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116-568: John III ( Swedish : Johan III , Finnish : Juhana 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 Eric 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. He
232-599: A Diet made up of the Four Estates , which historically were the lines of division in Swedish society: The inclusion of a fourth estate, Bondeståndet , is a peculiarity of the Swedish realm, with few parallels in Europe. The English word peasant is however an inexact translation, as it did not include the entire peasantry, as it is usually defined in an English context. It did not include unlanded or semi-landed groups such as crofters, lodgers and seasonal labourers and of
348-445: A common gender with the definite suffix -en and the definite article den , in contrast with the neuter gender equivalents -et and det . The verb system was also more complex: it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number . By the 16th century, the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to
464-477: A guttural or "French R" pronunciation in the South Swedish dialects ; consequently, these dialects lack retroflex consonants . Swedish is a stress-timed language, where the time intervals between stressed syllables are equal. However, when casually spoken, it tends to be syllable-timed . Any stressed syllable carries one of two tones , which gives Swedish much of its characteristic sound. Prosody
580-537: A change from tauþr into tuþr . Moreover, the øy diphthong changed into a long, close ø , as in the Old Norse word for "island". By the end of the period, these innovations had affected most of the Runic Swedish-speaking area as well, with the exception of the dialects spoken north and east of Mälardalen where the diphthongs still exist in remote areas. Old Swedish (Swedish: fornsvenska )
696-528: A conversation. Due to the close relation between the Scandinavian languages, a considerable proportion of speakers of Danish and especially Norwegian are able to understand Swedish. There is considerable migration between the Nordic countries , but owing to the similarity between the cultures and languages (with the exception of Finnish ), expatriates generally assimilate quickly and do not stand out as
812-491: A fact that created frictions to 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
928-504: A few weeks with 1200 men and then surrendered on August 12, 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
1044-593: A fierce temperament and great suspicion. But he lacked sharpness, firmness, prudence and a practical eye. 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
1160-692: A group. According to the 2000 United States Census , some 67,000 people over the age of five were reported as Swedish speakers, though without any information on the degree of language proficiency. Similarly, there were 16,915 reported Swedish speakers in Canada from the 2001 census. Although there are no certain numbers, some 40,000 Swedes are estimated to live in the London area in the United Kingdom. Outside Sweden and Finland, there are about 40,000 active learners enrolled in Swedish language courses. In
1276-629: A large proportion of the remaining 100,000 in the Scandinavian countries, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Over three million people speak Swedish as a second language, with about 2,410,000 of those in Finland. According to a survey by the European Commission , 44% of respondents from Finland who did not have Swedish as a native language considered themselves to be proficient enough in Swedish to hold
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#17327807387781392-400: 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. He called in skilled builders, sculptors and painters from Germany and the Netherlands and also intervened himself, through his own drawings, in
1508-611: 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. John III built chapels in all his major castles , with Vadstena Castle partially preserved and Kalmar Castle still well preserved. In this ecclesiastical building activity,
1624-425: A more abstract sense, such as that set of fish; while fisken means "the fish". In certain cases, the definite form indicates possession, e. g., jag måste tvätta hår et ("I must wash my hair"). Adjectives are inflected in two declensions – indefinite and definite – and they must match the noun they modify in gender and number. The indefinite neuter and plural forms of an adjective are usually created by adding
1740-435: A noun. They can double as demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative determiners when used with adverbs such as här ("here") or där ("there") to form den/det här (can also be "denna/detta") ("this"), de här (can also be "dessa") ("these"), den/det där ("that"), and de där ("those"). For example, den där fisken means "that fish" and refers to a specific fish; den fisken is less definite and means "that fish" in
1856-523: A quasi-official representation of the Swedish nobility until 2003. Although the Nobility remains as a legal entity it is no longer an entity of public law but merely a private association. All Noble privileges have been abolished. However, a number of entailed properties ( fidekomisser ) remain to be commuted (that is, turned into limited liability companies). The modern Centre Party , which grew out of
1972-470: 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. When his brother Eric XIV became king and held on to royal rights, the brothers soon fell out. As Duke of Finland, he opposed the efforts of his half-brother King Eric XIV (1560–1569) to secure Reval and other East Baltic ports. It was only with
