1.
Sceptre
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A sceptre or scepter is a symbolic ornamental staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty, either right or cruel, the ancient Indian work of Tirukkural dedicates a separate chapter each on the ethics of the right sceptre and the evils of the cruel sceptre. The Was and other types of staffs were signs of authority in Ancient Egypt, for this reason, they are often described as sceptres, even if they are full-length staffs. One of the earliest royal sceptres was discovered in the 2nd Dynasty tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The staff with the longest history seems to be the heqa-sceptre, the Bronze Age rulers of Mesopotamia are not regularly depicted with sceptres. However, in instances, they are shown armed, with bow and arrow. Use of a rod or staff as representing authority can be traced to the beginning of Classical Antiquity. Among the early Greeks, the sceptre was a staff, such as Agamemnon wielded or was used by respected elders, and came to be used by judges, military leaders, priests. It is represented on painted vases as a staff tipped with a metal ornament. When the sceptre is borne by Zeus or Hades, it is headed by a bird, when, in the Iliad, Agamemnon sends Odysseus to the leaders of the Achaeans, he lends him his sceptre. Among the Etruscans, sceptres of great magnificence were used by kings, many representations of such sceptres occur on the walls of the painted tombs of Etruria. The British Museum, the Vatican, and the Louvre possess Etruscan sceptres of gold, the Roman sceptre probably derived from the Etruscan. Under the Republic, a sceptre was a mark of consular rank. It was also used by generals who received the title of imperator. In the First Persian Empire, the Biblical Book of Esther mentions the sceptre of the King of Persia. Esther 5,2 When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight, so Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter. Under the Roman Empire, the sceptrum Augusti was specially used by the emperors, the codes of the right and the cruel sceptre are found in the ancient Tamil work of Tirukkural, dating back to between the first and the third centuries BCE. With the advent of Christianity, the sceptre was tipped with a cross instead of with an eagle
2.
Key (lock)
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A key is a device that is used to operate a lock. A key is usually intended to one specific lock or a small number of locks that are keyed alike. The key serves as a security token for access to the area, only persons having the correct key can open the lock. Keys provide an inexpensive, though imperfect, method of control for access to physical properties like buildings, vehicles. As such, keys are a feature of modern living. It is common for people to carry the set of keys they need for their activities around with them, often linked by a keyring. The earliest known lock and key device was discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, Locks such as this were later developed into the Egyptian wooden pin lock, which consisted of a bolt, door fixture, and key. When the key was inserted, pins within the fixture were lifted out drilled holes within the bolt, when the key was removed, the pins fell part-way into the bolt, preventing movement. The warded lock was also present from antiquity and remains the most recognizable lock, the first all-metal locks appeared between the years 870 and 900, and are attributed to the English craftsmen. It is also said that the key was invented by Theodore of Samos in the 6th century BC, affluent Romans often kept their valuables in secure boxes within their households, and wore the keys as rings on their fingers. The practice had two benefits, It kept the key handy at all times, while signaling that the wearer was wealthy and important enough to have money and jewelry worth securing. The lever tumbler lock, which uses a set of levers to prevent the bolt from moving in the lock, was perfected by Robert Barron in 1778. His double acting lever lock required the lever to be lifted to a height by having a slot cut in the lever. This type of lock is currently used today. The lever tumbler lock was improved by Jeremiah Chubb in 1818. A burglary in Portsmouth Dockyard prompted the British Government to announce a competition to produce a lock that could be opened only with its own key, Chubb was awarded £100 after a trained lock-picker failed to break the lock after 3 months. In 1820, Jeremiah joined his brother Charles in starting their own lock company, the Chubb brothers also received a patent for the first burglar-resisting safe and began production in 1835. The designs of Barron and Chubb were based on the use of levers, but Joseph Bramah
3.
Globus cruciger
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The cross represents Christs dominion over the orb of the world, literally held in the hand of an earthly ruler. In the iconography of Western art, when Christ himself holds the globe, he is called Salvator Mundi, holding the world in ones hand, or more ominously, under ones foot, has been used as a symbol since antiquity. To citizens of the Roman Empire, the round globe held by Jupiter represented the world, or the universe. The orbis terrarum was central to the iconography of the Tetrarchy, constantine I claimed to have had a vision of a cross above the sun, with the words In this sign, you shall conquer, at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. His soldiers painted crosses upon their shields, and then defeated their foe, with the growth of Christianity in the 5th century, the orb was topped with a cross, symbolising the Christian Gods dominion over the world. The emperor held the world in his hand, to show that he ruled it on Gods behalf, to non-Christians already familiar with the pagan globe, the surmounting of a cross sent a message about the triumph of Christianity. Although the globe symbolized the entire Earth, its use spread among many Christian rulers who reigned over parts of the earth. The globus cruciger was associated with rulers and celestial beings alike. It first appeared on coins in the early 5th century and remained throughout the Middle Ages in coins, iconography. It may still be seen in the arms of the surviving European monarchies. Even in the era in England, the Sovereigns Orb symbolises both the state and Church of England under the protection and domain of the royal crown. The Ball and the Cross Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch Monde Earth symbol Leslie Brubaker, Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol 5,564, ISBN 0-684-18161-4 Picture of the 10th century Orb, Scepter and Crown insignia of the Holy Roman Empire
4.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
5.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, 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 descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the 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, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
6.
