The Stockholm Bloodbath on November 7–9, 1520, during which Kristian II had more than 100 persons executed on charges of heresy, is a turning point in the history of the Northern kingdoms. This bloodbath eventually led to Kristian II’s lifelong incarceration, the rise of the Swedish Vasa dynasty, and the end of the Kalmar Union. It has commonly been perceived both as part of Swedish-Danish conflict and also as part of a Swedish civil war. In this volume, fifteen researchers offer new insights both into the events themselves and also, most significantly, into their background and aftermath, which stretch far beyond Stockholm and the year 1520.

This chapter discusses three types of welfare cities in Sweden. These types offer different administrative and constitutional solutions to the cities’ role in organizing welfare. This welfare has always been part of urban life. The industrialization of Sweden, however, was followed by a modernization of the nation-state that affected the agency of cities in different ways, because welfare was defined by the state. In consequence, its implementation caused major changes in municipal structures, which effectively diminished urban agency. These changes resulted in different municipal reforms (1862, 1952 and 1971) that were meant to create municipalities able to administer welfare on behalf of the state. The new constitution in 1974, however, explicitly protected the municipal self-government as a cornerstone of Swedish democracy. What is more, the municipal reforms as well as 1974’s constitution are deliberately vague, offering agency on behalf of the ‘cities’, which can be used to fill the municipal self-government with new meanings. Even in the twenty-first century, matters of welfare are at the core of urban politics, creating new fabrics of municipal and state institutions. Traditional welfare providers such as the church as well as other institutions belonging to the civil society gain influence, once again.