Loshult parish in Osby municipality, North of Scania
This page was updated September 24, 2025
Background Snapphane War 1675-79
Halland, Skåne and Bleking were Danish territories before they became Swedish,
Here are some highlights:
Landscape
Danish time
Transition to Sweden
Halland
ca 1000-t - 1645*
The Treaty of Brömsebro, 1645
Skåne
900 -1658
The Peace of Roskilde 1658
Blekinge
1000 -1658
The Peace of Roskilde 1658
*Halland was ceded to Sweden for 30 years at the Treaty of Brömdebro, which became permanent at the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658
Between 1564 and 1645, the provinces of Blekinge, Skåne and Halland had been ravaged several times by Swedish soldiers, or mercenaries in Swedish service.
The Scanian War 1675-1679
In 1675, Sweden was involved in a war with most of the Baltic Sea countries. The origin was that the Danes wanted to regain provinces that they had previously lost to Sweden, and gain dominion over the Baltic Sea. The Danes had occupied Gotland in the spring of 1676 and now also wanted to take back Skåne. The war was between Denmark-Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden, the theatre of war was mainly Skåne, Halland, Bohusland, and northern Germany.
At the same time, the resistance was growing mainly in Skåne and Blekinge, because the Swedes recruited soldiers mainly in these provinces, those who did not want to help the Swedes in the war formed freedom groups or, in their modern counterpart, the resistance movement, which was called Snapphanar by the Swedes; consisted of three different groups:
In the initial phase, it was farmers who went out of their houses to protect their homeland
Regular free-shooting groups, vika consisted of peasant boys who had enlisted in the arm of the Danish king, and received salute from Copenhagen.
The longer the wars lasted, the third group became larger and consisted of purely criminal elements who resorted to violent methods to survive, here were farmers who had been evicted from their farms, ordinary thieves, deserters, and others
This was the origin of Karl XI's war chest being stolen.
Loshultskuppen 24 July 1676
Kupp = coup or hold-up, robbery
Photo of illustration, of the coup itself in 1676, made 97 signature not legible, can be found on the information board in Loshult, photo Robert Wennerberg 2025..
Some highlights:
The Danes first landed in Ystad, then Råå at the end of June 1676
Karl XI led his troops back towards Kristianstad and camped there on 2 July.
In mid-July, only Landskrona, Kastell and Malmö as well as northeastern Skåne were under Swedish control.
Most of the Danish army besieged Lanskrona.
Reconnaissance detachments went out from Landskrona in different directions, to find out what the Swedes were doing.
Major General Anders Sandberg arrived in Västra Vram on 21 July, and reported to the Danish king Christian V that the Swedes were east of Kristianstad.
On 23 July, Major General Sandberg left a guard force of 150 men to keep an eye on the Swedes, the others withdrew towards Landskrona.
On July 23, Karl XI broke up the camp at Fjälkinge and marched east, due to poor information about what was happening in western Skåne and the rumor that the Danes would land in Blekinge.
On July 24 they reached Norje and on the 26th they reached Karlshamn.
This was the situation when the Swedish subordinate force marched from Småland towards Loshult to join Karl XI's forces at Kristianstad.
Karl XI maintains transport from Sweden
Karl XI's maintenance transport, better known as Karl XI's war chest, consisted not only of money, but also provisions and ammunition,
No one on the Swedish side seemed to be worried at this point that the local population was planning some kind of action against the transport.
On July 20, the county governor Olof Jönsson appeared in Källsved at the court in Broby to demand payment of taxes from the people of Loshult and Osby, something he would not have done if the whole of Östra Göinge was in rebellion against the Swedes. The newly appointed Danish bailiff in Färs district reported, on July 23, that the Swedes were still in control of Göinge and where they plundered and collected taxes from the population.
The course of events on the Swedish side:
On July 21, the Swedish transport manager, Life Guard Captain Gustaf Lilleström, came to Loshult to get a ride for further transport to Kristianstad.
21 July Karl XI sends a letter to the governor of Växjö with orders to block the road across the border at Loshult to prevent a Danish advance, and that the army planned to retreat towards Karlskrona from Kristianstad.
July 23 The letter reaches Governor Fleming, and caused a great stir because of the expensive transport in the area.
July 23 County Governor Fleming sends a courier to Loshult with orders to bring the expensive transport back across the border.
On July 24, the lengthy work of bringing the transport back to Småland began, whether this was due to Fleming's orders or local warnings that convinced Lilleström is difficult to say.
Igniting the spark for the Loshultkuppen?
What lit the spark?
What is the county governor's demand at the court on July 20?
Was there a general dissatisfaction among the Göninge farmers against the Swedish advances?
One can draw conclusions from the above time scale that the course of the foal race was much faster and more spontaneous.
The oldest known information about the Loshult coup dates from 6 September 1676, when the Benarp farmer Per Svenson wrote to the Danish king and demanded a reward for conveying the news of the Swedish transport to Vä, participating in the coup and then accompanying the Swedes to Landskrona. Which is well in line with other testimonies at the interrogations in 1684.
Notice board at Loshults church photo: Robert Wennerberg 2025
Keep points at the coup itself
A Swedish transport column consisting of at least 100–150 wagons (often 250) had set up camp at Loshult church. The cargo contained plates and silver pennies worth at least 28,600 daler, Karl XI's tents, ammunition and more. The guard consisted of about 20 Swedish soldiers.
Gathering and intelligence The rumor of the almost unguarded war chest spread among the local population. Farmers from Osby, Loshult, Hästveda and Broby parishes sent messengers to Landskrona to get support from the Danish king Christian V's troops. After a few weeks, a small Danish party and about 150 farmers from Göing gathered to plan the attack.
The main attack on 24 July The attack took place at dawn at the church ruins. The Swedish guards were caught off guard and nine soldiers were killed in the first wave of attacks. The survivors withdrew across the border to Småland, leaving most of the transport behind.
The raiders broke into the barrels with copper plates and white coins, loaded wagons and sacks, and snatched up tents and ammunition. Everyone took as much as they could bear before retreating to safety – the hold-up was completed in just a few hours.
Second looting in Älmhult The Crown's men tried to transport the remaining money back to Älmhult, but this time too the transport was taken by surprise. Småland who had followed the wagon column made a new attack and seized what remained of the war chest.
An investigation was not initiated until the 1680s, but only a small part (4,000–7,000 daler) could be returned to the crown. Most of it disappeared without a trace; Finds of copper plates from the heist have been made as late as 1996 northeast of Älmhult.