Stockholm Palace
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Stockholm Palace or The Royal Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen, in Gamla stan in the capital, the offices of the King, the other members of the Swedish Royal Family, and the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located here. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst performing his duties as the head of state. This royal residence has been in the location by Norrström in the northern part of the Gamla stan in Stockholm since the middle of the 13th century when the Tre Kronor Castle was built. In modern times the name relates to the building called Kungliga Slottet, the palace was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and erected on the same place as the medieval Tre Kronor Castle which was destroyed in a fire on 7 May 1697. Due to the costly Great Northern War which started in 1700, construction of the palace was halted in 1709, when Tessin the Younger died in 1728, the palace was completed by Carl Hårleman who also designed a large part of its Rococo interior. The palace was not ready to use until 1754, when King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika moved in, as of 2009 the interior of the palace consists of 1,430 rooms of which 660 have windows. The palace contains apartments for the Royal families, representation and festivities such as the State Apartments, the Guest Apartments, the National Library of Sweden was housed in the northeast wing, the Biblioteksflygeln, until 1878. As of 2014 it houses the Bernadotte Library, the Slottsarkivet is housed in the Chancery Wing. In the palace are the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden, the Royal Guards has guarded the palace and the Royal Family since 1523. A comprehensive renovation of the began in 2011, to repair weather damaged parts made from sandstone. The repairs are estimated to cost approx,500 million crowns during a period of 22 years. The first building on site was a fortress with a core tower built in the 13th century by Birger Jarl to defend Lake Mälaren. The fortress grew to a castle, eventually named Tre Kronor for the towers spire top decorated with three crowns. At the beginning of the 17th century, King Gustavus Adolphus made plans for a new royal palace, contemporaneous copperplates from 1654 shows de la Vallée’s idea of a more visible castle on a raised plateau with a connecting bridge over the Norrström. Queen Christina remodelled and embellished the castle extensively, but no new castle was built during her reign. In 1661, he presented the first draft for a conversion of the row which his son, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, would later rework. A map of the Stadsholmen from the 1650s, illustrates de la Vallées suggestion for the conversion of the old castle, the project also brought about an adjustment of the Slottsbacken, making it partially enclosed by buildings
7.
Swedish coronation robes
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Several Swedish coronation robes from the 16th to the 19th century are preserved at The Royal Armoury in Stockholm, Sweden. The youngest one, Oscar IIs robe coronation robe from 1873 is in the Treasury at Stockholm Palace, the oldest coronation robes are in a deep purple colour, which differes from the more bright red colour that were in fashion from the 18th century and onward. The purple colour was charged with symbolism and reserved for the elite, Eric XIVs coronation robe is the oldest garment that has been kept from a Swedish coronation. It is a robe in a deep purple colour. Originally the robe was decorated with 455 golden crowns, the crowns are embroidered with golden, white, blue and pink silk, and on each crown ten small pearls were attached. Today only 296 of the crowns remain, when king Eric was crowned the robe also had a trimming and a collar made out of ermine. After Eric XIV, John III, Charles IX and Gustav II Adolf have used the robe during their coronations, queen Christinas coronation robe was ordered in Paris for the coronation in 1650. The blue and violet, purple velvet robe was decorated with 764,5 embroidered crowns in gold. Both the crowns and the pearls were ripped out during the 18th century, the ermine collar and trimming is also missing today. The robe has also worn by Charles XI, Charles X Gustav. The last one to be crowned in Christinas robe was Frederick I in 1720, for queen Ulrika Eleonora the youngers coronation in 1718 a blue and violet, purple robe, originally made for Charles X Gustav, was used. The decor consisted of golden flames and crowns, the robe was also worn by Hedwig Eleonora during her sons, Charles XIs, coronation. The ermine lining was removed in 1770, Adolf Fredericks coronation robe is made out of red and violet, purple velvet and it was bought in Paris in 1751. It is decorated with groups of crowns embroidered with gold and silver threads, the lining is made of ermine, and the robe has been worn by Gustav III, Gustav IV Adolf, Charles XIII and Charles XIV John at their coronations. The train was extended for the coronation of Gustav III in 1772
8.
