Katharina Wasa (1584–1638)

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Jacob Heinrich Elbfas: Portrait of Katharina Wasa

Catherine of Sweden (born November 19, 1584 in Nyköping , † December 13, 1638 in Västerås ) was a Swedish princess and through her marriage to Johann Casimir von Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Kleeburg titular Duchess of Zweibrücken and in her own right she was the Swedish heir to the throne.

Life

Katharina was the only child of six children of the later King Charles IX. of Sweden and his first wife Anna Maria von der Pfalz , who survived childhood. From his second marriage to Christine von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf , the king had four more children, including Katharina's half-brother, who later became King Gustav II of Sweden . After her mother's death in 1589, Euphrosina Heldin von Dieffenau was appointed her foster mother. From this a lifelong friendship developed between the two women. After the accession to the throne of her half-brother Gustav II Adolf, she was regarded as his confidante. In some cases she even acted as his advisor. She married relatively late for a princess from a royal family, which was due to the domestic political situation in Sweden, which unsettled the European states. It was mainly about the conflict between Katharina's father and his nephew Sigismund III. Wasa . After some marriage projects had failed, she married on June 21, 1615 (according to other information on June 11) in Stockholm Johann Kasimir von Pfalz-Zweibrücken. For the first few years after the wedding, she stayed in Sweden. Only in January 1618 did she move in with her husband. The couple lived at Kleeburg Castle in northern Alsace. After the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War , the couple had to flee to Strasbourg before the chaos of war. The Kleeburg Castle was destroyed.

In 1622 the couple returned to Sweden at the request of King Gustav II. On the one hand, the king wanted to protect the couple from the horrors of the war in Europe. On the other hand, the question of the Swedish succession also played a role. Since 1622 all legitimate descendants of Charles IX were except the king and Catherine. died without heirs. In 1622 the king himself had no children of his own. A daughter had died the previous year. This meant that Katharina was temporarily in first place in the Swedish line of succession. Another daughter and a son were born to the king in 1623 and 1625, but they both died in childhood in 1624 and 1625, respectively. It was only after the birth of Princess Christina in 1626 that Gustav II had an heir to the throne who lived for a longer period of time, who was actually supposed to ascend to the Swedish throne in 1632 after his death. Katharina and her husband resided at Stegeborg Castle at that time . There they led the lives of wealthy noblemen. Their standard of living and servants were on par with those at the royal court. Katharina personally took care of the administration of the lands transferred to her. Relations with the king remained good in the years that followed.

In 1632 the king, who had actively intervened in the Thirty Years' War, fell in the battle of Lützen . Now his daughter Christina, who was still underage, followed him on the throne and Katharina moved up again to become heir to the throne. From 1631 to 1632, while the royal couple was absent, Katharina had temporary guardianship over Christina. After the change of the throne, there were differences between Katharina and her husband with the new government. It was also about the couple's position and their rights. The couple temporarily withdrew from court life. Soon the tide turned again. Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna entrusted Katharina with the guardianship of the young queen. According to Christina later, the two had a happy time together. While Katharina was very popular in Sweden as a member of the royal family, her husband was rather sidelined. A group of opponents of the Chancellor Oxenstierna gathered around Johann Kasimir at Stegeborg Castle. In 1638 the royal court fled Stockholm from an epidemic to Västerås, where Princess Katharina died on December 13 of the same year as the Swedish heir to the throne.

She was buried in Strängnäs Cathedral.

Further development

After Katharina's death, her claim to the throne was passed on to her eldest son, Karl Gustav, who later became King of Sweden, Karl X. The latter fell in love with Queen Christine and was appointed Generalissimo of the Swedish troops in Germany in 1647. In 1649 Christine announced her intention to marry Karl. On this occasion, he was also officially recognized by the Swedish Diet as heir to the throne. As early as 1650, however, Christina declared that she would never marry (probably also because Karl Gustav had been born out of wedlock in March 1649), and on June 16, 1654 she abdicated. On the following day, Karl became her successor. With this, the Swedish crown came through Katharina Wasa to the House of Wittelsbach , to which the dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken belonged.

progeny

Johann Kasimir and Katharina Wasa had eight children:

literature

  • Nanna Lundh-Eriksson: Hedvig Eleonora , Wahlström & Widstrand, Stockholm 1947.
  • Marie-Louise Rodén: Drottning Christina. En Biografi , Prisma, Stockholm 2008.

Web links

Commons : Katharina Wasa  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wasa, Katharina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Catherine of Sweden
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish princess
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1584
PLACE OF BIRTH Nykoping
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1638
Place of death Västerås