Puke feud
The Pukefehde ( Swedish Pukefejden ) was an uprising in Sweden in the 1430s. On one side stood Erik Puke with his followers and on the other side Karl Knutsson (Bonde) with his followers.
Meeting in Söderköping
The differences of opinion between Erik Puke and Broder Svensson on the one hand and Reichsmarschall Karl Knutsson on the other were great. Also Bengt Stensson and his son Måns Bengtsson , the murderer of Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson were at the meeting in Söderköping present with. Erik Puke blamed them for the death of Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, but no further action was taken in the matter.
The big point of contention was the distribution of the lands, which had become free after Engelbrektsson's death, among the greats of the country. Many were dissatisfied, including Broder Svensson, a knight of the Kalmar Union who had joined the Engelbrekt revolt . He threatened Karl Knutsson with violence if he redistributed the land in his own favor. Bonde responded by arresting Broder and beheading him the next morning. Erik Puke, on the other hand, who had made similar demands, was spared, probably because he had great support from the peasantry and the miners. Puke was allowed to keep the land that had belonged to him until then.
Bloody power struggle
After the meeting, Erik Puke mobilized his supporters in Arboga , Köping and Örebro and began an unsuccessful siege of Örebro Castle. He then moved to Västerås , but did not succeed in defeating the defense there, despite help from the local population. Then Erik Puke moved to Dalarna to gather reinforcements. There he was joined by Vogt Hans Mårtensson .
When Karl Knutsson came to Västerås with his large army, four farmers were chosen at random, put before a court martial and then burned alive.
In Mälardalen , Karl Knutsson succeeded in recruiting even more masses to his troops, and in January 1437 he set out with his armed forces to Dalarna to meet the troops of Erik Puke there. In the bloody battle at Hällaskogen that followed , Erik Puke's people put up bitter resistance. Karl Knutsson lost many warriors before retiring.
negotiations
The morning after the battle he sent messengers to Erik Puke with an offer to meet. To ensure the safety of the partners at this meeting, hostages were exchanged. But the meeting was fruitless. Erik Puke tried to gain time with the negotiations as he was waiting for reinforcements from Hälsingland and Gästrikland . Karl Knutsson, however, lost patience and threatened to attack again. However, it was not so easy for him to put his plan into practice because his knights were no longer very willing to continue fighting after the battle of Hällaskogen. Erik Puke, who believed that an attack was imminent, now saw that his reinforcements would no longer arrive in time. For this reason he became convinced that it would be better to get involved in new negotiations in Västerås. A letter of safe conduct that Puke had received from Archbishop Olov Larsson and Bishop Thomas Simonsson from Strängnäs was supposed to guarantee his safety. Together with Hans Mårtensson, Puke selected some proposals for the negotiations and went to Västerås.
The betrayal
The negotiations were initially conducted in a monastery. But after a fire that was believed to have been set broke out there, it was decided to move the negotiations to Västerås Castle. As soon as Erik Puke got there, he was attacked and taken prisoner. Karl Knutsson sentenced Hans Mårtensson and his entourage to death by stake : that they may die soon. Erik Puke was transferred to Stockholm, where he was sentenced to death by Reichsdrost Christer Nilsson . The judgment was carried out in February 1437.
It is unclear whether Olov Larsson and Thomas Simonsson intervened on the matter. Both are said to have accused each other for their respective part in Puke's death.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erik Tuneld: Geografi öfver konungariket Sverige . 8th edition. tape 2 . Ecksteinska tryckeriet, Stockholm 1928.
- ^ Dick Harrison: Karl Knutsson - en biografi . Historiska media, Lund, Sweden 2002, ISBN 91-89442-58-X .