Oscar II of Sweden
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Oscar II was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until his dethronement in 1905. He was the third of four sons of King Oscar I, as his eldest brother Charles XV was without heirs and his brother Prince Gustaf died in 1852, it was he who succeeded his brother as king. Oscar II was king during a period when Sweden was undergoing a period of industrialization, the declining Union of Sweden and Norway was finally dissolved in 1905 and Oscar became the last Bernadotte king of Norway. He died in 1907 and was succeed as King of Sweden by his son, at his birth in Stockholm, Oscar Fredrik was created Duke of Östergötland. He entered the navy at the age of eleven, and was appointed lieutenant in July 1845. Later he studied at Uppsala University, where he distinguished himself in mathematics, on 13 December 1848, he was made an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On 6 June 1857 he married in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany, Princess Sophia Wilhelmina, from 1859, when his father died, he was first in line to the Swedish throne after his oldest brother King Charles, who then had no male heirs. His middle brother Gustaf had died in 1852 and he succeeded his brother Charles XV / IV on 18 September 1872. At the accession he adopted as his motto Brödrafolkens väl / Broderfolkenes Vel, the political events which led up to the peaceful dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 could hardly have been attained but for the tact and patience of the king himself. He was dethroned on 7 June 1905 by the Norwegian Parliament and he declined, indeed, to permit any prince of his house to become king of Norway, but better relations between the two countries were restored before his death. He died in Stockholm on 8 December 1907 at 9,10 AM and his acute intelligence and his aloofness from the dynastic considerations affecting most European sovereigns gave the king considerable weight as an arbitrator in international questions. At the request of Great Britain, Germany and the United States in 1889 he appointed the justice of Samoa. He was the 1, 027th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain, the office of prime minister was instituted in 1876. Louis De Geer became the first head of government in Sweden to use this title, the most known and powerful first minister of the Crown during the reign of Oscar was the conservative estate owner Erik Gustaf Boström. Boström served as Prime Minister in 1891-1900 and 1902-1905 and he was trusted and respected by the king, who had much difficulty approving someone else as prime minister. Over a period of time, the king gave Boström a free hand to select his own ministers without much royal involvement and it was an arrangement that furthered the road to parliamentarism. Himself a distinguished writer and musical amateur, King Oscar proved a friend of learning. In 1858 a collection of his lyrical and narrative poems, Memorials of the Swedish Fleet, published anonymously, obtained the second prize of the Swedish Academy
9.
Silver Throne
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The Silver Throne is a throne used by the Swedish monarch at coronations, accessions to the throne and state opening of the parliament. The Silver Throne is located in the Hall of State at Stockholm Palace, the Silver Throne was made for Queen Christina to her coronation in 1650. Crafted by Abraham Drentwett in Augsburg, Bavaria, it was a gift from Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, the Royal Court, The Hall of State
10.
Gustav I of Sweden
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Initially of low standing, Gustav rose to lead the rebel movement following the Stockholm Bloodbath, in which his father perished. As King, Gustav proved an administrator with a ruthless streak not inferior to his predecessors. He worked to raise taxes, end Feudalism and bring about a Swedish Reformation, replacing the prerogatives of local landowners, noblemen and clergy with centrally appointed governors and bishops. Due to a vibrant dynastic succession, his three sons, Erik, Johan and Karl IX, all held the kingship at different points, Gustav I has subsequently been labelled the founder of modern Sweden, and the father of the nation. Gustav liked to compare himself to Moses, whom he believed to have liberated his people. As a person, Gustav was known for ruthless methods and a bad temper and he founded one of the now oldest orchestras of the world, the Kungliga Hovkapellet. Royal housekeeping accounts from 1526 mention twelve musicians including wind players, today the Kungliga Hovkapellet is the orchestra of the Royal Swedish Opera. Gustav Eriksson, a son of Cecilia Månsdotter Eka and Erik Johansson Vasa, was born in 1496. The birth most likely place in Rydboholm Castle, northeast of Stockholm. The newborn got his name, Gustav, from Eriks grandfather Gustav Anundsson, Erik Johanssons parents were Johan Kristersson and Birgitta Gustafsdotter of the dynasties Vasa and Sture respectively, both dynasties of high nobility. Birgitta Gustafsdotter was the sister of Sten Sture the Elder, regent of Sweden, being a relative and ally of uncle Sten Sture, Erik inherited the regents estates in Uppland and Södermanland when the latter died in 1503. Although a member of a family with considerable properties since childhood, according to genealogical research, Birgitta Gustafsdotter and Sten Sture were descended from King Sverker II of Sweden, through King Sverkers granddaughter Benedikte Sunesdotter. One of King Gustavs great-grandmothers was a half-sister of King Charles VIII of Sweden, since the end of the 14th century, Sweden had been a part of the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Norway. The Danish dominance in this union led to uprisings in Sweden. During Gustavs childhood, parts of the Swedish nobility tried to make Sweden independent, Gustav and his father Erik supported the party of Sten Sture the Younger, regent of Sweden from 1512, and its struggle against the Danish King Christian II. Following the battle of Brännkyrka in 1518, where Sten Stures troops beat the Danish forces, it was decided that Sten Sture and King Christian would meet in Österhaninge for negotiations. To guarantee the safety of the king, the Swedish side sent six men as hostages to be kept by the Danes for as long as the negotiations lasted. However, Christian did not show up for the negotiations, violated the deal with the Swedish side, the six members of the kidnapped hostage were Hemming Gadh, Lars Siggesson, Jöran Siggesson, Olof Ryning, Bengt Nilsson – and Gustav Eriksson
11.
