Duke John (Sweden)

John III (; 20 December 1537 – 17 November 1592) was King of Sweden from 1569 until his death. He attained the Swedish throne after a rebellion against his half-brother Erik XIV. He is mainly remembered for his attempts to close the gap between the newly established Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Catholic Church, as well as his conflict with and possible murder of his brother.

John was also, quite autonomously, the Duke of Finland from 1556 to 1563. In 1581 he assumed the title Grand Duke of Finland. His first wife was Catherine Jagiellon of the Polish–Lithuanian ruling family, and their son Sigismund eventually ascended both the Polish–Lithuanian and Swedish thrones. He ended the Northern Seven Years' War, but instead Sweden was drawn into the 25 Years' War with Russia, where minor gains were eventually made. He worked for closer relations with Poland. John III was interested in religion and culture. During his reign, he countered the growing Lutheran tendencies of the Church of Sweden under the influence of Duke Charles, and worked for a reunion with the Catholic Church and the Pope in Rome.

John III was the son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud. He was the brother of Charles IX and Magnus Vasa and half-brother of Erik XIV. He was married from 4 October 1562 to Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583), with whom he had a daughter Anna Vasa in addition to Sigismund, and from 21 February 1585 to Gunilla Johansdotter (Bielke) (1568-1597).

Childhood and adolescence

John III was born at Stegeborg Castle on 20 December 1537, the son of Gustav I (Vasa) and his second wife, Margareta (Eriksdotter) Leijonhufvud. He was more than once the cause of his father's displeasure, especially when, as hereditary Duke of Finland Proper (since 27 June 1556), he sought to interfere in Livonian affairs behind King Gustav's back. Gustav had placed his son in Finland to secure Swedish territory in the eastern Baltic from a Russian threat. John also cooperated with his brother Erik, and traveled to London on his behalf, while Erik looked after John's interests in Livonia. The marriage would have secured Swedish access to Western Europe. That mission failed, but in England John observed the reintroduction of Protestantism and the Book of Common Prayer (1559). The Finnish duke had liturgical and theological interests.

During this time he also began a relationship with the lady-in-waiting Karin Hansdotter, with whom he lived between 1556 and 1561, and they had four illegitimate children during these years.

Break with brother Erik

When John's brother Erik XIV became king and held on to royal rights, the brothers soon fell out. As Duke of Finland, he opposed Erik's efforts to secure Reval and other East Baltic ports. It was only with the utmost reluctance that John could bring himself to sign the ''Articles of Arboga'' in 1561, which restricted his power. The break became open when John, against Erik's will, married Princess Catherine Jagiellon in Vilnius on 4 October 1562, the younger sister of Poland's King Sigismund II Augustus, with whom Erik was at war, and when the two brothers-in-law shortly after the wedding concluded an agreement according to which John would receive from the Polish king as a pledge seven permanent castles in Livonia in return for an advance of 120,000 daler.

Erik considered this agreement to be in direct conflict with the ''Articles of Arboga'' - which it was - and as soon as he learned of it he demanded that John give up the Livonian castles. When the Duke refused to do so, and even gave an evasive answer to the King's demand that he should declare definitely whether he would adhere to Sweden or Poland, he was summoned in April 1563 to appear in Sweden to answer the charge of treasonable designs.

In captivity

When the summons was not obeyed by John, he was sentenced in June 1563 by the Estates assembled in Stockholm as guilty of treason, deprived of life, property and hereditary rights to the kingdom. To carry out the sentence, a considerable army was equipped. John, who was unprepared for battle, was locked up in Turku Castle, defended himself there for a few weeks with 1200 men and then surrendered on 12 August 1563, in exchange for the promise of a princely prison (the Siege of Åbo). He was taken to Sweden and imprisoned at Gripsholm Castle, accompanied by his wife. When John and his wife were brought to Gripsholm on a ship, they passed through ''Söderport'', where the executions of 30 of John's supporters took place. John remained a prisoner for more than four years. However, his imprisonment was relatively light, especially compared to what Erik would later experience; among other things, the couple was able to receive a large shipment of books. John, who was bookish, also spent much of his time studying and conversing with his wife. Their three children were born in captivity, in 1564 Elizabeth, called Isabella, who died at the age of two, in 1566 Sigismund and in May 1568 Anna.

