| Hans | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| King of Denmark (more...) | |
| Reign | 1482 – 20 February 1513 |
| Coronation | 18 May 1483 Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen |
| Predecessor | Christian I |
| Successor | Christian II |
| King of Norway (more...) | |
| Reign | 1483 – 20 February 1513 |
| Coronation | 20 July 1483 Nidaros Cathedral |
| Predecessor | Christian I |
| Successor | Christian II |
| King of Sweden (more...) | |
| Reign | 6 October 1497 – August 1501 |
| Coronation | 26 November 1497,Stockholm |
| Predecessor | Karl Knutsson |
| Successor | Christian II |
| Born | 2 February 1455 Aalborghus Castle,Aalborg |
| Died | 20 February 1513(1513-02-20) (aged 58) Aalborghus Castle, Aalborg |
| Burial | St. Canute's Cathedral,Odense (from 1807) |
| Spouse | |
| Issue among others... | Christian II Elizabeth, Electress of Brandenburg Jacob the Dacian (probably) |
| House | Oldenburg |
| Father | Christian I of Denmark |
| Mother | Dorothea of Brandenburg |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Hans, or sometimes calledJohn[1] (né Johannes;[2] 2 February 1455 – 20 February 1513)[3] was a Scandinavian monarch who ruled under theKalmar Union. He was King ofDenmark from 1482 to 1513, King ofNorway from 1483 to 1513, and King ofSweden (where he has also been calledJohan II[4]) from 1497 to 1501. Additionally, from 1482 to 1513, he held the titles ofDuke of Schleswig and Holstein, which he governed jointly with his brother,Frederick.
The three most important political goals of King John were the restoration of the Kalmar Union, reduction of the dominance of theHanseatic League, and the building of a strong Danish royal power.
John was born on 2 February 1455, probably atAalborg inNorthern Jutland. He was the third son of KingChristian I of Denmark andDorothea of Brandenburg, but the eldest to survive infancy. Dorothea was the daughter ofMargrave John ofBrandenburg.[5]
Christian had his son John proclaimed as future ruler in the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.[6] However, a rebellion in 1464 forced Christian to relinquish the Swedish crown. Christian attempted to retake Sweden in 1470, but his forces were defeated bySten Sture the Elder at theBattle of Brunkeberg in October 1471.[7][8]
Upon King Christian's death in May 1481, there was no dispute over the order of succession in the kingdoms, but the accession nevertheless proved difficult. Negotiations on the terms of John's accession started between thecouncils of the realms and aninterregnum ensued.[3] TheOldenburgs and the Danish council wanted to reintegrate Sweden into the union but ultimately had to settle for a limited union between Denmark and Norway.[6]
In Denmark, John was unchallenged, but the Norwegian council, dissatisfied with King Christian's previous policies, sought stronger guarantees before accepting John's rule. Union-critical factions within Norway also reached out to Sweden, and on 1 February 1482, the two kingdoms concluded a treaty in Oslo, agreeing not to proceed with the forthcoming royal election without consulting the other.[4] In response, the Danish leadership tried to undermine this alliance by initiating separate negotiations with each kingdom.[6] In Denmark, John wasacclaimed in the spring of 1482.[1]
A meeting between the councils of Denmark, Sweden and Norway was appointed for 13 January 1483 atHalmstad to work out John'shåndfæstning, or coronation charter. When the Swedish Council failed to turn up at the meeting, the Norwegian and Danish councils proceeded to issue a joint declaration known as the Halmstad Recess. This document outlined the conditions for John's rule, strengthening the authority of the councils and affirming that the union was apersonal union of three independent kingdoms.[9] It was hoped that Sweden would later accept the same terms and thereby acknowledge John as king.[7] John was crowned King of Denmark inCopenhagen on 18 May 1483, and King of Norway inTrondheim on 20 July.[10]
