Sture Murders by Erik XIV

Date: May 24, 1567 • Location: Uppsala, Sweden

The mentally ill King Erik XIV of Sweden (pictured) and his guards murdered five incarcerated nobles, including some members of the influential Sture family.

Erik XIV or Eric XIV became King of Sweden following the death of his father, Gustav I, on 29 September 1560. During his reign, Erik sought to centralize royal authority and expand Swedish influence in the Baltic region, incorporating Reval and northern Estonia into the realm in 1561 to lay the foundations of the Swedish Baltic Empire. To consolidate control, he enacted the Articles of Arboga (1561), which restricted the political power of his half-brothers. His ambitions to control Baltic trade routes also led Sweden into the Northern Seven Years' War (1563–1570) against Denmark–Norway and Lübeck.