”En fullkomligh Frijdh” : En skala av fred under de nordiska krigen

Peace as a concept usually ends up taking the back seat in the numerous studies of war and conflict. The definition of peace is often dependant on the definition of war, violence and/or conflict. The purpose of this thesis is to study the concept of peace during the Northern Wars and its Early modern attributes. The chosen time periods, the Second Northern War (1655-1660) and the Great Northern War (1700-1721), offer the possibility to study the change in the conception of peace over time and how the international political situation affects the description of peace. Every year, starting with Gustav I of Sweden, the Swedish monarchy wrote letters that were read by the priests to the general public, explaining the international situation and any predicaments in which the state found itself. The letters are called Böndagsplakat in Swedish, which roughly translate to “prayerday placard”, drawing its name from the prayer days proclaimed at the end of each letter. Previous research has shown that the purpose of these placards was to legitimise the actions of the monarchy and to have a long term effect on the general values of the public. The Swedish army relied heavily on the peasantry both financially and for recruitment which makes the official letters an important tool for the monarchy. Therefore this material is suitable for a hermeneutic inspired text analysis and a comparative study between the different wars. The results in the thesis are based on the descriptions of peace in the placards from the final stages of both wars (1658-1663 and 1717-1723) when the issue of peace is visible both before and after the peace treaties. This study shows that peace isn’t a static concept and that the description of peace is affected by the political situation. It is given different attributes which don’t necessarily rely on the definition of its counterpart war. The descriptions of peace also have different nuances depending on the political need to continue the war or end it, and it can be placed on a scale from a cease-fire to a complete perpetual peace. Peace, just like war, is a complex and historically changeable concept that needs a front row seat together with the studies of war