2088-516: A son. With his mistress Karin Hansdotter (1532–1596) he had at least four illegitimate children. John cared for Karin and their children even after he married Catherine Jagiellon, in 1562. He found Karin a husband who would care for her and the children. In 1561, she married nobleman Klas Andersson (Westgöthe), a friend and servant of John. They had a daughter named Brita. John continued supporting Karin and his illegitimate children as king, from 1568. In 1572 Karin married again, as her first husband
2204-689: A special branch of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland has official status as the regulatory body for Swedish in Finland. Among its highest priorities is to maintain intelligibility with the language spoken in Sweden. It has published Finlandssvensk ordbok , a dictionary about the differences between Swedish in Finland and Sweden. From the 13th to 20th century, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia , particularly on
2320-442: A suffix ( -t or -a ) to the common form of the adjective, e. g., en grön stol (a green chair), ett grönt hus (a green house), and gröna stolar ("green chairs"). The definite form of an adjective is identical to the indefinite plural form, e. g., den gröna stolen ("the green chair"), det gröna huset ("the green house"), and de gröna stolarna ("the green chairs"). Swedish pronouns are similar to those of English. Besides
2436-413: A village, Gammalsvenskby ("Old Swedish Village"). A few elderly people in the village still speak a Swedish dialect and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar, although their dialect is most likely facing extinction. From 1918 to 1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found along the coast, used Swedish as
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#17327807387782552-676: Is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family , spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland . It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the fourth most spoken Germanic language , and the first among its type in the Nordic countries overall. Swedish, like the other Nordic languages , is a descendant of Old Norse , the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during
2668-892: Is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages . In the established classification, it belongs to the East Scandinavian languages , together with Danish , separating it from the West Scandinavian languages , consisting of Faroese , Icelandic , and Norwegian . However, more recent analyses divide the North Germanic languages into two groups: Insular Scandinavian (Faroese and Icelandic), and Continental Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), based on mutual intelligibility due to heavy influence of East Scandinavian (particularly Danish) on Norwegian during
2784-419: 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. His own taste therefore came to assert itself in many ways, and he may justly be regarded as
2900-481: Is generally seen as adding specific Central Swedish features to the new Bible. Though it might seem as if the Bible translation set a very powerful precedent for orthographic standards, spelling actually became more inconsistent during the remainder of the century. It was not until the 17th century that spelling began to be discussed, around the time when the first grammars were written. Capitalization during this time
3016-538: Is marked primarily through suffixes (endings), complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles . The prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a comparatively large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative , a highly variable consonant phoneme . Swedish nouns and adjectives are declined in genders as well as number . Nouns are of common gender ( en form) or neuter gender ( ett form). The gender determines
3132-568: Is often one of the most noticeable differences between dialects. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages , V2 , which means that the finite verb (V) appears in the second position (2) of a declarative main clause . Swedish morphology is similar to English; that is, words have comparatively few inflections . Swedish has two genders and is generally seen to have two grammatical cases – nominative and genitive (except for pronouns that, as in English, also are inflected in
3248-638: Is one of the official languages of the European Union , and one of the working languages of the Nordic Council . Under the Nordic Language Convention , citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Swedish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable for interpretation or translation costs. The Swedish Language Council ( Språkrådet )
3364-475: Is termed nusvenska (lit., "Now-Swedish") in linguistics, and started in the last decades of the 19th century. It saw a democratization of the language with a less formal written form that approached the spoken one. The growth of a public school system also led to the evolution of so-called boksvenska (literally, "book Swedish"), especially among the working classes, where spelling to some extent influenced pronunciation, particularly in official contexts. With
3480-527: Is the predominant language; in 19 municipalities , 16 of which are located in Åland , Swedish is the sole official language. Åland county is an autonomous region of Finland. According to a rough estimation, as of 2010 there were up to 300,000 Swedish-speakers living outside Sweden and Finland. The largest populations were in the United States (up to 100,000), the UK, Spain and Germany (c. 30,000 each) and
