To protect the king - origins of the Swedish Life Guards
16 ”good men” were chosen to protect the rebellion's young leader. This would be the foundation of a regiment that would follow Swedish kings into battle for hundreds of years to come.
Here’s how I created this famous unit in 28mm for the wargame table.
The crowds watch as the kings life guard march into the capital on Midsummer's day. Stockholm, June 24 1523. On June 6 Gustav Vasa had been elected king of Sweden and on June 17 the Danish garrison had surrendered Stockholm.
“There he met the noblest in all parishes both east and west in Dalarna, they agreed and elected him to be Sweden’s commander and swore him obedience and allegiance, they gave him 16 good young men to serve and protect him.”
That’s how Peder Svart, Gustav Vasa’s chronicler, describes the formation of the would-be king's life guard in January of 1521 - a unit which still exists in modern Sweden. On St. George’s Day four older men were added to the small force as ”lijff achtare”, life guards. One of these was Måns Nilsson who I have already painted. The other was a man named Anders Persson who, just like Måns Nilsson, came from a wealthy family who owned mines in Dalarna. Gustav Vasa’s chronicler, Peder Svart, tells us that Anders and the future king had studied together in Uppsala. They met again during the rebellion when Gustav fled to Ander’s farm, Rankhyttan. Unsure of Anders loyalties, a disguised Gustav Vasa took service as a farm-worker at Rankhyttan but was later revealed by a maid. This is part of the mythos of Gustav and probably never happened, still an interesting part of how the king later liked to portray his rebellion.
Nevertheless Anders Persson was a life guard, as one of the ”men of age” he probably acted as a commander and one of Gustav’s close advisors. He continued to hold important positions through the 1520’s. We don’t really know but it’s possible that Anders increasingly started opposing Gustav Vasa’s new policies and taxes. During two rebellions in Dalarna he sided with the king but in 1531 the so-called ”the Bell rebellion”, Klockupproret, started (named so because it started with the government wanting to collect the church's bells as tax). Both Anders Persson and Måns Nilsson sided with the rebels and consequently lost their heads in 1534.
The life guard was increased by another 18 men at the same time as Gustav was chosen as regent of Sweden in Vadstena at the end of august of 1521. The new members were a mix of men from other parts of Sweden and some of the new German mercenaries, landsknechts, accompanying the rebellious army. The oldest list of members of the lifeguard we know of is from 1527. It is incomplete but lists 23 names, only eight are Swedish, the rest are German or Dutch.
As you can see the life guards, or drabants (possible trabant in English) as they were known after the meeting in Vadstena, was not a particularly large force. We don’t really know much about their responsibilities during the early part of their existence but I don’t think they as a unit had a role on the battlefield. Rather they functioned much like Napoleons Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard providing close security and escort to the king while he was on the move and acting as a guard force while he stayed at various places. It’s also possible that all of the members didn’t have a purely military role, as can be seen with Anders Persson above. Some might have acted as pages or svennar in general service to the king acting as everything from messengers to diplomats. They were also a reserve corps of experienced officers, hence the large proportion of landsknechts. I’ll talk more about the lifeguards as officers in a future article about fotgångare, literally foot walkers in Swedish, a new type of soldier in the 1520’s Sweden.
Role models
Why did Gustav Vasa create this body of troops one might ask? The concept of life guards certainly wasn’t something new but since the end of the 15th century permanent life guard units had been created in some of Europe's biggest and most influential monarchies.
Henry VII created the Yeomen of the Guard after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. These were inherited by his son Henry VIII who seem to have used them to impress foreign dignitaries. ”…passing down the ranks of the bodyguard, which consists of 300 halberdiers in silver breast-plates and pikes in their hands; and, by God, they were all as big as giants, so that the display was very grand” explained an ambassador from Venice. They were also present at his coronation in 1509 and his meeting with the French king Francis I in 1520 wearing scarlet and gold livery coats.
Francis I didn’t just have a life guard, he had two. The Cent Suisses, the hundred Swiss, were formed in 1480 and the Garde du Corps were originally founded from a company of Scottish archers in 1419. Three further companies were added over the next hundred years. Even a double bodyguard couldn’t help Francis from being captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 though. Charles V had his Imperial Guard present at his coronation as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in Bologna in 1530. The Papacy had its Swiss Guard, famous for its last stand in Rome in 1527.
From left to right: Yeomen of the Guard in the painting Field of the Cloth of Gold, unknown painter, circa 1545. Imperial Guard of Charles V, Nicolaus Hogenberg, circa 1536. Gardes Écossaises, Graham Turner, 2008.
These European forces were symbols of emerging modern states. They were paid for and loyal to the state, they were not the personal retinues of chieftains or warlords. Gustav was desperate for legitimacy as king in a country ravaged by rebellions and uprising and perhaps creating a troop of life guards fashioned after European role models was a way of creating that.
The miniatures and painting
Unfortunately the sources surrounding the life guard’s earliest decades are very sparse, as with much else in this period. There are no sources speaking of how the life guards were dressed or equipped during or right after Gustav’s rebellion. But basing my inspiration on the role models above I chose to depict the life guard with armoured landsknechts wearing long livery coats from Wargames Foundry. The standard bearer and mounted trumpeter are also from Foundry. The guy with the dog is from Warlord Games, sculpted by Paul Hicks for the old Pro Gloria Miniatures range. The officer, Anders Persson, is a fantastic miniature from Steel Fist Miniatures.
The flag is based on a painting of the siege of Narva in 1581 so a bit late for our period. Striped flags are know to have been used by Swedish kings since the 14th century though.
One reference to colour we have among the sources is when Gustav Vasa in 1540 met with the Danish king in Kalmar. Then the whole court, so presumably the life guard too, were ordered to wear “parrot green”. I’m not sure what colour that is exactly but I decided against it on the grounds that it might have looked a bit silly. Instead I took inspiration from one of the paintings from Göte Göransson’s book “Gustav Vasa and his people” depicting a party at Gripsholms castle in 1547. In it you can see several people from the king's court and staff, among them two guards. Their dress is in turn based on the clothing of the main character in the so-called Gripsholm suite, a series of paintings allegorically telling the tale of Gustav’s rebellion.
Detail from Gripsholm suite on the left and detail from Göte Göransson’s book “Gustav Vasa and his people” on the right.
I based the livery coats with Scale75 Deep Red, shaded with Nuln Oil and added Scale75 Blood Red to the Deep Red for further highlights. The last highlight was pure Blood Red. The black markings was painted with Vallejo Model Air Dark Sea Grey, shaded with Nuln Oil and highlighted with Vallejo Model Air Sea Grey. I wanted their breast plates and other metal parts to be very shiny so I based these with Games Workshop Runefang Steel and then used Tamiya Black Panel Liner to bring out some definition. The rest of the clothing on the miniatures I tried to paint as varied as I could without having it take over the main colour.
I painted the Vasa family heraldry on the trumpeters flag-thing.
I’ve used quite a lot of artistic freedom when creating this unit and the wargamer within me overcame the historian within me. At the same time I think I’ve created at least a plausible look for them, maybe not something they would wear everyday but certainly when entering Stockholm at the end of a successful campaign.
Since I haven’t settled on any rules to use for this project I haven’t based any of the miniatures I’ve recently completed. Moreover, most of the lifeguards will probably end up as officers in other units, among others the mysterious foot walkers, fotgångare. But more on that later.
Flags add movement and flair to wargames unit and here we take a deep dive into what we know about these in the late middle ages.