Eric XIV of Sweden
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Eric XIV was King of Sweden from 1560 until he was deposed in 1568. Eric XIV was the eldest son of Gustav I and Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg and he was also ruler of Estonia, after its conquest by Sweden in 1561. Some scholars claim that his illness began early during his reign, Eric, having been deposed and imprisoned, was most likely murdered. An examination of his remains in 1958 confirmed that he died of arsenic poisoning. Eric XIV was born at Tre Kronor castle, at 9 oclock on the morning of 13 December 1533, before the age of two, he lost his mother. In 1536, his father, Gustav Vasa, married Margaret Leijonhufvud, Erics first teacher was the learned German Georg Norman, whose services were shortly thereafter needed elsewhere within the Swedish state. He was replaced by French Calvinist Dionysius Beurraeus, Dionysius taught both Eric and his brother John, and seems to have been appreciated by both. Eric was very successful in foreign languages and mathematics and he was also an informed historian, a good writer and familiar with astrology. When Eric started to appear in public, he was referred to as the king and after the meeting of parliament in Stockholm in 1560. In 1557, Eric was assigned the fiefdoms of Kalmar, Kronoberg and he took up residence in the city of Kalmar. Against his fathers wishes, Eric entered into negotiations with the future Queen Elizabeth I of England. Tensions between Eric and his father grew, Eric also made unsuccessful marriage proposals to, among others, Mary, Queen of Scots, Renata of Lorraine, Anna of Saxony and Christine of Hesse. He was crowned as Eric XIV, but was not necessarily the 14th king of Sweden named Eric and he and his brother Charles IX adopted regnal numbers according to Johannes Magnuss partly fictitious history of Sweden. There had, however, been at least six earlier Swedish kings with the name of Eric, in domestic politics, Erics ambitions were strongly opposed by the Swedish nobility, including his half-brother, the later John III of Sweden. John was the Duke of Finland and was married to a Polish princess, John pursued an expansionist policy in Livonia which led to contention between the brothers. In 1563, John was seized and tried for treason by Erics order. This expansionism resulted in a clash with his cousin, Frederick II of Denmark, from 1563 onwards, his insanity became pronounced, his rule became even more arbitrary and marked by violence. In 1567, suspicious of high treason, he killed several members of the Sture family, the King probably thought of the killing as an execution rather than murder
12.
Charles IX of Sweden
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Charles IX, also Carl, was King of Sweden from 1604 until his death. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I and his wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, brother of Eric XIV and John III. The Swedish kings Eric XIV and Charles IX took their numbers according to a fictitious History of Sweden and he was actually the third Swedish king called Charles. He came into the throne by championing the Protestant cause during the tense times of religious strife between competing sects of Christianity. In just over a decade, these would break out as the Thirty Years War and these conflicts had already caused the dynastic squabble rooted in religious freedom that deposed his nephew and brought him to rule as king of Sweden. His reign marked the start of the chapter of both the Reformation and Counter-reformation. With his brothers death in November 1592, the throne of Sweden went to his nephew and Habsburg ally, Sigismund of Poland, during these tense political times, Charles viewed the inheritance of the throne of Protestant Sweden by his devout Roman Catholic nephew with alarm. Thus, several years of controversy and discord followed. During the period, he and the Swedish privy council ruled in Sigismunds name while he stayed in Poland, after various preliminaries, the Riksens ständer forced Sigismund to abdicate the throne to Charles IX in 1595. In fact, it worsened European politics to the abandonment or prevention of settling events by diplomacy, in 1568 he was the real leader of the rebellion against Eric XIV. However, he took no part in the designs of his brother John III against the king after his deposition. Charless relations with John were always more or less strained and he had no sympathy with Johns High-Church tendencies on the one hand, and he sturdily resisted all the kings endeavours to restrict his authority as Duke of Södermanland on the other. The nobility and the majority of the Riksdag of the Estates supported John, however, in his endeavours to unify the realm, and Charles had consequently to resign his pretensions to autonomy within his duchy. But, steadfast Calvinist as he was, on the question he was immovable. The matter came to a crisis on the death of John III in 1592, the heir to the throne was Johns eldest son, Sigismund III Vasa, already king of Poland and a devoted Catholic. Under the agreement, Charles and the Swedish Privy Council shared power, in the ensuing years 1593—1595, Charless task was extraordinarily difficult. Finally, the Riksdag at Linköping,24 February 1604 declared that Sigismund abdicated the Swedish throne and he was declared king as Karl IX. Charless short reign was one of uninterrupted warfare, in all these struggles, he was more or less unsuccessful, owing partly to the fact that he and his forces had to oppose superior generals and partly to sheer ill-luck
13.
Karelia
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Karelia, the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden. It is currently divided between the Russian Republic of Karelia, the Russian Leningrad Oblast, and Finland, various subdivisions may be called Karelia. Finnish Karelia was a province of Finland, and is now divided between Finland and Russia, often called just Karjala in Finnish. The eastern part of this chiefly Lutheran area was ceded to Russia after the Winter War of 1939–40 and this area is the Karelia of the Karelian question in Finnish politics. The Republic of Karelia is a Russian federal subject, including the so-called East Karelia with a chiefly Russian Orthodox population, Karelia stretches from the White Sea coast to the Gulf of Finland. It contains the two largest lakes in Europe, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, the Karelian Isthmus is located between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. In the North there were the nomadic Samis, but no natural border except for huge woods, in historical texts Karelia is sometimes divided into East Karelia and West Karelia, which are also called Russian Karelia and Finnish Karelia respectively. The area to the north of Lake Ladoga which belonged to Finland before World War II is called Ladoga Karelia, White Sea Karelia is the northern part of East Karelia and Olonets Karelia is the southern part. Tver Karelia denotes the villages in the Tver Oblast that are inhabited by Tver Karelians, the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 divided Karelia between the two. Viborg became the capital of the new Swedish province, in the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 large parts of Russian Karelia were ceded to Sweden. Conflicts between the new Swedish rulers and the population of these areas led to an exodus, thousands of Karelians, including the ancestors of the Tver Karelians. The Treaty of Nystad in 1721 between Imperial Russia and Sweden ceded most of Karelia to Russia, after Finland had been occupied by Russia in the Finnish War, parts of the ceded provinces were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917, Finland became independent and the border was confirmed by the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, Finnish partisans were involved in attempts to overthrow the Bolshevists in Russian Karelia in 1918–20, such as in the failed Aunus expedition. They also wanted to incorporate the rest of Karelia into Finland and these mainly private expeditions ended after the peace treaty of Tartu. After the end of the Russian Civil War and the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, in 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, thus starting the Winter War. The Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940 handed most of Finnish Karelia to the Soviet Union, about 400,000 people, virtually the whole population, had to be relocated within Finland. In 1941, Karelia was liberated for three years during the Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 when East Karelia was occupied by the Finns. As a consequence of the treaty, the Karelian ASSR was incorporated with the Karelo-Finnish SSR 1941–1956
14.