3596-455: Is the regulator of Swedish in Sweden but does not attempt to enforce control of the language, as for instance the Académie française does for French . However, many organizations and agencies require the use of the council's publication Svenska skrivregler in official contexts, with it otherwise being regarded as a de facto orthographic standard. Among the many organizations that make up
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3712-407: Is the sole official language of Åland (an autonomous province under the sovereignty of Finland), where the vast majority of the 26,000 inhabitants speak Swedish as a first language. In Finland as a whole, Swedish is one of the two "national" languages, with the same official status as Finnish (spoken by the majority) at the state level and an official language in some municipalities . Swedish
3828-631: Is the term used for the medieval Swedish language. The start date is usually set to 1225 since this is the year that Västgötalagen ("the Västgöta Law") is believed to have been compiled for the first time. It is among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script and the oldest Swedish law codes . Old Swedish is divided into äldre fornsvenska (1225–1375) and yngre fornsvenska (1375–1526), "older" and "younger" Old Swedish. Important outside influences during this time came with
3944-649: Is usually considered to be the first Riksdag, but there is no indication that the fourth estate, the farmers, were represented there. The constitution of 1809 divided the powers of government between the monarch and the Riksdag of the Estates, and after 1866 between the monarch and the new Riksdag . In 1866 all the Estates voted in favor of dissolution and at the same time to constitute a new assembly, Sveriges Riksdag . The four former estates were abolished. The House of Nobility ( Swedish : Riddarhuset ) remained as
4060-465: The Gustav Vasa Bible , a translation deemed so successful and influential that, with revisions incorporated in successive editions, it remained the most common Bible translation until 1917. The main translators were Laurentius Andreæ and the brothers Laurentius and Olaus Petri . The Vasa Bible is often considered to be a reasonable compromise between old and new; while not adhering to
4176-460: The 1569 Plot , the Mornay Plot , and the 1576 Plot . Fear of his possible release constantly worried the king (compare Eric 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 Eric XIV's life was ended in 1577. Even if this was not
4292-467: The French vous (see T-V distinction ). Ni wound up being used as a slightly less familiar form of du , the singular second person pronoun, used to address people of lower social status. With the liberalization and radicalization of Swedish society in the 1950s and 1960s, these class distinctions became less important, and du became the standard, even in formal and official contexts. Though
4408-687: The Gothic traditions, even in detail, lived on. The many castle and fortress projects were partly inherited from the time of Gustav I and Eric XIV, and partly started by John III. The Tre Kronor Palace in Stockholm was significantly extended and redecorated. The northern courtyard, including the castle church, was given the character it retained until the Castle Fire in 1697. The castle in Uppsala (the present southern part and its western extension)
4524-518: The United States , particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a significant Swedish-speaking immigrant population. This was notably true in states like Minnesota , where many Swedish immigrants settled. By 1940, approximately 6% of Minnesota's population spoke Swedish. Although the use of Swedish has significantly declined, it is not uncommon to find older generations and communities that still retain some use and knowledge of
4640-585: The Viking Age . It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish , although the degree of mutual intelligibility is dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Standard Swedish , spoken by most Swedes , is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century, and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties and rural dialects still exist,
4756-581: The nationalist ideas that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the languages have separate orthographies , dictionaries, grammars, and regulatory bodies. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are thus from a linguistic perspective more accurately described as a dialect continuum of Scandinavian (North Germanic), and some of the dialects, such as those on the border between Norway and Sweden, especially parts of Bohuslän , Dalsland , western Värmland , western Dalarna , Härjedalen , Jämtland , and Scania , could be described as intermediate dialects of
John III of Sweden - Misplaced Pages Continue
4872-410: The object form) – although it is debated if the genitive in Swedish should be seen as a genitive case or just the nominative plus the so-called genitive s , then seen as a clitic . Swedish has two grammatical numbers – plural and singular . Adjectives have discrete comparative and superlative forms and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness . The definiteness of nouns
4988-399: The 1950s, when their use was removed from all official recommendations. A very significant change in Swedish occurred in the late 1960s, with the so-called du-reformen . Previously, the proper way to address people of the same or higher social status had been by title and surname. The use of herr ("Mr." or "Sir"), fru ("Mrs." or "Ma'am") or fröken ("Miss") was considered
5104-485: The 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse , evolved into Old Norse. This language underwent more changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects: Old West Norse (Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). The dialects of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish , while
