The purpose of this essay is to examine whether visiting noblemen at the castles of Borgholm and Kalmar with their vast network of acquaintances can determine a tendency towards a political stance in the civil war of Sweden in the late 16th century. This is done by examining the guests and the company of the bailiff, born as a commoner but later governor and nobleman, Christoffer Gyllengrip Andersson, who in the end of the century would perish in the same manner as many of the peerage who fell at the bloodbath of Linköping in the year 1600. The networks are analyzed with the help of accountings and census records from the above mentioned castles between the years 1579-1592 whereon by the year 1593 the following national as well as local events will be analyzed and presented until the year 1600. The essay shows that allegiance to one or the other side can be seen to certain degree in the presented era delving into Kalmar Castle generally, allthough the true nature of one’s political ideals become most visible in the later 1590s when the noblemen actually are forced to take sides, instead of the double-agent poppycock of which they were in the antecedent decade of 1580. The essay shows that the information given by the census-records can be anchored in history’s more famous line such as when Olof Andersson Oxehufvud (one of many) is assigned as governor in the year 1594 to prevent the eminent empowerment of his uncle Karl, Duke of Södermanland, Närke and Värmland.

Abstract This BA thesis treats, question and provides information about the war of Kalmar 1611-1613. The essential focus is directed towards battles between Sweden and Denmark, the battle took place in southern Sweden. Denmark attacked Sweden to preserve domination over the trading market in the Baltic Sea, Sweden had extended its trade area and therefore challenged Denmark. There are three purposes in the thesis, which origins within warfare and permeates the circumstances of two different battles. The first purpose problematises how Denmark managed to conquer the castle of Kalmar without facing difficulties, rumours have it that the governor was a traitor. His name was Christer Somme and the first purpose involves unveiling the truth behind the rumours. My theory is that Somme was innocent to the accusations but acted more like a coward, than a governor maybe should have acted. Regarding the other purposes of the essay, the Danish armies in Småland were forced to retreat away from the low-populated farming society. Sources say that it was because of the special warfare the farmers used that was the main reason behind a Danish retreat. The second purpose of the thesis examines if that was the only reason behind it, or if there were other underlying factors. For the last purpose, a map is drawn to point out the way of choice for the Danish army in Småland as for their retreat, the army was led by Gert Rantzau. The map contains explanations why he ended up choosing that path, the purpose also tries to explain why the Danish armies split up in Sweden both to the east and west. Limitations had to be made in order not to stray away too far from the subject, and there was not enough time to examine everything I wanted to. Therefore, I limited this historic event and chose to not involve several governors. Even though there are rumours about them being agents for Denmark as well, I chose the one that is most mentioned in this war. Regarding issue number two, it had to be limited to only focus upon the reasons why Rantzau was forced to retreat and not exactly how it happened. A limitation with purpose number three was applied to only track that specific part of the army which was led by Rantzau. That was necessary since the assault often was divided into several locations. It would have been hard to make it in time if I decided to chart the entire entity of Denmark’s forays plus King Kristian IV’s.