Garnet
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Garnets are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, the different species are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular, uvarovite and andradite. The garnets make up two solid solution series, pyrope-almandine-spessartine and uvarovite-grossular-andradite, the word garnet comes from the 14th‑century Middle English word gernet, meaning dark red. It is derived from the Latin granatus, from granum, Garnet species are found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown, blue, black, pink, and colorless, with reddish shades most common. Garnet species light transmission properties can range from the gemstone-quality transparent specimens to the varieties used for industrial purposes as abrasives. The minerals luster is categorized as vitreous or resinous, garnets are nesosilicates having the general formula X3Y23. The X site is occupied by divalent cations 2+ and the Y site by trivalent cations 3+ in an octahedral/tetrahedral framework with 4− occupying the tetrahedra. Garnets are most often found in the crystal habit, but are also commonly found in the trapezohedron habit. They crystallize in the system, having three axes that are all of equal length and perpendicular to each other. Garnets do not show cleavage, so when they fracture under stress, because the chemical composition of garnet varies, the atomic bonds in some species are stronger than in others. As a result, this group shows a range of hardness on the Mohs scale of about 6.5 to 7.5. The harder species like almandine are often used for abrasive purposes, for gem identification purposes, a pick-up response to a strong neodymium magnet separates garnet from all other natural transparent gemstones commonly used in the jewelry trade. Almandine, Fe3Al23 Pyrope, Mg3Al23 Spessartine, Mn3Al23 Almandine, sometimes incorrectly called almandite, is the modern gem known as carbuncle, the term carbuncle is derived from the Latin meaning live coal or burning charcoal. The name Almandine is a corruption of Alabanda, a region in Asia Minor where these stones were cut in ancient times, chemically, almandine is an iron-aluminium garnet with the formula Fe3Al23, the deep red transparent stones are often called precious garnet and are used as gemstones. Almandine occurs in metamorphic rocks like mica schists, associated with such as staurolite, kyanite, andalusite. Almandine has nicknames of Oriental garnet, almandine ruby, and carbuncle, Pyrope is red in color and chemically an aluminium silicate with the formula Mg3Al23, though the magnesium can be replaced in part by calcium and ferrous iron. The color of pyrope varies from red to black. A variety of pyrope from Macon County, North Carolina is a shade and has been called rhodolite
15.
Christina of Holstein-Gottorp
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Christina of Holstein-Gottorp was a Queen Consort of Sweden as consort of king Charles IX of Sweden, mother of king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and a Regent of Sweden. She served as regent in 1605, during the absence of her spouse, Christina was the daughter of Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and Christine of Hesse. In 1586, she was suggested as a bride for Sigismund of Poland, on 8 July 1592, she became the second spouse of Charles, Duke of Södermanland, who in 1599 became Swedens regent and in 1604 its king. She was crowned together with her spouse in Uppsala cathedral in 1607, according to legend, she encouraged her spouse to conquer the throne from Sigismund in 1598 because of her disappointment that she was never married to Sigismund. Queen Christina was a domineering and strong-willed person with a sense of economy. She was both respected and feared and she has been described as hard, stubborn and stingy, and it is claimed that while the former wife of her spouse always tried to persuade him to show leniency in his acts, Christina did the opposite. She executed a very strict control over the court, which is illustrated by the anecdote that she measured up the sewing-thread for her servants in person and her marriage has been described as happy, as they were very similar in personality. She accompanied him to Estonia and Finland in 1600–1601, Christina is not considered to have dominated her likewise dominant and temperamental spouse, but she did not lack political significance and influence. Although her spouse did not let her dictate policy, he did ask her for advice in political matters, during the war with Denmark, he disregarded her advice and came to be in conflict with her because he suspected her to be pro-Danish. She was reportedly relieved when the affair was terminated in 1614, upon the death of her spouse in 1611, she became regent during the minority of her son as was instructed in the act of 1604. She shared the regency with John, Duke of Ostrogothia, as her son was almost of legal age, however, her reign did not last longer than from October to December of that year. During her sons first years as king in the 1610s, she was considered by some the real, or one of the real, rulers behind the throne, even though she was no longer formally regent. She certainly acted as adviser for her son, for example, he asked for her regarding the marriage of her daughter in 1612. As a dowager queen, she is known for preventing her son from marrying Ebba Brahe, an affair which was drawn out for several years in 1613-1615. During this affair, she wrote a poem on the window of Ebba Brahe, which goes, This you want. As a widow, she served as regent for her son, Charles Philip, Duke of Södermanland. She resided in Nyköping Castle, from where she managed the mines of her spouse. During her reign, the Duchy became the center of the Cereal export and iron- and weapon manufacture and she also guarded and defended the autonomy of the duchies against the crown, which was about to lead to a conflict with the crown
16.
