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John, King of Denmark

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John
Sculpture of King John by Claus Berg about 1530, from the altar at St. Canute's Cathedral, Odense.
King of Denmark
Reign21 May 1481 – 20 February 1513
Coronation18 May 1483
PredecessorChristian I
SuccessorChristian II
King of Norway
Reign1483 – 20 February 1513
Coronation20 July 1483
PredecessorChristian I
SuccessorChristian II
King of Sweden
Reign6 October 1497 – August 1501
Coronation26 November 1497
PredecessorCharles VIII
SuccessorChristian II
Born(1455-02-02)2 February 1455
Aalborg Castle
Died20 February 1513(1513-02-20) (aged 58)
Aalborg Castle
Burial
St. Canute's Cathedral
SpouseChristina of Saxony
IssueChristian II
Elizabeth, Electress of Brandenburg
Francis
Jacob the Dacian (disputed)
HouseHouse of Oldenburg
FatherChristian I of Denmark
MotherDorothea of Brandenburg
ReligionRoman Catholicism
Seal of King John of Denmark, Norway and Sweden

John, also known as Hans; né Johannes[1] (2 February 1455 – 20 February 1513) was King of Denmark (1481–1513), Norway (1483–1513) and as John II (Template:Lang-sv) of Sweden (1497–1501) in the Kalmar Union, and also Duke of Schleswig and Holstein. The three most important political goals of King John were the restoration of the Kalmar Union, reduction of the dominance of the Hanseatic League, and the building of a strong Danish royal power.

Family

18th century artists impression of John of Denmark

He was born at Aalborghus, in Aalborg, the son of Christian I of Denmark and Dorothea of Brandenburg, daughter of Margrave John of Brandenburg. In 1478, he married Christina of Saxony, granddaughter of Frederick the Gentle of Saxony. This produced the following offspring: Christian II, Francis, Knud, and Elisabeth, who later married as princess of Brandenburg. From about 1496 until 1512, he had a relationship with Edele Jernskjæg.

Reign

In 1458, John's father, King Christian I, had the Norwegian Council of the Realm commit to electing Christian's eldest son as next king of Norway upon his death. A similar declaration was made in Sweden. In 1467, John was hailed as successor to the throne in Denmark. John used the title heir to the throne of Norway, in line with Norway's old status as a hereditary kingdom, but this was a claim the Norwegian Council did not immediately recognise. Consequently, upon King Christian's death in May 1481, John's position was unchallenged in Denmark, whereas in Norway the Council of the Realm assumed royal authority, and an interregnum ensued. No serious rival candidates to the Norwegian throne existed, but the Council was determined to demonstrate Norway's status as a sovereign kingdom. A meeting between the Councils of Denmark, Sweden and Norway was appointed for 13 January 1483 at Halmstad, to work out the terms for electing John as king — his håndfæstning. The Swedish Council failed to turn up at the meeting, but the Norwegian and Danish councils proceeded to produce a joint declaration containing the terms for John's rule, and electing him king. It was hoped that Sweden would later accept the same document and thereby acknowledge John as king. Subsequently, John was crowned King of Denmark in Copenhagen on 18 May, and King of Norway in Trondheim on 20 July.

During the first years of his rule John carried out a balancing policy. By diplomatic means he tried to weaken the position of the Swedish regent Sten Sture, and he also sought new allies – he was the first Danish king to establish political cooperation with Russia. After the 1493 treaty, Ivan III of Russia imprisoned all Hanseatic merchants trading in Novgorod and instigated the Russo-Swedish War (1496–1499). The Hanseatic cities were also troubled by a secret war by Danish privateers. At that time the position of the Hansabund was slowly but steadily declining because of changes in trade routes and the growing opposition against the Hanseatic League in the Northern European naval states.

John's domestic policies were marked by economic support of the Danish merchants and by the widespread use of commoners as officials or even as councillors, something which angered the nobility. The most important of his initiatives was perhaps establishing a permanent Danish navy, one which came to play a role during his later years.

