Collective identities, integration and resistance during the Scanian war 1676-1679

Abstract

In the first part of this thesis I will take into consideration the development of the snaphane movement from the end of the Scandinavian (Kalmar) Union until the last snaphane trials at the beginning of the 18th century. However, the emphasis will be on the Scanian War when the King’s Friskytter Corps was established, and more specifically on the time from the battle of Lund in December 1676 until approximately the execution of baron Krabbe in January 1678, a period that was crucial and which saw both the foundation of the official Friskytter Corps and the radicalisation of the Swedish measures against all friskytter and snaphaner. The snaphaner/friskytter were generally perceived of as profoundly anti-Swedish. If one asks what it meant to be anti-Swedish one must also ask what it meant to be Swedish, Danish or Scanian at the time. It is important to stress that I do not take for granted that the snaphaner/friskytter were anti-Swedish but only that they were accused of being so by the Swedes. I have intentionally paid particular attention to the 'dark and bloody dimensions' of the Scanian War: it is not the main theme of the thesis but a minor theme. To me it is obvious that all wars have dark and bloody dimensions and I cannot see why it should be wrong to analyse them as long as one is honest and clear about one’s sources and theoretical framework. Whatever has been written on the snaphaner before has yes, described executions and torture, but not researched the gradual acceleration of violence on both sides, nor what led to it or how it was related to the development of the war in general. Nor has there been any sort of analysis of the 'demonisation of the snaphaner' on the Swedish side as compared to attempts to 'normalise the snaphaner' on the Danish side. I have tried to interpret the workings of the demonisation process and to make clear that it is a process that is characteristic of that kind of situations and also to refer to the religious importance it had to be able to classify the snaphaner as non members of the Christian community.