Charles X Gustav of Sweden
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Charles X Gustav, also Carl Gustav, was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg, after his fathers death he also succeeded him as Pfalzgraf. He was married to Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, who bore his son and successor and he led Sweden during the Second Northern War, enlarging the Swedish Empire. By his predecessor Christina, he was considered de facto Duke of Eyland before ascending to the Swedish throne and his numbering as Charles X derives from a 16th-century invention. The Swedish king Charles IX chose his numeral after studying a fictitious history of Sweden and this king was the fourth actual King Charles, but has never been called Charles IV. In his early childhood raised in the Swedish court alongside Queen Christina he received an excellent civil education, later Charles X learned the art of war under Lennart Torstenson, being present at the second Battle of Breitenfeld and at Jankowitz. In 1648 he gained the appointment of commander of the Swedish forces in Germany, as the recognized heir to the throne, his position on his return to Sweden was dangerous because of the growing discontent with the queen. He therefore withdrew to the isle of Öland until the abdication of Christina on 5 June 1654 called him to the throne, Charles Gustav was crowned on 7 Jun 1654, the day after Christina abdicated. The beginning of Charles Xs reign concentrated on the healing of domestic discords, on the recommendation of his predecessor, he contracted a political marriage on 24 October 1654 with Hedwig Eleonora, the daughter of Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. He was hoping to secure a future ally against Denmark, the Riksdag which assembled at Stockholm in March 1655, duly considered the two great pressing national questions, war, and the restitution of the alienated crown lands. In 1659 he proclaimed severe punishment for anyone hunting in the game reserve in Ottenby, Öland, Sweden. On 10 July 1655, Charles X left Sweden to engage in a war against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, by the time war was declared he had at his disposal 50,000 men and 50 warships. Hostilities had already begun with the occupation of Dünaburg in Polish Livonia by the Swedes on 1 July 1655, on 25 July the Polish noble levy army capitulated, and the voivodeships of Poznań and Kalisz placed themselves under the protection of the Swedish King. Thereupon the Swedes entered Warsaw without opposition and occupied the whole of Greater Poland, the Polish king, John II Casimir of Poland of the House of Vasa, eventually fled to Silesia after his armies had suffered defeats. A great number of Polish nobles and their personal armies joined the Swedes, many Poles saw Charles X Gustav as a strong monarch who could be a more effective leader than John II Casimir. Meanwhile, Charles X Gustav pressed on towards Kraków, which the Swedes captured after a two months siege, the fall of Kraków followed a capitulation of the Polish Royal armies, but before the end of the year a reaction began in Poland herself. On 18 November 1655 the Swedes invested the fortress-monastery of Częstochowa and this success elicited popular enthusiasm in Poland and gave rise to a nationalistic and religious rhetoric concerning the war and Charles X. He was depicted as tactless and his mercenaries barbaric and his refusal to legalize his position by summoning the Polish diet and his negotiations for the partition of the very state he affected to befriend, awoke a nationalistic spirit in the country
17.
Louisa Ulrika of Prussia
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Louisa Ulrika of Prussia was Queen of Sweden between 1751 and 1771 by her marriage to King Adolf Frederick, and queen mother during the reign of King Gustav III. She was given the Swedish name Ulrika because Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden had been her god mother, Louisa Ulrika was described as beautiful, intelligent, with a fierce temperament and a strong will. She was given an education in accordance with the French age of enlightenment by the governess Marthe de Roucoulle. She and her eldest brother, the future Frederick the Great, had a good relationship, sharing their interest in science. Her favorites among her siblings were her younger brother Prince Augustus William of Prussia, at the court of her mother, she was introduced to Voltaire, with whom she engaged in a lifelong correspondence, and Maupertuis. Several dynastic marriages were considered for her from 1732 onward, including Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, Charles III of Spain and Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt, but none came to fruition. She was appointed co-adjutrix of Quedlinburg Abbey with the prospect of becoming a reigning princess-abbess in 1743 and this plans discontinued when Christian lost the election to the Russian candidate, Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. When negotiations were made to arrange a marriage for the elected crown prince Adolf Frederick of Sweden. These plans were revoked when a decision was made to create an alliance between Sweden, Russia and Prussia through dynastic marriage. The heir to the Swedish throne was therefore to marry a member of the Prussian royal house, in accordance with this agreement, Louisa Ulrika or her sister Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia were to be selected for the Swedish match. The Swedish envoy in Berlin, Carl Rudenschöld, inspected them an recommended that the proposal be made to Louisa Ulrika, after having consulted Adolf Frederick, however, the Swedes chose Louisa Ulrika, and her brother gave his consent on 1 March 1744. She was given tuition about Sweden, was advised not to get involved in politics, on 17 July 1744, Louisa Ulrika and Adolf Frederick were married per procura in Berlin, with her favorite brother August Wilhelm as proxy for the absent groom. She was escorted from Berlin to Swedish Pomerania by the Swedish envoy count Carl Gustaf Tessin, his spouse Ulla Tessin and his wifes niece Charlotta Sparre, who was appointed her maid of honor. The entourage left from Perth on Rügen and arrived in Sweden in Karlskrona, Louisa Ulrika and Adolf Frederick reportedly had a mutually good impression of each other at their first meeting, and their personal relationship is described as mutually happy and harmonious. Adolf Frederick is described as introverted, gentle, and submissive, reportedly, Louisa Ulrika was pleased with him because she immediately felt secure in the fact that she was his superior. Louisa Ulrika was received with enthusiasm in Sweden as the hope for the salvation of succession crisis, Carl Gustaf Tessin described her as the wisdom of a god in the image of an angel. Despite French being her native language, she was tutored in the Swedish by Carl Jesper Benzelius and she studied Swedish literature and gathered a Swedish language library, she corresponded with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and created a nature scientific collection. Her arrogant and haughty demeanor, however, eventually made her less popular outside of the royal court, the crown princes court was dominated by Carl Gustaf Tessin, who escorted Louisa Ulrika to Sweden and remained an influential favorite during her years as crown princess
18.
