John of Sweden (1589-1618)
Johann Duke of Östergötland ( Swedish for short Hertig Johan , born April 18, 1589 at Uppsala Castle , † March 5, 1618 at Bråborg Castle near Norrköping ) was the youngest son of the Swedish King Johann III. and his second wife Gunilla Bielke .
He was a Swedish prince, Duke of Östergötland ( hertig av Östergötland ) and Duke of Finland ( hertig av Finland ). He was considered a candidate for the Swedish throne and was thus in competition with Gustav Adolf , who later became King of Sweden. Johann was married to Marie Elisabeth Vasa, the daughter of King Karl IX. of Sweden. Their marriage was childless.
Life
Johann was born by his parents as an infant on their trip to Reval , the meeting point with Sigismund , son Johann III. from her first marriage to Katharina Jagiellonica , taken on July 3, 1589 and thus presented as heir to the throne. Sigismund was King of Poland at the time and later, after the death of John III, from 1592 to 1599 also King of Sweden. As early as the beginning of 1590, the Swedish assembly of estates guaranteed Sigismund the right of inheritance to the crown and, after his death, to the young Duke Johann, who was to receive Finland as a duchy before. In the event that Johann should die without a male heir, Duke Karl , Johann III's brother , should be entitled to inheritance.
At the age of three, in the winter of 1590, the young duke and prince made a remarkable intercession for Karl Heinrichson Horn, the unfortunate defender of Reval 1577 and Narva, to his father, who finally granted Horn mercy at the place of execution.
In 1592 the assembly of estates met in Uppsala for the funeral of his father and for the coronation of Sigismund. A minority of the class representatives spoke out in favor of placing the young Prince Johann on the throne under a guardian, since the Catholic Sigismund was not inclined to sign the religious resolutions of Uppsala. However, they could not prevail with this view.
Duke Karl assured the young prince on April 4, 1594, after the death of Duke Magnus, the duchy of Östergötland, which he received on June 21, 1595.
In 1600, after the confusions and wars between Duke Karl and King Sigismund, a Reichstag resolution was passed on Linköping, which said that the entire family of John III. to be thrown off the throne. The young Duke Johann was also denied the throne on the grounds that he was too young. In addition, it was feared that he could take revenge for the deposition of his brother Sigismund. Duke Karl, later King Karl IX. of Sweden, only approved the reason of youth. In a letter dated March 14, 1601 to Queen Elizabeth I of England, he claimed that he would prefer to stand down from the throne because it was due to the young Duke Johann.
In times of great need (hunger and plague devastated the empire), Charles IX. the estates in a letter dated June 16, 1602 to elect a different king: Others could preside over the empire better, such as Sigismund and Duke Johann. The 15-year-old Duke Johann finally gave up his claims to the throne in the inheritance contract to Norrköping in 1604. Nevertheless, Charles IX. probably still had doubts about the continuity of such a renunciation. In his will, which he drew up on August 12, 1605, it says: “We urge our beloved wife and child, as well as the high-born Prince Duke Johann, to diligently maintain the friendship that we have with the evangelical princes of the flown in the Roman Empire. "
In 1606 Johann bears the title "the rich Sweden, Gothen and Wenden hereditary prince, Duke of Östergötland and Dahl". On April 14, 1606, the estates at Örebro declared themselves to depose the previous King Sigismund. Already in August 1605, Johann, together with the imperial estates, had written to the Polish king. In this, Johann supports the intentions of the estates “to cancel you and your descendants / from this imperial government” and continues in a pamphlet published in Stockholm in 1606: “We cannot find it otherwise because of many reasons / and because you are truly your grandfather / King Gustaffs / highly praiseworthy testament / testament / ewren done Eydt and vows / and all the love / if you are born against your beloved fatherland / forgotten / fair and rightful. "
When on March 15, 1607 Charles IX. was to be crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral, Johann entered the cathedral with his two cousins Karl Filip and Gustav Adolf in his suite . Gustav Adolf wore a "Hermel-lined hat with a princely gold crown", which should make him aware of what was intended for him, the future King of Sweden (1611).
In February / March 1609 Johann welcomed his uncle and King Karl IX. on the border of the Duchy of Österland. The king was on his Eriksgata to receive homage in all parts of the country after his coronation and to sit in court. Johann greeted the king with a well-arranged speech in which he thanked him for having given him all princely customs, arts and knowledge in his youth (riding and fencing, tournaments, ring races and other noble works).
After the ritual ride to pay homage to Charles IX. Johann was accepted in the open air as lord and sovereign by the estates present in Östergötland. To this end, the duke took a special oath in which he vowed "to rule my fiefdom and principality with my advice," not to control Uppsala or any other crown property in any case, and to remain loyal to the king and kingdom. He carried the flag with his coat of arms, the winged dragon, with him. In 1611 Duke Johann took with Charles IX. and Gustav Adolf took part in the attempt to liberate the city of Kalmar , which was besieged by 16,000 Danes and finally handed over to the Danes on August 16, 1611 by Christer Some. Charles IX died that same year. and a diet was announced by the queen widow and duke Johann. Both presided over the government for two months with six other councilors.