According to the Privilege of Ribe the Noble Diets of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were to elect a duke among the sons of the previous duke. Many nobles in Schleswig and Holstein preferred John’s much younger brother Frederick, but John successfully argued for electing both the late king's sons as co-dukes. Although it was initially agreed they should govern the duchies jointly, at the majority of Frederick (in 1490) the duchies were nevertheless divided.

On 6 October 1497, John conquered Sweden during a short and effective military campaign, defeating Sten Sture at the Battle of Rotebro after having undermined his position by winning over most of the Swedish nobility. Sten surrendered to King John in Stockholm and was reconciled with him. John was crowned King of Sweden, and Sten was given the highest position of authority in Sweden below the King.

In 1500, John made a fatal attempt at conquering Dithmarschen (in today's Schleswig-Holstein), an area which the kings of Denmark had long viewed as belonging to their realm, but which was in reality an independent peasant republic under the loose overlordship of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen.[2] By mid-January 1500 John hired the Black Guard of ruthless and violent Dutch and East Frisian mercenaries, commanded by Thomas Slentz, prior operating for Magnus, vicegerent in the Land of Hadeln.[3][4]

Noble minted for John. The reverse shows his full royal coat of arms.

John guaranteed for its safe conduct first southeastwards via Lunenburg-Cellean Winsen upon Luhe and Hoopte, crossing the Elbe by Zollenspieker Ferry to the Hamburg-Lübeckian condominial Bergedorf and Vierlande.[5] From there the Black Guard headed northwestwards again, through Holstein towards Ditmarsh. Together with his brother Frederick, John then carried out a large-scale campaign with the Black Guard, but the Ditmarsians under Wulf Isebrand's command caught most of the Guard in a trap at Hemmingstedt after having opened the dykes of the low-land area and flooded the narrow main road. Thus John's attempt to subject the Ditmarsian free peasants to feudalism ended for time being.

The defeat in the Battle of Hemmingstedt on 17 February 1500 hurt John's prestige and in 1501, Sweden renounced him as king. John fought an increasingly more bitter war against Sten Sture and his successor Svante Nilsson, and this conflict meant frictions with both the Danish nobility and the Hanseatic cities, especially Lübeck. In 1509, with the Netherlands acting as arbiter, Sweden agreed to a declaration which recognised John as king of Sweden in principle, but he was never allowed into Stockholm as long as he lived, nor crowned king of Sweden anew.

Meanwhile, Norwegian attempts at opposition were strangled by John's son Prince Christian (afterward King Christian II), who was the viceroy of Norway from 1507. Between 1510 and 1512, the king fought a last war with both Sweden and Lübeck in which Denmark was at first very pressed but, with the help of the Scottish Barton brothers,[6] partly turned the tables with a naval offensive. The result concerning Sweden was the status quo, but Lübeck suffered a real political and economic setback by the peace.

In his own age, and partly to posterity, John has often appeared a "commoner's king," a jolly and plain man with a folksy manner. Behind the surface, however, he seems to have been a hard realist and a zealous political calculator. In many ways he is a Scandinavian parallel of Louis XI of France and Henry VII of England.

In 1513, King John died in Aalborg a short time after being thrown from his horse. King John was buried in St. Canute's Cathedral in Odense. The 32-year-old heir, Christian II of Denmark assumed the throne. After his son was deposed in 1522, John's bloodline returned to the Danish and Norwegian thrones in the person of Christian IV of Denmark, the great-great-grandson of his daughter, Electress Elisabeth.[7]

Issue

John and Christina had five or six children:

  1. John, born 1479, died as a child
  2. Ernst, born 1480, died as a child
  3. Christian II (1481–1559), King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Duke of Schleswig and Holstein
  4. Jacob the Dacian (1484–1566), possibly illegitimate
  5. Elizabeth of Denmark (1485–1555), married to Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg
  6. Francis (1497–1511)

Full title

John's full title as King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway was: King of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Wends and the Goths, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst[8]