Eric IX of Sweden
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Eric IX of Sweden, also called Eric the Lawgiver, Erik the Saint, Eric the Holy, and, in Sweden, Sankt Erik, meaning Saint Eric, was a Swedish king c. No historical records of Eric have survived, and all information about him is based on legends that were aimed at having him established as a saint. The Roman Martyrology of the Roman Catholic Church names him as a saint memorialized on 18 May and he is the ancestor of the House of Eric which ruled Sweden with interruptions from c.1156 to 1250. Osteological investigations of Erics remains suggest that he may have lived the last 10-15 years of his life in Västergötland rather than in Uppland where he died, on the other hand, the only manor he is known to have possessed is situated in Västmanland in Svealand. Eriksberg in central Västergötland has been suggested as the manor of the family. As for his family he had a brother, whose name began with a J and this brother has been identified with a Joar Jedvardsson. This in turn fits with King Sverres Saga which refers to Eirik the Saint, late medieval Swedish tradition likewise knows the king by the name Eric Jedvardsson. The name of the father, Jedvard is not Scandinavian and may point to English missionary influence and his mother was, according to 14th-century tradition, Cecilia, a daughter of King Blot-Sweyn. This information is highly debatable, however, the only full account of Erics life is a hagiographic legend dating from the late 13th century. The historicity of the legend has been much-discussed by Swedish historians and it tells that Eric was of royal blood and was unanimously chosen king of Sweden when there was a vacancy of the kingship. It also states that Eric reigned for ten years, which would put the beginning of his reign in c, if this is correct he would have been a rival king to Sverker the Elder who had ascended the throne in c.1132 and was murdered in 1156. At any rate it is assumed that Eric was recognized in most provinces after 1156, while his paternity is obscure, there is good evidence that he strengthened his claims to the throne by marriage to the Danish princess Christina Björnsdotter, a granddaughter of King Inge I. His realm did not include Östergötland where Sverkers son Karl Sverkersson ruled in the late 1150s, according to the legend, Eric did much to consolidate Christianity in his realm. However, the reliable source mentioning his reign is a Cistercian chronicle from c. Quite contrary to the impression of pro-clerical policy of the Eric Legend, it says that King Eric, some monks left for Denmark where Vitskøl Abbey was founded in 1158. After this, however, Eric and Christina changed their stance, an early 13th-century source adds that he made donations to Nydala Abbey in Småland. Legend also attributes Eric with the spread of the Christian faith into Finland. In an effort to conquer and convert the Finns, he led the First Swedish Crusade east of the Baltic Sea
19.
Uppsala Cathedral
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Uppsala Cathedral is a cathedral located between Uppsala University and the River Fyris in the centre of Uppsala, southeastern Sweden. Controlled by the Lutheran Church of Sweden, Uppsala Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Uppsala, the archbishop is Antje Jackelén and the current bishop is Ragnar Persenius. The cathedral dates to the late 13th century and at a height of 118.7 metres, originally built under Roman Catholicism, it was used for coronations of Swedish monarchs for a lengthy period following the Protestant Reformation. Several of its chapels were converted to house the tombs of Swedish monarchs, including Gustav Vasa, Carl Linnaeus, Olaus Rudbeck, Emanuel Swedenborg, and several archbishops are also buried here. The church was designed in the French Gothic style by French architects including Étienne de Bonneuil and it is in the form of a cross formed by the nave and transept. Most of the structure was built between 1272 and 1420 but the end was completed only in the middle of the 15th century. Twin towers were built shortly afterwards on the west end of the church, High spires were added later, but after a fire in 1702, they were adorned with low helms by Carl Hårleman in 1735. They were completely redesigned by Helgo Zetterwall who undertook substantial changes to the building in the 1880s, the cathedrals principal construction material is brick but the pillars and many details are of Gotland limestone. The vaults were all built according to the original 13th-century plan although some of them were erected as late as around 1440, in addition to the artwork in the funeral chapels, several of the churchs older furnishings can be seen in the Treasury Museum. In 1702, many features were destroyed in a major fire, during the renovation work carried out in the 1970s, many of the medieval frescoes which had been whitewashed over after the Reformation were uncovered and restored. At the end of the Viking Era, the temple at Gamla Uppsala. Although the exact date of its construction is not known, in 1123 Siward was ordained Bishop of Uppsala by the Archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg and it is however uncertain if Siward ever assumed office, as he had been expelled and was in Germany in the early 1130s. The catalogue of bishops mentions Severeinus as the first bishop, henrik, ‘Finlands Apostle’, was the fourth bishop. In 1164, Sweden became an archbishopric under the control of Lund, the first archbishop was the Cistercian monk Stefan of Alvastra. After the cathedral in Gamla Uppsala was damaged by fire in 1204, Pope Alexander IV granted this request in 1258 on condition that the name of Uppsala be maintained. At a meeting in Söderköping in September 1270, Archbishop Fulco Angelus, formal authorization of the move was issued in 1271 by Bishop Carolus of Västerås whom the Pope had appointed to oversee the case. About 1272, work began on building a new cathedral in Östra Aros near the Fyris River to the south and it was constructed on the site of the earlier stone church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, located almost exactly where the cathedrals chancel now stands. It was here that Swedens patron saint Eric Jedvardsson had attended mass before he was murdered in 1160, the name of Uppsala was kept, and the surrounding town Östra Aros soon changed its name accordingly
20.
