In the post about Anna of Austria, Kristina’s predecessor, we saw how Sigismund, king of Sweden and Poland, was challenged by his uncle, duke Karl, over the rule of Sweden. The conflict between uncle and…
When Swedish king Johan III died, on November 17, 1592, his and Katarina Jagellonica’s son Sigismund became king of Sweden. He was already king of Poland, as nephew to the former queen Anna. He was…
After queen Katarina Jagellonica’s death in 1583, king Johan III was 45 years old and wanted to remarry. He found his new bride among the Swedish nobility – 16-year-old Gunilla Bielke. Gunilla’s father was councillor…
In the previous two posts about Katarina Jagellonica, we followed her journey from Polish princess, to Swedish duchess, from luxury to imprisonment. Let’s continue our story in the fall of 1567, after Katarina, her husband…
In the first post about Katarina Jagellonica, we got to know her as a Polish princess. In 1562 she married duke Johan of Finland, brother to the Swedish king Erik XIV. They had a dangerous…
After Erik XIV and Karin Månsdotter had been driven from the throne, Erik’s brother Johan was proclaimed king in January 1569. In July of the same year, he and his wife Katarina were crowned king…
In the first post about Karin Månsdotter, we learned how the bar maid was secretly married to the king, Erik XIV while pregnant with their second child. Let’s continue: As Karins stomach grew, so did…
When Gustav Vasa died on september 29 1560, the crown passed to his eldest son, Erik. To inherit the throne was something new in Sweden, where the king traditionally had been elected. To cement his…
When queen Margareta Leijonhufvud died the king, Gustav Vasa, was 55 years old. He had a chronic inflammation in one leg and the few teeth he had left were inflamed. He must have been in…
Only a year after the death of his first wife, Gustav Vasa remarried. Not to a foreign princess this time, but to a young woman from a prominent noble family – Margareta Leijonhufvud. Margareta was…