As negotiations with the Swedish Council continued, a separate agreement known as the Kalmar Recess was drafted on 9 September 1483. Intended to complement the Halmstad Recess, it included additional guarantees aimed at limiting royal authority and safeguarding the privileges of the Swedish Council of the Realm. Among the Swedish demands was the restoration ofGotland, a condition that proved unacceptable to King John. The negotiations ultimately broke down in 1484 over the Gotland question, and John was not crowned king of Sweden until 1497. During this period, Sweden was ruled by Regent Sten Sture and the Council of the Realm.[11][12][13]
John had also been proclaimed the future ruler of the duchies ofSchleswig andHolstein during Christian I's reign. However, following the birth of his younger brother Frederick in 1471, the terms of thePrivilege of Ribe allowed the duchies to elect a duke from among the sons of the late duke. Many nobles in Schleswig and Holstein favoredFrederick, but John successfully argued that both royal brothers should be elected as co-dukes. Although they were initially meant to govern jointly, the duchies were divided between them in 1490 when Frederick came of age. Feeling disadvantaged with regard to the royal inheritance, Frederick later asserted claims to a share in the kingdoms as well. In response, the Diet at Kalundborg in 1494 rejected Frederick's demands and declared Denmark to be an indivisible elective monarchy.[3]
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.[citation needed]
In the meantime, John had initially approved to join acrusade plan as presented inRome on 25 March 1490, in which Nordic soldiers would be part of a coalition of armies fighting the Turks of theOttoman Empire; however, he sent a legate with a letter toJulius II to explain that he had many conflicts at home, which would prevent him from implementing such endeavor.[14]
The Hanseatic cities were also troubled by a secret war by Danish privateers. In 1494, Ivan had imprisoned all Hanseatic merchants trading inNovgorod. 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.[citation needed]
As King John sought to assert his authority over Sweden and restore the Kalmar Union, he entered into an alliance with Grand PrinceIvan III of Moscow, aiming to pressure Sweden from the east. The Finnish colonization had expanded inSavo and northernOstrobothnia over the old borders[12] andErik Axelsson Tott had founded theOlavinlinna Castle on the Russian side of the border in 1475. John promised Ivan that he would restore the Russo-Swedish border to the line stipulated by the1323 Treaty of Nöteborg.[15] At the same time, tensions between Sten and the Swedish Council of the Realm intensified, particularly over his increasingly autocratic style and conflicts with the church hierarchy. These internal divisions created an opening for John.[4][16]
In 1494, the Swedish and Danish councils met inNya Lödöse and agreed to implement the 1483 Kalmar Recess. Although Sten Sture resisted, he was pressured into ratifying the agreement. A union summit was subsequently planned forKalmar in 1495, and King John of Denmark arrived in person, expecting to meet with the Swedish Council alongside the Danish and Norwegian councils.[17][18] On his way from Copenhagen to Kalmar in June 1495, John's premier vessel andflagship, the artillery-carrying carvelGribshunden, exploded and sank at anchor nearRonneby.[19] John himself had left the ship prior to the accident, and so was uninjured and able to continue to Kalmar by other means of conveyance. However, Sten repeatedly delayed his appearance by over a month, effectively sabotaging the negotiations.[16] After weeks of fruitless waiting, John abandoned the summit in August and returned to Copenhagen.[20][21]
In 1495, Russian forces attackedViborg Castle, triggering theRusso-Swedish War of 1495–1497 and diverting Sten Sture's attention to Finland. Under pressure, he led a delayed and indecisive campaign, hampered by winter conditions and internal disputes. Although the immediate threat to Viborg was repelled before his arrival, Sten's cautious strategy and refusal to compensate departing nobles provoked criticism from powerful figures, including ArchbishopJakob Ulvsson. By early 1497, political support for Sten had eroded sharply, and upon returning to Stockholm, he was deposed by the council.[4][16]