Ancestry

Family of John, King of Denmark
16. Conrad I, Count of Oldenburg
8. Christian V, Count of Oldenburg
17. Ingeborg of Itzehoe
4. Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg
18. Dietrich V, Count of Hohnstein-Heringen
9. Agnes of Hohnstein-Heringen
19. Sophie of Brunswick
2. Christian I of Denmark
20. Henry II, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg
10. Gerhard VI, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg
21. Ingeborg of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
5. Helvig of Schauenburg
22. Magnus II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
11. Catherine Elisabeth of Brunswick-Lüneburg
23. Catherine of Anhalt-Bernburg
1. John of Denmark
24. Frederick V, Burgrave of Nuremberg
12. Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg
25. Elisabeth of Meissen
6. John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
26. Frederick, Duke of Bavaria
13. Elisabeth of Bavaria
27. Maddalena Visconti
3. Dorothea of Brandenburg
28. Wenceslas I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg
14. Rudolf III, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg
29. Cecilia of Carrara
7. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg
30. Rupert I of Legnica
15. Barbara of Legnica
31. Hedwig of Sagan

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
  1. ^ Caspar Paludan-Müller De første Konger af den Oldenburgske slægt Reitzels, Köpenhamn 1874 s. 131; also Danish WP here
  2. ^ Elke Freifrau von Boeselager, "Das Land Hadeln bis zum Beginn der frühen Neuzeit", in: Geschichte des Landes zwischen Elbe und Weser: 3 vols., Hans-Eckhard Dannenberg and Heinz-Joachim Schulze (eds.), Stade: Landschaftsverband der ehem. Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden, 1995 and 2008, vol. I 'Vor- und Frühgeschichte' (1995; ISBN 978-3-9801919-7-5), vol. II 'Mittelalter (einschl. Kunstgeschichte)' (1995; 978-3-9801919-8-2), vol. III 'Neuzeit (2008; ISBN 978-3-9801919-9-9)', (=Schriftenreihe des Landschaftsverbandes der ehem. Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden; vols. 7–9), vol. II: pp. 321-388, here p. 332.
  3. ^ Karl Ernst Hermann Krause (1881), "Johann III. (Erzbischof von Bremen)", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 14, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 183–185, here p. 184.
  4. ^ Michael Schütz, "Die Konsolidierung des Erzstiftes unter Johann Rode", in: Geschichte des Landes zwischen Elbe und Weser: 3 vols., Hans-Eckhard Dannenberg and Heinz-Joachim Schulze (eds.), Stade: Landschaftsverband der ehem. Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden, 1995 and 2008, vol. I 'Vor- und Frühgeschichte' (1995; ISBN 978-3-9801919-7-5), vol. II 'Mittelalter (einschl. Kunstgeschichte)' (1995; 978-3-9801919-8-2), vol. III 'Neuzeit (2008; ISBN 978-3-9801919-9-9)', (=Schriftenreihe des Landschaftsverbandes der ehem. Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden; vols. 7–9), vol. II: pp. 263–278, here p. 267.
  5. ^ Karl Ernst Hermann Krause (1881), "Johann III. (Erzbischof von Bremen)", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 14, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 183–185, here p. 185.
  6. ^ Hannay, Mackie, Spilman, ed., Letters of James IV, SHS (1953), p.xlii
  7. ^ Hans · Konge af Danmark · Norge fra 1481-1513 og Sverige 1497-1501 (Danske Konger)
  8. ^ Kong Hans (Diplomatarium Norvegicum)
John, King of Denmark
Born: 2 February 1455 Died: 22 July 1513
Regnal titles
Preceded by Duke of Holstein
as John I
1481–1513
with Frederick I (1490-1513) 		Succeeded by
King of Denmark
1481–1513 		Succeeded by
Duke of Schleswig
as John I
1481–1513
Vacant
Interregnum
Title last held by
Christian I 		King of Norway
1483–1513
Vacant
Interregnum
Title last held by
Charles VIII 		King of Sweden
as John II
1497–1501 		Vacant
Interregnum
Title next held by
Christian II

Template:Persondata

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