Åbo Bloodbath

The Åbo Bloodbath of 10 November 1599 was a public execution in the town of Turku (Åbo), Finland, then part of the Kingdom of Sweden, in the context of the war against Sigismund. Sweden was by then in the final phase of a civil war, with one faction supporting King Sigismund III Vasa, who also was King and Grand Duke of Poland–Lithuania, and another faction supporting Duke Charles of Södermanland, the later Charles IX, Sigismund's paternal uncle. After winning the upper hand in the dispute, Charles crushed the last resistance to his rule, particularly in Finland, while Sigismund had already retreated to Poland.