The purpose of this thesis is to study the 2021 documentary series Stockholm’s blodbad – Kampen om tronen from a historical cultural perspective using narrative analysis and film theory. The foundation for the analysis is to be found in Jörn Rüsen’s definition of history culture, where historical narratives are seen as part of a collective identity, and where different dimensions of history culture are balanced to create an impression of truth. The aim is to explore how the documentary series is part of and dependent on the historical cultural context in which it was created, and also to problematize this situation.

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.

<p>The study examines the massacre of the garrison of the castle of Kalmar in 1525 and its causes. The goal of the investigation has been on the one hand to elucidate the most probable sequence of events, and on the other to identify as many different plausible explanations to the massacre as possible. For this end, four contemporary sources have been examined and compared in their details. To enable a broad basis for interpretation, the author has consulted various works on the themes of warfare, soldiers and violence in the late middle ages and the sixteenth century. Apart from political aspects, the study highlights social and cultural conditions as important factors in explaining how the massacre could be carried out without provoking any single part of society. Among these are found the idea of the perceived natural ferocity of siege warfare, the exposed position of soldiers in general and the low status of lansquenets in particular, as well as the increasing general acceptance of executions and retributional violence.The paper finishes with a discussion on the importance of the event under investigation as part of a greater whole, and asks whether or not it is worthy of the sparsely used label of ”blood bath”. In relation to this, the author inquires for an expanded historical debate on the relationship between cultural and social values and conditions, and the use of violence in society.</p>

The study examines the massacre of the garrison of the castle of Kalmar in 1525 and its causes. The goal of the investigation has been on the one hand to elucidate the most probable sequence of events, and on the other to identify as many different plausible explanations to the massacre as possible. For this end, four contemporary sources have been examined and compared in their details. To enable a broad basis for interpretation, the author has consulted various works on the themes of warfare, soldiers and violence in the late middle ages and the sixteenth century. Apart from political aspects, the study highlights social and cultural conditions as important factors in explaining how the massacre could be carried out without provoking any single part of society. Among these are found the idea of the perceived natural ferocity of siege warfare, the exposed position of soldiers in general and the low status of lansquenets in particular, as well as the increasing general acceptance of executions and retributional violence.The paper finishes with a discussion on the importance of the event under investigation as part of a greater whole, and asks whether or not it is worthy of the sparsely used label of ”blood bath”. In relation to this, the author inquires for an expanded historical debate on the relationship between cultural and social values and conditions, and the use of violence in society.