle. After winning the upper hand in the dispute, Charles crushed the last resistance to his rule, particularly in Finland, while Sigismund had already retreated to Poland.
The forces opposing Charles in Finland were led by Arvid Stålarm and Axel Kurck (Kurk), who both became Charles' prisoners after the surrender of Åbo castle and further strongholds. Together with other prisoners, including two sons of Finland's previous commander, Clas (Klaus) Fleming, they were tried by a jury speedily assembled from Charles' followers, and sentenced to death. Fleming's sons and twelve others were then beheaded in Åbo's Town Hall Square, while Stålarm and Kurck were sent to Linköping where they were tried and condemned again along with other captured opposition leaders. However, Stålarm and Kurck also survived the subsequent Linköping bloodbath.