The Swedish king, after spreading royal propaganda to win over the population and turn them against Dacke, breaks the ceasefire in January 1543 and sends a new and larger army into the rebellious area.

Dacke, overconfident after earlier successes, meets the Royal army in a pitched battle in March.

The trained soldiers fighting on their own terms shatter the peasant army and Dacke is severely wounded.

The rebellion is all but over after this defeat, and Dacke becomes an outlaw.

While trying to escape from the king's mercenaries, Dacke is shot and killed on the border between the two nowadays southern Swedish provinces Småland and Blekinge, a border between Sweden and Denmark.

Dacke had not been executed, but his body is nvertheless dismembered and the parts sent for public display in larger communities that had supported him during the rebellion.

Gustav Vasa orders the annihilation of Dacke's entire family, and the execution of other peasant leaders, but is milder against those who have given themselves up.

The unity of the realm is thus restored.

Gustavus compels Småland’s citizens to pay severe financial retribution, but does, however, moderate his autocratic rule from this point forward, reducing his reliance on foreign mercenaries in the army in favor of soldiers of Swedish extraction (many of which will be recruited in Småland).

This lays the foundation for Sweden's military successes in later wars.