_1497.jpg)
However, Sten Sture refused to accept the council's decision and hand over his castles. He travelled toDalarna to rally support.[16] King John declared war against him on March 13, and marched on Kalmar, which capitulated without resistance. He then advanced toward Stockholm. On 28 September 1497, John's army decisively defeated Sten's peasant levy fromDalarna at theBattle of Rotebro, north of Stockholm. Sten, now isolated and politically outmaneuvered, initiated negotiations. On 6 October, a settlement was reached inKlara Priory, and Sten formally recognized John as king and relinquished his regency. John entered Stockholm five days later and was crowned King of Sweden. John appointed Sten Sture as theseneschal of the realm (rikets hovmästare), andSvante Nilsson asmarshal, and confirmed the Kalmar Recess.[16]
A six-year truce between Sweden and Russia had been agreed upon in March 1497 but the border remained disputed. With the Swedish crown now secured, John's interest in pursuing the earlier agreement with Ivan diminished.[22] In the spring of 1498, Ivan's envoys arrived in Stockholm to remind John of the agreement and request a formal border demarcation, but he responded evasively. Negotiations continued in 1499 and 1500. In a letter to Ivan III, King John stated that, according to the Swedish Privy Council, the territories claimed by Russia belonged to Sweden and could not be ceded.[23]
The settlement between John and Sten reflected a shared interest in avoiding a drawn-out conflict. While Sten was forced to surrenderVästerås Castle and Dalarna, he retained strategically important holdings such asNyköping,Rekarne, andSvartsjö. In Finland, he was granted the entireDiocese of Turku along with Norrbotten as a lifetime fief, while his wife,Ingeborg Tott, was promisedHäme Castle after his death. These favorable terms highlighted John's tactical pragmatism: Sten Sture continued to serve as a counterweight to the influence of the high council, while the king avoided placing Finland under direct royal control, instead entrusting the militarily precarious eastern frontier to Sture.[12] The arrangement was also shaped by long-term considerations: Sten Sture, now elderly and without heirs, posed little dynastic threat. The agreement disappointed some of the Swedish council nobility, especially those aligned with Archbishop Jakob Ulvsson, who had hoped for a stricter settlement and a more assertive Danish presence.[4][16]
In 1500, King John andDuke Frederick launched an attempt to conquerDithmarschen, a marchland region in what is nowSchleswig-Holstein. Although Danish and Holstein rulers had long regarded Dithmarschen as part of their rightful domain, it functioned in practice as an autonomous peasant republic under the nominal overlordship of thePrince-Archbishopric of Bremen.[24][25] In 1499, the peasants of Dithmarschen refused to accept Danish conditions in a dispute over fishing rights around the island ofHeligoland, and King John and Duke Frederick decided to use this opportunity to definitively resolve the Dithmarschen question in their favor.[26][27]
John mobilized the nobility from Schleswig and Holstein and hired the so-called "Black Guard", aLandsknecht formation composed largely of ruthless Dutch and East Frisianmercenaries, to support his campaign.[28][29] Altogether, the army numbered around 12,000 men: approximately 4,000 mercenaries, 2,000 cavalry, 1,000 artillerymen with 4 heavy and at least 23 field guns, and 5,000 foot soldiers. The Dithmarschen forces numbered perhaps 6,000 to 7,000 armed men. They were not professional soldiers but the region had a strong tradition of collective self-defense, and all men were required to perform military service from age 14 until elderly age. WendishHanseatic towns supplied Dithmarschen with money, gunpowder, and a small number of mercenaries.[26]
