Editing Stade (section)

===Swedish fortress===
Stade's heyday lasted until the [[Thirty Years' War]]. In 1628 [[Johann t’Serclaes von Tilly|Tilly]] conquered the town; shortly thereafter, [[Sweden]] took possession of it until 1636. After a period of Danish occupation, Sweden finally recaptured it in 1643 and was also officially granted possession of it, together with the [[Archbishopric of Bremen]], in the [[Peace of Westphalia]]. Two-thirds of the town were razed in the great town fire on 26 May 1659. The town was rebuilt again to the same plan.

From 1675 to 1676, in the [[Swedish-Brandenburg War]], Swedish Stade was conquered during a [[Bremen-Verden Campaign|campaign]] by [[Denmark-Norway]] and several states of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and remained in allied hands until the end of that war in 1679. Stade, as the headquarters of the Swedish Stadhalter, was besieged from early April 1676 to 13 Aug 1676. In the wake of the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1679)|Treaty of Saint Germain]] in 1679, Stade was once again awarded to Sweden.

The Elbe customs station near Stade, in Brunshausen at the mouth of the Schwinge, played special role in trading on the River Elbe from the period of the archbishopric. In 1663, the Swedes stationed an Elbe customs frigate as a permanent patrol ship. This arrangement continued to exist under various rulers until 1850 and the customs station on the Schwinge fieldworks itself existed until 1865.<ref name="Graewe">Richard Graewe: ''Die zweihundertjährige Geschichte der Elb-Zoll-Fregatte zu Brunshausen und ihrer Kommandanten 1650–1850.'' Selbstverlag des Stader Geschichts- und Heimatvereins, Stade 1963</ref>

<!-- [[File:Friedensvertrag 1719 Stockholm.png|thumb|Copy of the final page of the [[preliminary peace]] of Stockholm between Hanover-Great Britain and Sweden from 19 November 1719]] -->
Swedish sovereignty ended in 1712. Danish troops besieged the town in the [[Great Northern War]] and shelled it from 29 August to 7 September 1712 that destroyed 152 houses, a quarter of the built-up area.

During the Swedish times Stade was the capital of the province.