Free again

During Erik's insanity in the fall of 1567 (see the Sture Murders), John's release was secured in October 1567, after which negotiations were begun for the Duke's restoration to his rights.

John further initiated peace talks with Denmark–Norway and Lübeck to end the Northern Seven Years' War but rejected the resulting Treaties of Roskilde in which his envoys had accepted far-reaching Danish demands. After two more years of fighting, the war was concluded without many Swedish concessions in the Treaty of Stettin. During the following years he successfully fought Russia in the Livonian War, concluded by the Treaty of Plussa in 1583, a war that meant a Swedish reconquest of Narva. As a whole his foreign policy was affected by his connection to Poland of which country his son Sigismund III Vasa was made king in 1587.

However, Erik's actions in the first half of 1568 were likely to arouse John's fears that his newly won freedom would be taken away from him again. John therefore entered into an agreement with his brother Charles and some of the nobility for a joint rising against Erik's hated regiment. This revolt began in July and spread so rapidly that by mid-September the army of the dukes was already outside Stockholm, whose gates were opened to them on 29 September 1568. An important ally was John's maternal uncle Sten Leijonhufvud, who was fatally wounded. At deathbed he was made Count of Raseborg. Erik XIV was taken prisoner, and immediately afterwards John had himself hailed as king by the city authorities and by those of the nobility and warriors who were gathered there. Shortly after this John executed his brother's most trusted counsellor, Jöran Persson, whom he held largely responsible for his harsh treatment while in prison.

John III as king

Hailed as king

In January 1569, John III was recognized as king by the same Diet (Riksdag) that forced Erik XIV from the throne. But this recognition was not without concessions on the part of John: Duke Charles was confirmed in his dukedom without the restrictions on his power imposed by the ''Articles of Arboga''; the nobility were granted privileges which, in extending their rights and limiting their duties, represent a significant moment in the history of the nobility; and special privileges were granted to the higher nobility which consolidated and developed the distinction between the various classes of the nobility which is of such profound significance in the history of the Swedish nobility.

Erik dies—John is free

Although power was now in King John's hands, he did not feel secure on his throne as long as his captured half-brother was alive. Three plots were uncovered during these years to depose him: the 1569 Plot, the Mornay Plot, and the 1576 Plot. Fear of his possible release constantly worried the king (compare Erik XIV) and led him, as early as 1571, to order the guards, in the event of the slightest danger of an attempted rescue or the like, to assassinate the captured king, and it was probably as a result of such an order that Erik's life was ended in 1577. Even if this was not the case, the fact remains that John did not shrink from the possible murder of his half-brother and that it was not against his will if it was carried out.

Like his father

John III often likened himself to his father for propaganda purposes, and in particular he tried to emphasize that while his father had "liberated Sweden" from the "bloodhound" Christian II, he had saved the population from the "tyrannical" Erik XIV, his own brother. He had some similar characteristics to his father and brothers; violent, with a fierce temperament and great suspicion. But he lacked sharpness, firmness, prudence and a practical eye.

Son far away—Karl supports

John and his wife Catherine Jagiellon had ensured that their son Sigismund received a Catholic upbringing, probably to help him acquire the Polish crown. This aim was achieved in 1587, and John had thus given Sweden a new union, more unnatural than the one his father had torn apart (the Kalmar Union), as Sweden and Poland often had directly conflicting interests in the Baltic. He also soon came to regret his decision and vainly demanded the return of Sigismund to Sweden, which the high nobility opposed as they foresaw that this would lead to war with Poland, something Sweden after 28 years of war would find difficult to cope with.