5220-598: 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
5336-471: The Modern Swedish period were the gradual assimilation of several different consonant clusters into the fricative [ʃ] and later into [ɧ] . There was also the gradual softening of [ɡ] and [k] into [j] and the fricative [ɕ] before front vowels . The velar fricative [ɣ] was also transformed into the corresponding plosive [ɡ] . The period that includes Swedish as it is spoken today
5452-729: The Polish king as a pledge seven permanent castles in Livonia in return for an advance of 120,000 daler. Eric 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
5568-900: 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, he was also at odds theologically with his younger brother Duke Charles of Sudermannia (afterwards Charles IX of Sweden ), who had Calvinist sympathies, and did not promote King John's Liturgy in his duchy. This
5684-601: The Swedish Language Council, the Swedish Academy (established 1786) is arguably the most influential. Its primary instruments are the spelling dictionary Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL , currently in its 14th edition) and the dictionary Svenska Akademiens Ordbok , in addition to various books on grammar, spelling and manuals of style. Although the dictionaries have a prescriptive element, they mainly describe current usage. In Finland,
5800-726: The Swedish farmers' movement, could be construed as a modern representation with a traditional bond to the Estate of the Farmers. Following the Finnish War in 1809, Sweden ceded its eastmost provinces to the Russian Empire . Comprising much of present-day Finland, these became a Grand Duchy under the Emperor , but the political institutions were kept practically intact. The Finnish estates assembled in 1809 at Porvoo to confirm
5916-502: The administrative language and Swedish-Estonian culture saw an upswing. However, most Swedish-speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of World War II , that is, before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944. Only a handful of speakers remain. Swedish dialects have either 17 or 18 vowel phonemes , 9 long and 9 short. As in the other Germanic languages, including English, most long vowels are phonetically paired with one of
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#17327807387786032-495: The air was healthier than in the city. But there was no improvement, and in high summer the condition worsened. He died in Stockholm on November 17, 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
6148-489: 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
6264-531: The basis of the consensus of the first five centuries of Christianity ( consensus quinquesaecularis ). He 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
6380-510: The case, the fact remains that John III did not shrink from the possible murder of his half-brother and that it was not against his will if it was carried out. 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" Eric XIV, his own brother. He had some similar characteristics to his father and brothers; violent, with
6496-561: 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
6612-563: The change in their allegiance. This Diet of Finland followed the forms of the Swedish Riksdag, being the legislative body of the new autonomous region. However, during the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I it was not assembled and no new legislation was enacted. The diet was next assembled by tsar Alexander II in 1863, due to the need to modernize the laws. After this the Diet met regularly until 1905, when it passed an act forming
6728-594: The church to approve an addendum to the church order in 1575, Nova ordinantia ecclesiastica that displayed a return to patristic sources . This set the stage for his 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
6844-504: The colloquial spoken language of its day, it was not overly conservative in its use of archaic forms. It was a major step towards a more consistent Swedish orthography . It established the use of the vowels "å", "ä", and "ö", and the spelling "ck" in place of "kk", distinguishing it clearly from the Danish Bible, perhaps intentionally, given the ongoing rivalry between the countries. All three translators came from central Sweden, which
6960-421: The counties were increased by up to 20 parishes. The counts were given jurisdiction over the county's population. John III was very interested in art, especially architecture. He was undoubtedly the most building-minded monarch Sweden ever had. Like his brother Eric, he was highly artistic and aesthetically gifted. However, his sense of beauty found its most obvious expression in the field of architecture. He spent
7076-445: 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
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#17327807387787192-403: The declension of the adjectives . For example, the word fisk ("fish") is a noun of common gender ( en fisk ) and can have the following forms: The definite singular form of a noun is created by adding a suffix ( -en , -n , -et or -t ), depending on its gender and if the noun ends in a vowel or not. The definite articles den , det , and de are used for variations to the definitiveness of
7308-541: The dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish . The dialects are described as "runic" because the main body of text appears in the runic alphabet . Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which had only 16 letters. Because the number of runes was limited, some runes were used for a range of phonemes , such as
