The Battle of Falun was the first battle of the Swedish War of Liberation

Swedish War of Liberation

The Swedish War of Liberation , , was a civil war in which the Swedish nobleman Gustav Vasa successfully deposed the Danish king Christian II as regent of the Kalmar Union in Sweden. The war started in January 1521 when Gustav Vasa was appointed "hövitsman" over Dalarna. After Gustav Vasa sacked...

 that took place in Falun

Falun

Falun is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 36,447 inhabitants in 2005. It is also the capital of Dalarna County...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 on February 5, 1521. Swedish rebels under Gustav Vasa, who had just days earlier been proclaimed leader of the Dalecarlians

Dalarna

', English exonym: Dalecarlia, is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. Another English language form established in literature is the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia exist in the United States....

 against the Danes

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, raided Falun. The rebels, consisting of a few hundred poorly-armed peasants and some noble

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

 officers, took the Danish forces in the town completely by surprise. The local fogde

Vogt

A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

 Kristoffer Olsson and a few others labelled as "traitors" were captured. Local shops run by German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 merchants were plundered, and the population taxed

Revolutionary tax

Revolutionary tax is a major form of funding for violent non-state actors such as guerrilla and terrorist organizations. Those outside the organization may consider it to be a euphemism for "protection money"....

.

The rebels continued onwards through the region, gaining many new recruits. Within short they returned to Falun, and the locals pledged allegiance to Gustav Vasa and his cause. The rebellion continued until the Treaty of Malmö

Treaty of Malmö

The Treaty of Malmö , signed on 1 September 1524, ended the Swedish War of Liberation. Denmark-Norway acknowledged the independent status of Sweden, which in turn renounced claims to Scania and Blekinge. The difficult question of the control of Gotland was deferred to later occasion, to be refereed...

 in 1524. A year earlier, in 1523, Vasa was crowned King of Sweden.