Jaakko Ilkka

Jaakko Pentinpoika Ilkka (1550s, Ilmajoki – late January, 1597, Isokyrö) was a wealthy Ostrobothnian landowner and leader of the Cudgel War, a 16th-century Finnish peasant revolt against Swedish rule.

The Cudgel War began on Christmas Eve 1595 and was initially successful, with the rebels winning some infantry battles, forcing Fleming into peace negotiations.

After the fortress had been set ablaze by the Swedes, Fleming called on the rebels to surrender Ilkka to him to avoid being killed en masse.

Nevertheless, Ilkka was captured again and was executed with five other rebel leaders on January 27, 1597, by Swedish army officer Abraham Melkiorsson [sv].

A letter written by Fleming on January 27, 1597, ordering his troops to capture Ilkka alive, reached Melkiorsson after he had already killed the rebel leader.

He says that the heroic portrayal of Ilkka is an oversimplification of the actual history driven by nationalist ideology by early Finnish historians, who were targeting the Finnish-speaking population.

One of them, the eponymous Jaakko Ilkka by Jorma Panula, was composed in 1977 and 1978, and was well-known through its performance at the Ilmajoki Music Festival in 1978, directed by the major Finnish director Edvin Laine.