7424-577: The eastern Baltic from a Russian threat. John also cooperated with his brother Eric, and traveled to London on his behalf, while Eric 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
7540-618: 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 Scandinavian 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,
7656-545: The firm establishment of the Christian church and various monastic orders, introducing many Greek and Latin loanwords. With the rise of Hanseatic power in the late 13th and early 14th century, Middle Low German became very influential. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of Low German -speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their native languages into
7772-507: 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 Eric'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
7888-485: The foreign masters he employed were the three members of the Pahr family of architects, originally from Lombardy , Franciscus Pahr , Johan Baptista Pahr and Dominicus Pahr, the former of whom had his name attached to Uppsala, the latter two to Borgholm 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,
8004-511: 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 . 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:
8120-430: The industrialization and urbanization of Sweden well under way by the last decades of the 19th century, a new breed of authors made their mark on Swedish literature . Many scholars, politicians and other public figures had a great influence on the emerging national language, among them prolific authors like the poet Gustaf Fröding , Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf and radical writer and playwright August Strindberg . It
8236-551: The islands (e. g., Hiiumaa , Vormsi , Ruhnu ; in Swedish, known as Dagö , Ormsö , Runö , respectively) along the coast of the Baltic , communities that today have all disappeared. The Swedish-speaking minority was represented in parliament , and entitled to use their native language in parliamentary debates. After the loss of Estonia to the Russian Empire in the early 18th century, around 1,000 Estonian Swedish speakers were forced to march to southern Ukraine , where they founded
8352-484: The language, particularly in rural communities like Lindström and Scandia . Swedish is the official main language of Sweden. Swedish is also one of two official languages of Finland. In Sweden, it has long been used in local and state government, and most of the educational system, but remained only a de facto primary language with no official status in law until 2009. A bill was proposed in 2005 that would have made Swedish an official language, but failed to pass by
8468-490: The last millennium and divergence from both Faroese and Icelandic. By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. However, because of several hundred years of sometimes quite intense rivalry between Denmark and Sweden, including a long series of wars from the 16th to 18th centuries, and
8584-404: 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 Eric XIV, only the counts had been given estates, and these were small. Now
8700-466: 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
8816-577: The narrowest possible margin (145–147) due to a pairing-off failure. A proposal for a broader language law, designating Swedish as the main language of the country and bolstering the status of the minority languages, was submitted by an expert committee to the Swedish Ministry of Culture in March 2008. It was subsequently enacted by the Riksdag , and entered into effect on 1 July 2009. Swedish
8932-421: The national standard languages. Swedish pronunciations also vary greatly from one region to another, a legacy of the vast geographic distances and historical isolation. Even so, the vocabulary is standardized to a level that make dialects within Sweden virtually fully mutually intelligible. East Germanic languages West Germanic languages Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish In
9048-424: The north. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the other dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é , as in stæinn to sténn "stone". This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain and the later stin . There was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr "dead". This change is shown in runic inscriptions as
9164-441: The only acceptable way to begin conversation with strangers of unknown occupation, academic title or military rank. The fact that the listener should preferably be referred to in the third person tended to further complicate spoken communication between members of society. In the early 20th century, an unsuccessful attempt was made to replace the insistence on titles with ni —the standard second person plural pronoun)—analogous to
9280-402: The original Germanic three- gender system. Nouns , adjectives , pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases; besides the extant nominative , there were also the genitive (later possessive ), dative and accusative . The gender system resembled that of modern German , having masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The masculine and feminine genders were later merged into
9396-510: 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. 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
9512-450: The princely rights, he gave up the claims he had previously stubbornly maintained after the break with the high nobility. Even his newfound friendship with his brother Charles soon cooled, however, and for the last few months of his life John III 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
9628-564: 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
