The Club War (also Cudgel War, Finnish Nuijasota, Swedish Klubbekriget) was a 1596 peasant uprising in the kingdom of Sweden against exploitation by nobility and military in what is today Finland. The name of the uprising derives from the fact that the peasants could not afford Zweihander swords, mounts and lances or muskets that could reliably penetrate the plate armour of the knights, thus they armed themselves with maces, iron cudgels and other blunt weapons. The peasants took up residence in Nokia Manor and won several skirmishes against small cavalry forces, but were decisively defeated by Clas Fleming[1] on January 1–2, 1597. Their leader Jaakko Ilkka[1] fled, but was captured a few weeks later and executed. A second wave of insurgents suffered a decisive loss at Ilmajoki in the Battle of Santavuori on February 24. In total almost 3 000 people died in the rebellion.
The insurgents were mostly Finnish peasants from Ostrobothnia, Northern Tavastia, and Savo. Tired of the hardships of the Russo-Swedish War of 1590–1595, they were disappointed to find out that they were still required to provide food, transport, and lodging for a sizable army even after the Treaty of Tyavzino. The insurgents also complained that soldiers abused the system of taxation by taking by force more than to which they were legally entitled. The events can also be seen as a part of a larger power struggle between King Sigismund, whom Fleming powerfully supported, and Duke Charles, who expressed sympathy for the peasants' cause but was unable to intervene militarily.
In his groundbreaking work Nuijasota, sen syyt ja tapaukset (1857–1859), historian and prominent fennoman Yrj Sakari Yrj-Koskinen saw the peasants as fighting for freedom and justice. Albert Edelfelt's Poltettu kyl (1879) depicts a woman, a child, and an old man hiding behind a rock as a village burns in the background. The poet Kaarlo Kramsu praised the insurgents and lamented their defeat in patriotic poems such as Ilkka, Hannu Krankka, and Santavuoren tappelu, published in Runoelmia (1887). After the Finnish Civil War, the debate has centered around an interpretation that emphasizes Duke Charles's role in inciting the revolt, as found in Pentti Renvall's Kuninkaanmiehi ja kapinoitsijoita Vaasa-kauden Suomessa (1949); and an explanation that stresses the roots of the rebellion in class conflict, as argued by Heikki Ylikangas in Nuijasota (1977).
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- ^ a b Names recorded in the conflict differ between history-writing in Sweden and in Finland. Clas Eriksson Fleming is more often referred to, partly erroneously, by the Finnish version of his name "Klaus Fleming", this article uses his original Swedish name. Whereas Jaakko Ilkka is referred to in Swedish by Jacob Ilkka, or Jakob Bengtsson Ilkka.
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