On December 13, 1611, Duke Johann resigned from the government in favor of Gustav Adolf and "on the other hand, his Hertduchy of Oster = Gothland was increased to some extent with a number of Landereyen to Wester = Gothland." Walther Harte, Canon of Windsor, wrote in 1760 in his much-respected Gustav- Adolf biography: “And here one finds a just cause to be highly astonished why a young prince of understanding, of heartiness, and in circumstances like Duke Johann's were his, according to the basic laws of the Swedish constitution, the proper and had reached the age of the statutes, who himself was a soldier, and was popular with the army, willingly and gladly, without grumbling or reluctance, renounced a throne to which his claims were not only cheap, but also, in all sharpness, legitimate. ”Harte finds no answer, but assumes that Duke Johann was afraid to “dispute the succession of such a prince, in which he is far greater e and stronger talents of all kinds. "
In 1612 he took part in campaigns in the Danish Halland , where he almost succeeded in taking the Danish King Christian IV prisoner near Falkenberg . The war against the Danes finally ended on January 16, 1613 with the cession of the cities of Kalmar and Elfsburg as well as the island of Öland to the Swedes in return for a payment of one million Reichstaler. At the same time, under the direction of Jakob De la Gardie , negotiations took place with the Russians who wanted Gustav Adolf's brother Karl Filip to be the tsar. This advantageous offer for Sweden was not taken.
On December 6th, Duke Johann married the daughter Karl IX., Maria Elisabeth, "against which Beylager the priesthood opposed in the Reichstag, as when such degree of relatedness would be forbidden in the Divine Law." Only the Queen Mother Christine set the marriage against all Resistances through.
In his seat of government, Norrköping , after the peace treaty, he began to beautify the city, which had become the capital of the up-and-coming metal industry. In 1614 he began building Johannisborg Castle in the north of the city. In 1616 he commissioned the building of the Olaikirche. However, after his death in March 1618 at Bråborg Castle, it quickly became clear that he had left behind a large mountain of debt.
At the beginning of 1619 Johann and his wife Marie Elisabeth, who had died in August 1618, were buried in Linköping Cathedral, where a plaque still indicates their burial site today. As early as 1618 he and his wife received a mass and an obituary from Sylvester Phrygius.
literature
- Geijer: History of Sweden Volume 2 + 3.Perthes , Gotha, 1830 ff.
- Jonas Hallenberg: Svea Rikes Historia under konung Gustaf Adolph den Stores regering, Volumes I + II , around 1812
- Gerhard Eimer : The town planning in the Swedish Baltic Sea region 1600 - 1715. Stockholm 1961.
- The life of Gustav Adolph the Great King of Sweden. From the English of Mr. Walther Harte ... translated by George Heinrich Martini. Leipzig, 1760.
- Günter Barudio : Gustav Adolf - the great. A political biography. Frankfurt / Main, S. Fischer, 1982.
- Pamphlet: Warhrachtige Abschrifft / From the letter / so the translucent / Hochgeborner prince and Lord / Mr. JOHAN / the rich Swedes / Goths and Wenden Hereditary Prince / Duke of Ostergöthland and Dahl: Besides the samptlichen imperial estates / to King Sigismundum to Poland and Grand Duke of Littawen / in Jhare & c. 1605. issued .... Printed in Stockholm / by Andream Gutterwitz. In the Jhare Christi 1606 . (Bibliography: Warmholtz 3300 and Collijn 1600-talet know the German and Swedish editions; not in VD 17!)
- Olof von Dalin : History of the Kingdom of Sweden. Greifswald. 1756–1763 (3 volumes)
- Samuel Pufendorf Continued introduction to the history of the noblest empires and states of Europe, Wherein the history of the Kingdom of Sweden… printed . Frankfurt / Main 1735
- Johann of Sweden . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 550 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
Individual evidence
- ^ John of Sweden . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 517 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
- ↑ see title of the leaflet
- ↑ Owning library: GWLB Hannover (call number: Gm-A 1264.)
- ↑ Dalin, Part 3, Vol. 2, pp. 441 f.
- ↑ Barudio, p. 76 f.
- ↑ Barudio, p. 91.
- ↑ very detailed in: Dalin, part 3, volume 2, p. 456 f.
- ↑ Barudio, p. 91 f.
- ↑ Pufendorf, p. 569, according to these: Magnus Brahe, Niels Bielcke, Sved Ribbing, Jöran Gyldenstern, Hans Ulfsparre and Axel Oxenstierna
- ^ Pufendorf, p. 569.
- ↑ Pufendorf, p. 570
- ^ Harte, Volume 1, page 16.
- ^ Harte, Volume 1, page 17.
- ↑ Hallenberg, I, 303/307
- ^ Pufendorf, p. 571
- ^ Pufendorf, p. 575.
- ↑ Pufendorf, pp. 577-579.
- ^ Pufendorf, p. 579.
- ↑ Bucket, p. 170
- ↑ Sylvestri Phrigii S. Schiædviensis, ähraskyldige lijktienst, bewijst, then Högborne furste och herre, Mr. Johan, Swerges, Göthes och Wändes arfffurste, hertigh til Östergötland, etc. Högtberömlig i hugkommelse, anno Messiæ M. DC. XIIX. Dominica cantate; vthi thet Wäsgöthiske S. Helenæ tempel. Widh ändan är både thenne christmilde furstens epicedia medh lijkprocessen; såsom ock thens salige furstinnes, S. Mariæ-Elisabethz næniæ infogade, eodem authore. Printed in 1618 by Olofsson Helsing. Imprint: "Cum Sacræ RM gratia & privilegio; Stockholmiæ ex typographéo Olai Olai" [8], 64 pp.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Johann of Sweden |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Johann Duke of Östergötland |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish Prince, Duke of Östergötland and Duke of Finland |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 18, 1589 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Uppsala Castle |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 5, 1618 |
| Place of death | Bråborg Castle near Norrköping |