To study soldiers' women forming military households as a form of state building is an attempt to expand ‘the below’-perspective beyond its inherited reliance upon studies of ‘the local.’ Early modern state building meant the creation of several new such socio-economic niches, of which soldier's woman was one. After some theoretical and methodological discussion, it first establishes when and how soldier's woman became a socio-economic niche in early modern Sweden, before exploring the characteristics of that niche and the women who lived in it. Compared to other urban settings, soldiers' women should thus be more common in Stockholm – which is why there is a sufficient volume of records available to be analysed to begin with. Viewing early modern military household formation as everyday politics of state building thus shows how its results could be unintended not just from below, but also from the very top.