9744-480: The reform was not an act of any centralized political decree, but rather the result of sweeping change in social attitudes, it was completed in just a few years, from the late 1960s to early 1970s. The use of ni as a polite form of address is sometimes encountered today in both the written and spoken language, particularly among older speakers. Swedish is the sole official national language of Sweden , and one of two in Finland (alongside Finnish ). As of 2006, it
9860-450: 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
9976-611: 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. 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,
10092-468: The rune for the vowel u , which was also used for the vowels o , ø and y , and the rune for i , also used for e . From 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark, creating a series of minor dialectal boundaries, or isoglosses , ranging from Zealand in the south to Norrland , Österbotten and northwestern Finland in
10208-522: The said site was commissioned by his son Sigismund in Danzig (from the sculptor Willem van den Blocke ), but only came to Sweden in 1782 through Gustav III 's care and was erected in its present location in 1818, albeit with an incorrect arrangement, which was however redesigned by Agi Lindegren during the church's restoration in the early 1890s. The Finnish city of Pori uses Deus Protector Noster (John III's motto ) as its motto. A statue of Duke John
10324-444: The short /e/ (transcribed ⟨ ɛ ⟩ in the chart below). There are 18 consonant phonemes, two of which, / ɧ / and /r/ , vary considerably in pronunciation depending on the dialect and social status of the speaker. In many dialects, sequences of /r/ (pronounced alveolarly) with a dental consonant result in retroflex consonants ; alveolarity of the pronunciation of /r/ is a precondition for this retroflexion. /r/ has
10440-428: The short vowels, and the pairs are such that the two vowels are of similar quality , but with the short vowel being slightly lower and slightly centralized. In contrast to e.g. Danish, which has only tense vowels, the short vowels are slightly more lax, but the tense vs. lax contrast is not nearly as pronounced as in English, German or Dutch. In many dialects, the short vowel sound pronounced [ɛ] or [æ] has merged with
10556-514: The subject in a clause, a trait that is restricted to North Germanic languages: Riksdag of the Estates Riksdag of the Estates ( Swedish : Riksens ständer ; informally Swedish : ståndsriksdagen ) was the name used for the Estates of Sweden when they were assembled. Until its dissolution in 1866, the institution was the highest authority in Sweden next to the King . It was
10672-569: The three categories of Swedish bönder , that is peasants, it included only two. Those were the skattebönder ("tax peasants"), yeomen who owned their own land and were taxed, as well as the kronobönder ("Crown farmers" or "farmers of the Crown"), who farmed land owned by the Crown. The third group, the frälsebönder ("farmers of the nobility/gentry"), who farmed land owned by the nobility, were not represented, as they were considered to be represented by their landowners. The meeting at Arboga in 1435
10788-534: The two cases and two genders of modern Swedish. A transitional change of the Latin script in the Nordic countries was to spell the letter combination "ae" as æ – and sometimes as a' – though it varied between persons and regions. The combination "ao" was similarly rendered a , and "oe" became o . These three were later to evolve into the separate letters ä , å and ö . The first time the new letters were used in print
10904-517: The two natural genders han and hon ("he" and "she"), there are also the two grammatical genders den and det , usually termed common and neuter . In recent years, a gender-neutral pronoun hen has been introduced, particularly in literary Swedish. Unlike the nouns, pronouns have an additional object form, derived from the old dative form. Hon , for example, has the following nominative, possessive, and object forms: Swedish also uses third-person possessive reflexive pronouns that refer to
11020-512: 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 Eric's will, married Princess Catherine Jagiellon in Vilnius on October 4, 1562, the younger sister of Poland's King Sigismund II Augustus , with whom Eric was at war, and when the two brothers-in-law shortly after the wedding concluded an agreement according to which John would receive from
11136-439: The vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration, general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. The League also brought a certain measure of influence from Danish (at the time Swedish and Danish were much more similar than today). Early Old Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and also retained
11252-543: 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, Eric's actions in
11368-530: The written language is uniform and standardized . Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland where its status is co- official language . Swedish was long spoken in parts of Estonia , although the current status of the Estonian Swedish speakers is almost extinct. It is also used in the Swedish diaspora , most notably in Oslo , Norway, with more than 50,000 Swedish residents. Swedish
11484-556: Was Bråborg Castle , intended as a widow's seat for Queen Gunilla, while Drottningholm (the older one, burnt down in 1661) was built on one of the islands of Lake Mälaren at the request of Catherine Jagiellon. The rebuilding of Turku Castle, Västerås Castle , Gävle Castle , Stegeborg Castle and Linköping Castle can also be mentioned. Fortifications were present at almost all the castles. More purely as fortresses were Älvsborg , Gullberg , Kronoberg Castle , Kexholm , Vyborg and other places, at which significant fortification work
