Hey all, since I'm away from a library which I have time and access to, and the only sources I routinely carry with me when I go adventuring (as I am now) are sagas, I don't really have any resources to research this. What I'm wondering is when native (that is, non-mercenary) cavalry became a frequent element of Scandinavian armies in the 12th-14th centuries. I'm familiar with German mercenaries appearing in some Danish forces in the mid-12th century, but nothing before then or further north until the Kalmar Union got rolling in the 15th century.
Full disclosure, this is going to help germinate an article on Scandinavian concepts of knighthood and whether or not it was initially linked to being a cavalry soldier, like on the Continent, or simply a concept inherited wholesale from the Anglo-French-German kingdoms.
Thanks!
the finnish were the most famous. and they probably existed well in the 15th century - the small population + the sheer size of the finnish/baltic/russian border would make cavalry rather than infantry necessary.
personally, as a swedish military historian I would connect the cavalry to having to fight the Poles during Charles IX's rebellion and then then prussian wars. infantry seems much more prevalent in sweden's 16th century armies and is not turned into a decisive arm until gustavus adolphus (and i have read more than one polish historian who argued he got the idea from polish armies which were infantry light but cavalry heavy)
by this time cavalry in germany was in the french/italian model. ride up, canter, shoot a pistol, ride away. the medieval knightly charge disappeared with Agincourt and the musket. the Swedes/Finns brought it back into western war in the 17th cen.
but polish, lithuanian, cossack and russian armies (and turks as well) had lots of light and heavy cav.