The Danish-led force entered Dithmarschen on February 11, 1500. They captured the lightly defended town ofMeldorf without serious resistance. The Black Guard committed atrocities against civilians, which solidified the Dithmarschers' resolve to fight. From Meldorf, King John ordered his forces to advance towardHeide along the main road betweenHemmingstedt andWöhrden on February 17. He ignored the advice of his commanders, who warned of poor weather and the risk posed by the marshy terrain. The concerns of the noble cavalry about deep, softened paths and deep side ditches hindering their mobility were disregarded. On the narrow road, the royal army made its way through the marsh towards Hemmingstedt in a 10 km long line.[26]
During the night before theBattle of Hemmingstedt, a small force of Dithmarschen men under the command ofWulf Isebrand [de] constructed a defensive earthwork at Hemmingstedt and opened the coastal dykes, flooding the surrounding marshland. The Dithmarschers' strategy was to refuse battle on the dry and wide areas of the fore-geest and instead fight the enemy in the wet, deep marsh to hinder its speed and deployment capabilities. When the Black Guard attempted to force a passage, they were trapped by the rising waters and overwhelmed by a series of counterattacks by the lightly armed but mobile defenders. The result was a catastrophic defeat for the Danish-led army, which suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat. In total, the princely army suffered 3,500 to 4,000 dead, while the Dithmarschers' losses were in the hundreds.[26]
The defeat by a peasant republic not only humiliated the Danish monarchy and the allied North German nobility but also exposed the limits of John's authority and military judgment. Immediately after the battle, the Dithmarschers widely publicized their victory through Latin and German songs and sayings, which were disseminated by printers inLübeck,Hamburg, andCologne. Lübeck was particularly prominent due to its close economic ties with Dithmarschen.[27]
After his initial success in Sweden, John felt confident enough to try and strip the Swedish magnates of their power. In June 1499, he deprived Sten Sture the castles ofÅbo (Turku) andViborg (Viipuri), and instead gave himGästrikland, Tuna inSmåland andVadsbo in Västergötland as fiefs. Similarly,Svante Nilsson had to exchangeÖrebro Castle to less importantStegeborg, and his requests for compensation for expenses in the Russian war were denied. John appointed Danishbailiffs to the castles owned by the crown. These developments led to a cautious rapprochement between Sten Sture and Svante Nilsson in the autumn of 1499. This alliance gained momentum in 1500 after the Danish defeat in the Battle of Hemmingstedt and whenHemming Gadh returned from Rome and began to organize resistance against John.[16]
When John returned to Sweden in early 1501 after an eighteen-month absence, the Swedish council submitted a protest complaining about use of foreign bailiffs and illegal taxation. Meanwhile, Ivan III had become impatient with the border negotiations with John and decided to make their agreement public.[23] Russian envoys arrived with letters providing evidence that John had promised to cede parts of eastern Finland to Moscow, and that theRusso-Swedish War of 1495 had been conducted in collusion with him.[12] In August, Sten Sture, Hemming Gadh, and several other members of the Swedish council renounced their allegiance to John. He then sailed for Denmark, leavingQueen Christina at Stockholm Castle.[4] The castle was soon besieged by Sten Sture's forces in a siege that lasted for nine months. Suffering from famine and bombardment, the defenders were reduced to just 70 survivors out of an initial garrison of 1,000. Queen Christina surrendered on 5 May 1502 and remained in captivity in Stockholm for eighteen months before being released.[30] Theincreasingly more bitter war against the Swedes caused friction with both the Danish nobility and the Hanseatic cities, especiallyLübeck.
