AAR Battle at Helgeandsholmen 21 August 1463

Here comes the AAR from our latest Kalmar Union War game using the Hail Caesar rules.

Background
In 1459 the Union/Danish King Christian I got the opportunity to inherit Schleswig, but he had to pay off some of he´s relatives. The price however, was astronomical, 123000 guilders, equivalent to 30750 silver marks or six tons of silver!!! and this would be borne by the Union population. All citizens in Denmark and Sweden had to pay extra taxes to cover for the cost...

The increased tax burden in Sweden met with resistance. 1463 imposed an additional tax of 12 cents for each tax farmer and 6 cents for every country people. When the Allmoge in Uppland protested violently, declared Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson (Oxenstierna) that the tax was abolished.

When King Christian returned to Stockholm the Archbishop was imprisoned and taken to Denmark. Uppland Allmoge marched to Stockholm and camped on Norrmalm. Under the leadership of the Swedish Marshal Ture Turesson (Bielke) the Kings soldiers attacked the Allmoge on August 21 at Helgeandsholmen just outside the Stockholm city walls...

Opposing Armies
As there is no true historical account of which and how many participated in the battle, I have based the army lists on the minis I had available at the moment, The scenario at the end have a different OOB then the one we used in this AAR, it was my firts intentiobn but I diden´t have time to finish all minis...

As Commander for the Allmoge I have put relatives to the Imprisoned Archbishop that had estates in Uppland and had the possibility to influence the Allmoge to a rebellion.

The Rebel Allmoge army was attacked from two directions. One force attacked from Stockholm under command of the Danish Marshal Claus Rönnow and one was the reinforcements attack by the Knechts under command of Swedish Marshal Ture Turesson (Bielke) that was returning back from an attack on the Archbishops fortress at Almarestäket...

Order of Battle Union

Command of Claus Rönnow, Defenders of Stockholm
2 Units of Mercenarys halberdmen and crossbowmen
1 Small Unit of Mercenary Handguners

Command of C-in-C Ture Turesson (Bielke), Reinforcements
2 Small Units of Knechts
1 Small Unit of Mercenary Handguners

Order of Battle Rebels

Command of C-in-C Kristiern Bengtsson (Oxenstierna) Brother to Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson (Oxenstierna)
2 Units of Allmoge
1 Small unit of Allmoge skirmishers

Command of Erik Nilsson (Oxenstierna) Cousin to Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson (Oxenstierna)
2 Units of Allmoge

The game starts when the Defenders of Stockholm have deployed outside the city walls to engage the rebels according to map.

The Union reinforcements will enter on a roll of 4,5 or 6 in turn 2, on 3,4,5 or 6 in turn 3 and in turn 4 they will enter automatically. The Rebels has the first turn...

The rebells on Brunkebergsåsen leave theris night camp and start to move against the Bridge to Helgeandsholmen. They are going to reinforce the allmoge units that got over during the night...

The defender of Stockholm just await to have theirs reinforcement to arrive...

The Danish 2nd in command decide that he will try to deffeat the rebel force on Helgeandsholmen before they can get theirs reinforcements over the bridge...

The battle start out with some missile fire from both sides, the rebell allmoge got the uper edge and manage to break!!! one of the Danish mercenary units, due to poor morale. The mercenary unit flees back behind the safty of the Stockholm City Wall...

With one mercenary unit taken care of the Rebell commander order a charge!!! a fierce hand to hand combat that last for several turns begins...

At last! The Danish Reinforcements arrives, but they have left the Knights back at the camp... The commander Ture Turesson Bielke was a keen fighter so we gave him +3 if he joins a combat, all other commander only added +1.

Ture Turesson orders he´s Knecht to advance against the supprised Allmoge.

Then he order he´s mercenary handgunners to make a advance to the left...but they "missunderstod" the order and as they already got all the loot they could carry, by ransacking the Archbishops estate, they decided to go back to the camp and party with the Knights...

At Helgeandsholmen the rebell allmoge had managed to defeat the last danish mercenary unit, chasing them back behind the city walls...

Battle field overview. The Danish Knecht preper themself for a charge that will puch the allmoge down in "norrström" i.e. the north stream...

The Knecht charged but was repulsed, both units shaken...even though Ture Tureson Bielke was leading from the front adding 3 attacks...

With 2 mercenary infantry units Broken, the 2 units of Knechts shaken and all mercenary handgunners of to party, the Danish commandes shoose to call it a day...

It was a realy nice and intense game, but I think it would have turned out more to history i.e Ture Turesson Bielke and he´s Knechts and Knights massacred the allmoge. The Union Soldiers even entered the Helgeandhouse and killed enemy´s that had seek sanctuary in the chapel after this event Ture Turesson Bielke was known as infamous "allmoge butcher"...