John responded with a political shake-up; instead of relying on the council aristocracy as before, he now sought the assistance of his brother Duke Charles, with whom he had been at bitter odds for most of his previous reign. The reasons for this had been many, but one of the most important had been that John III, as king, had sought to apply the same principles with regard to royal rights within Charles's principality that he had so ardently opposed as duke. In 1587 he had finally succeeded in persuading his brother to approve statutes very similar to the ''Articles of Arboga'', which he himself had repealed in 1569, but judging from a proposal in 1590 for a new arrangement of the princely rights, he gave up the claims he had previously stubbornly maintained after the break with the high nobility.

Alone at last

Even John's newfound friendship with his brother Charles soon cooled, however, and for the last few months of his life John was completely alone. In the spring of 1592, he fell ill with a fever that made him very anxious. He hoped to get better by moving to a pleasure garden he had built on Skeppsholmen, where he thought the air was healthier than in the city. But there was no improvement, and in high summer the condition worsened.

John died in Stockholm on 17 November 1592, leaving his kingdom weakened by external and internal strife, in disorder and neglect, and for the immediate future threatened by the greatest dangers. John III is buried in Uppsala Cathedral.

As king, John was oriented towards the Baltic, aiming to take control of the rich trade on Russia. After ending the Seven Years' War in 1570 and making peace with Denmark and Lübeck, he went to war with Russia. This war lasted with varying intensity until 1595. The capture of Narva in 1581 was his greatest military success.

Church policy

John's relations with the Church were initially good, although Archbishop Laurentius Petri hesitated for a long time before sanctioning the rebellion. In domestic politics, John showed clear Catholic sympathies inspired by his Polish wife, a fact that created friction with the Swedish clergy and nobility. However, the Archbishop soon had his new Church Order ratified, which he had already drawn up in outline during the reign of King Gustav, but had not obtained his approval. This Church Order emphasized continuity with older traditions. It also restored the medieval ecclesiastical organization, with essentially the same dioceses. In 1575, he gave his permission for the remaining Catholic convents in Sweden to start receiving novices again.

All of this can be seen as an expression of the mediating theology that John was strongly influenced by, aimed at reducing the contradictions between the various rival faiths that were tearing Europe apart at the time. However, John himself was a learned follower of the mediating theologian George Cassander. He sought reconciliation between Rome and Wittenberg on the basis of the consensus of the first five centuries of Christianity ().

John was far from alone in listening to this message; both the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus and the emperors Ferdinand I and Maximilian II, who had multiple faiths in their empires, were also sensitive to it. John approved the publication of the Lutheran ''Swedish Church Order'' of Archbishop Laurentius Petri in 1571 but also got the church to approve an addendum to the church order in 1575, that displayed a return to patristic sources.

''The Red Book''

This set the stage for John's promulgation of the Swedish-Latin '' Red Book'', entitled ''Liturgia suecanae ecclesiae catholicae & orthodoxae conformis'', which reintroduced several Catholic customs and resulted in the Liturgical Struggle, which lasted for twenty years, and attempts to negotiate with the Pope, which failed completely, partly because John's confidant in these matters, Peter Fecht, drowned during his trip to the Holy See in Rome. He also sought to enlist the help of the papacy in gaining release of his wife's family assets, which were frozen in Naples. Furthermore, he allowed Jesuits to secretly staff the Royal Theological College in Stockholm.

From time to time, John was also at odds theologically with his younger brother Duke Charles of Södermanland (afterwards Charles IX of Sweden), who had Calvinist sympathies, and did not promote King John's Liturgy in his duchy. This was expressed, for example, in the ''Örebro Articles'', where priests in Duke Karl's duchy distanced themselves from the new order of worship. However, John also had support for his church policy, including from Ingelbertus Olai Helsingus and Erasmus Nicolai Arbogensis.