Sten Sture the Elder served as a regent from November 1502 until his death in 1503.[16] In 1504 he was succeeded by Svante Nilsson, whose authority was restricted by the council, which he was required to consult on all major matters. The council decided to send a delegation to Copenhagen, and a meeting was scheduled for Kalmar in 1505. King John arrived there with the Norwegian and Danish councils, but the Swedish council failed to appear in time. Rather than wait, John had the Norwegian and Danish councils to form a court that awarded him the Swedish crown and convicted the late Sten Sture, Svante Nilsson, and several other Swedish nobles of high treason.[4] In the war that followed, the Swedish rebels were initially successful, capturing the city of Kalmar in 1506. However, in 1507, John persuaded the Hanseatic cities to suspend trade with Sweden, forcing the Swedish council to seek a settlement.[31]
After a series of negotiations between 1507 and 1509, Swedish envoys, under pressure from a trade blockade, accepted John's harsh terms. According to the treaty, Sweden was to pay an annual tribute of 12,000 marks to John, and 1,000 marks to Queen Christina until either John or his son, Prince Christian (later KingChristian II), was accepted as King of Sweden. However, the treaty was never implemented, and John was never allowed into Stockholm as long as he lived. Lübeck soon turned against Denmark, allied with Sweden, and helped break the blockade.[4]
Meanwhile, resistance in Norway was effectively suppressed by Prince Christian, who was theviceroy of Norway from 1506 until he became king in 1513. Between 1510 and 1512, the king waged a final war with both Sweden and Lübeck in which Denmark was at first very pressed but, with the help of the ScottishBarton brothers,[32] partly turned the tables with a naval offensive. The conflict ended with a peace that dealt Lübeck both political and economic setbacks. In early 1513, a summit was scheduled to take place in Copenhagen, where Sweden would have been forced to choose between accepting John or his son Christian as king, or agreeing to pay annual tribute. However, John died before the meeting could occur.[4]
In 1513, King John died at Aalborghus Castle a short time after being thrown from his horse. King John was buried in the church of theFranciscanfriary inOdense. Queen Christina, who lived the latter part of her life in anunnery in Odense, commissioned the famous German sculptorClaus Berg to create a magnificent burial chapel, where both she and her husband were laid to rest after her death in 1521. Thelate Gothicaltarpiececarved by Berg between 1515 and 1525 is one of Denmark's national treasures. Each of the three sections is intricately carved andgilded. It survived theiconoclastic fervour of theProtestant Reformation perhaps because of its connection with the royal burials. The son of King John and Queen Christina, King Christian II, with his wife Isabella of Austria, was also interred in the royal family chapel. In 1807, the former Franciscan church was demolished, and Berg's altarpiece and six royal bodies were transferred toSt. Canute's Cathedral, also in Odense.
The 32-year-old heir,Christian II of Denmark assumed the throne but was deposed in 1523. John's bloodline eventually returned to the Danish and Norwegian thrones in the person ofChristian IV of Denmark, the great-great-grandson of his daughter, Electress Elisabeth.[33]
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 ofLouis XI of France andHenry VII of England.[citation needed]
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[34]
In 1478, John marriedChristina of Saxony, daughter of ElectorErnst of Saxony andElisabeth of Bavaria.[5] During the last decade of John's life, he had a relationship withEdele Jernskjæg (died 1512).[35] After Christina was released from the Swedish captivity in 1503, she undertook a pilgrimage and then settled permanently atNæsbyhoved Castle nearOdense, living separately from John. Christina died in 1521.[30]
The Danish genealogical tradition mentions five children of John and Christina:[36]
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hans | 1479 | 1480 | died as a child |
| Ernst | 1480 | 1480 | died as a child |
| Christian II | 1 July 1481 | 25 January 1559 | King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Had issue. |
| Elizabeth | 24 June 1485 | 10 June 1555 | MarriedJoachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg in 1502. Had issue. |
| Francis | 15 July 1497 | 1 April 1511 |
TheOldenburgisch Chronicon from 1599 cites sources that mention an additional son named Jacob. Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen has argued that he wasJacobus de Dacia (1484–1566), a Franciscan friar who served as a missionary in Mexico.[37]
Hans, King of Denmark Born: 2 February 1455 Died: 22 July 1513 | ||
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| Preceded by | Duke of Holstein andSchleswig 1482–1513 withFrederick I (1482–1513) | Succeeded by |
| King of Denmark 1481–1513 | Succeeded by | |
| Vacant Title last held by Christian I | King of Norway 1483–1513 | |
| Vacant Title last held by Charles VIII | King of Sweden 1497–1501 | Vacant Title next held by Christian II |
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