Battle of Stångebro
| Battle of Stångebro | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War against Sigismund | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Polish–Swedish union | Swedish separatists | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Sigismund III | Duke Charles | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 5,200–8,000 men | 9,000–12,000 men | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 500 killed, wounded, or captured |
40 killed 200 wounded | ||||||||
The Battle of Stångebro, or the Battle of Linköping, took place at Linköping, Sweden, on 25 September 1598 (O.S.) and effectively ended the personal union between Sweden and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, that had existed since 1592. In the battle, an army of c. 8,000–12,000 commanded by Duke Charles defeated a mixed force of c. 5,000–8,000 consisting of an invading army of mercenaries in the king's employ and diverse but poorly co-ordinated supporting Swedish noblemen's forces commanded by King of both Sweden and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Sigismund III Vasa, who was acting to maintain and restore his personal union against anti-Catholic forces in Lutheran Sweden. The Swedish king's general Constantin fought at the western bridge.
The battle was the beginning of the seven decades long Polish–Swedish Wars, which eventually destroyed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, at the time, arguably the largest nation state in Europe and also led to fall of Swedish Empire in 1721. Like the Thirty Years' War which also involved Sweden, under the surface, the dynastic struggles were rooted firmly in religious strife between Protestants and Roman Catholics during the ongoing European wars of religion.
Sigismund was captured during the battle, but as the Polish–Lithuanian crowned head of state, was allowed to return to the commonwealth. He had engendered the civil war by violating his pledge to not interfere in religious matters in Sweden, nor to further the Catholic Counter-Reformation in Sweden.