Favoring the nobility

John owed his crown primarily to his brother Charles and the nobility. At his coronation, he therefore rewarded this social class with special privileges that no longer required any obligations to the crown. When King Magnus Ladulås granted tax exemption, it was in return for an obligation, namely to provide horsemen. The majority of the ''frälse-men'' were actually wealthy peasants, lived much like them and were counted as commoners. Before John's time, it had been customary for the ''frälse'' who could no longer afford to fulfill their army service obligation to descend to the peasantry again.

John's noble privileges began to blur the line between the ''frälse'' and the commoners. They meant that nobles who were too poor to serve in the army could still retain a noble shield. John also appointed new counts and barons and granted large estates in land, called countships and baronies. These were to be inherited by the nearest male heir. During the reign of Erik XIV, only the counts had been given estates, and these were small. Now the counties were increased by up to 20 parishes. The counts were given jurisdiction over the county's population.

John III—the builder

John III was very interested in art, especially architecture. He was undoubtedly the most building-minded monarch Sweden ever had. Like his brother Erik, he was highly artistic and aesthetically gifted. However, his sense of beauty found its most obvious expression in the field of architecture. He spent a lot of time drawing up elaborate plans for buildings, only a small part of which were realized during his lifetime.

"Building is our highest desire", writes John himself in one of many letters in which he gives orders to his architects and builders.

Foreign expertise called in

John called in skilled builders, sculptors and painters from Germany and the Netherlands and also intervened himself, through his own drawings, in the prolific building activity that he provoked in so many places. His surviving letters on building also show that he understood architecture and that he was familiar with the principles of the Italian Renaissance, specifically the High and Late Renaissance. In his letters he advises and admonishes his architects and builders, he corrects their drawings and revels in the details of architecture and decoration. Above all, his interest is focused on the decoration itself: in the exterior on magnificent portals and windows, ornate gables and richly decorated spires, in the interior especially on the rich paneling and door frames.

In particular, Sebastiano Serlio's books on the art of building seem to have been a frequent source of inspiration. John's own taste therefore came to assert itself in many ways, and he may justly be regarded as the center of the interesting art movement which arose during his reign.

In the large circle of artists and craftsmen around John III there were some more prominent, such as the Swede Anders målare ("Anders Painter"), mostly active as a builder, Willem Boy, important both as a sculptor and architect (creator of John's tomb in Uppsala), Vadstena architects Arendt de Roy and Hans Fleming.

But John needed more skilled people. Among the foreign masters he employed were the three members of the Pahr family of architects, originally from Lombardy, Franciscus Pahr and Kalmar castles, the stucco artist and master builder Antonius Watz, the chief builder of Finland and Livonia Peter Hertig, the carvers Markus Wulfrum and Urban Schultz, the painters Johan Baptista van Uther and Arent Lambrechts, the stonemasons and sculptors Roland Mackle, Peter de la Koche, Lukas van der Werdt and others. Experts from abroad were also called in to help with agricultural matters, including foresters from the German principalities and Denmark.

Churches and monasteries

A particular aspect of John III's interest in building is his concern for the preservation of older monumental buildings. His zeal also extended to care for the appearance of cities. The cathedrals of Uppsala, Västerås, Linköping and Skara were restored to their former glory; in Finland, Turku Cathedral was restored and given a new chancel; in Estonia, Reval (Tallinn) was restored. Among the more or less destroyed monastery churches that were renovated are Varnhem, Vreta Abbey, Alvastra, Askeby and Gudhem, and Naantali in Finland. In Stockholm, Storkyrkan, Riddarholmen Church and The German Church (originally a medieval guildhall which, since it was also given to the Finnish congregation, was long called Saint Henry's church) were restored, while The Church of Saint Clare was built on the site of St. Clare's Priory, which had been demolished by Gustav I. Another new building was St. James' Church. Other churches he planned, such as a Trinity Church, were never built.

Castles and fortresses

John III built chapels in all his major castles, with Vadstena Castle partially preserved and Kalmar Castle still well preserved. In this ecclesiastical