11600-486: Was John's maternal uncle Sten Leijonhufvud , who was fatally wounded. At deathbed he was made Count of Raseborg . Eric 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. In January 1569, John III
11716-745: Was also, quite autonomously, the Duke of Finland from 1556 to 1563. In 1581 he assumed the title Grand Prince 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
11832-437: Was closer to Poland, the perimeter of the courtyard was completed, the floors were laid out on the same level, and in the interior the costly decoration begun under Eric XIV was continued. Borgholm Castle, on the other hand, was Johan III's largest new building, with a completely regular plan, outstanding spaciousness and magnificence, and strong fortifications, but it was not completed during Johan III's reign. Another new building
11948-484: Was during the 20th century that a common, standardized national language became available to all Swedes. The orthography finally stabilized and became almost completely uniform, with some minor deviations, by the time of the spelling reform of 1906. With the exception of plural forms of verbs and a slightly different syntax, particularly in the written language, the language was the same as the Swedish of today. The plural verb forms appeared decreasingly in formal writing into
12064-462: Was executed for treason by Eric XIV in 1563, to a Lars Henrikson, whom John ennobled in 1576 to care for his issue with Karin. The same year, he made his daughter Sofia a lady in the castle, as a servant to his sister Princess Elizabeth of Sweden . In 1580, John married her to Pontus De la Gardie . She later died giving birth to Jacob De la Gardie . Swedish language Swedish ( endonym : svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] )
12180-524: 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. 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
12296-656: Was in Aff dyäffwlsens frästilse ("By the Devil's temptation") published by Johan Gerson in 1495. Modern Swedish (Swedish: nysvenska ) begins with the advent of the printing press and the European Reformation . After assuming power, the new monarch Gustav Vasa ordered a Swedish translation of the Bible . The New Testament was published in 1526, followed by a full Bible translation in 1541, usually referred to as
12412-536: 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 and half-brother of Eric XIV. He
12528-694: Was married from October 4, 1562 to Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583), with whom he had a daughter Anna Vasa in addition to Sigismund, and from February 21, 1585 to Gunilla Johansdotter (Bielke) (1568-1597). John III was born at Stegeborg Castle on December 20, 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 June 27, 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
12644-523: Was not standardized. It depended on the authors and their background. Those influenced by German capitalized all nouns, while others capitalized more sparsely. It is also not always apparent which letters are capitalized owing to the Gothic or blackletter typeface that was used to print the Bible. This typeface was in use until the mid-18th century, when it was gradually replaced with a Latin typeface (often Antiqua ). Some important changes in sound during
12760-533: Was often undertaken, followed with interest by the king. In the art of fortification, Sweden was at this time at the forefront of the Nordic countries , because the new Italian system had been introduced by the Pahr brothers. Among monumental works of sculpture, the most noteworthy are the funerary monuments of his father Gustav I and his first two wives, and the beautiful tomb of Catherine Jagiellon, both in Uppsala Cathedral. The monument to John III on
12876-579: Was rebuilt after the fire of 1572 as a brick building with rusticated plaster and two round towers. Vadstena Castle, like the previous one founded by Gustav I, was expanded into the Renaissance palace it still is today, although it was not completed according to the original plan until the early 17th century. Svartsjö Palace was a curious building, with its circular arcaded courtyard and domed church on either side of an older stone house. At Kalmar Castle, where John often resided there because it
12992-409: Was recognized as king by the same Diet ( Riksdag ) that forced Eric 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
13108-472: Was relatively light, especially compared to what Eric 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. During Eric's insanity in
13224-666: Was summoned in April 1563 to appear in Sweden to answer the charge of treasonable designs. 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
13340-478: Was the sole native language of 83% of Swedish residents. In 2007, around 5.5% (c. 290,000) of the population of Finland were native speakers of Swedish, partially due to a decline following the Russian annexation of Finland after the Finnish War 1808–1809. The Fenno-Swedish - speaking minority is concentrated in the coastal areas and archipelagos of southern and western Finland. In some of these areas, Swedish
13456-487: Was unveiled in front of Pori Town Hall in 2008, 450 years after the city was founded by him. John married his first wife, Catherine Jagiellon of Poland (1526–83), of the House of Jagiellon , in Vilnius on 4 October 1562. In Sweden, she is known as Katarina Jagellonica . She was the sister of king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland . He married his second wife, Gunilla Bielke (1568–1592), on 21 February 1585; they had
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