Christina, Queen of Sweden
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Christina reigned as Queen of Sweden from 1632 to 1654. She was the surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph. At the age of six, Christina succeeded her father on the throne upon his death at the Battle of Lützen, Christina is remembered as one of the most educated women of the 1600s. She was fond of books, manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures, with her interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, she attracted many scientists to Stockholm, wanting the city to become the Athens of the North. She was intelligent, fickle and moody, she rejected what the role of a woman was at the time. She caused a scandal when she decided not to marry and in 1654 when she abdicated her throne and she changed her name from Kristina Augusta Wasa, adopting the name Christina Alexandra. At the age of 28, the Minerva of the North moved to Rome, the Pope described Christina as a queen without a realm, a Christian without faith, and a woman without shame. Notwithstanding all that, she became a leader of the theatrical and musical life and protected many Baroque artists, composers, being the guest of five consecutive popes, and a symbol of the Counter Reformation, she is one of the few women buried in the Vatican grotto. Her unconventional lifestyle and masculine dressing and behavior have been featured in novels, plays, opera. In all the biographies on Christina her gender and cultural identity play an important role, Christina was born in the royal castle Tre Kronor. The king had already sired two daughters – a nameless princess stillborn in 1620 and then the first princess Christina, who was born in 1623, excited expectation surrounded Maria Eleonoras third pregnancy in 1626. When the baby was born it was first thought to be a boy as it was hairy and screamed, with a strong and she later wrote in her autobiography that, Deep embarrassment spread among the women when they discovered their mistake. The king, though, was happy, stating, Shell be clever. From most accounts, Gustav Adolf appears to have been attached to his daughter. Her mother remained disappointed that Christina was a girl and her mother, of the House of Hohenzollern, was a woman of quite distraught temperament and was melancholic. It is possible she was insane, after the king died on 6 November 1632 on the battlefield, his corpse was brought home in a coffin, with his heart in a separate box. Maria Eleonora ordered that the king should not be buried until she could be buried with him and she also demanded that the coffin be kept open, and went to see it regularly, patting it and taking no notice of the putrefaction. Eventually, the embarrassed Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, saw no other solution than to have a guard posted at the room to prevent further episodes, as a result, he was not buried until 22 June 1634, more than eighteen months later
21.
Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg
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Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg was a German princess and queen consort of Sweden. She was the daughter of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg and she bore her husband a daughter, Christina, in 1626. She was described as the most beautiful queen in Europe, and, in 1616, the 22-year-old Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden started looking around for a Protestant bride. He received reports with the most flattering descriptions of the physical and mental qualities of the beautiful 17-year-old princess Maria Eleonora, Elector John Sigismund was favorably inclined towards the Swedish king, but he had become very infirm after an apoplexic stroke in the autumn of 1617. Maria Eleonora had additional suitors in the young William of Orange, Wladislaw Vasa of Poland, Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg and even the future Charles I of England. Maria Eleonoras brother George William was flattered by the offer of the British Crown Prince, Maria Eleonora, however, seems to have had a preference for Gustavus Adolphus. For him it was a matter of honour to acquire the hand of Maria Eleonora and her husband, she wrote, was so enfeebled in will by illness that he could be persuaded to agree to anything, even if it tended to the destruction of the country. It was a rebuff that verged on an insult, the Elector John Sigismund, Maria Eleonoras father, died on 23 December 1619, and the prospect of a Swedish marriage seemed gone with him. In the spring of 1620, however, stubborn Gustavus Adolphus arrived in Berlin, the Electress Dowager maintained an attitude of reserve and even refused to grant the Swedish king a personal meeting with Maria Eleonora. All those who were present, however, noticed the princesss interest in the young king, afterwards, Gustavus Adolphus made a round of other Protestant German courts with the professed intention of inspecting a few matrimonial alternatives. On his return to Berlin, the Electress Dowager seems to have become completely captivated by the charming Swedish king, after plighting his troth to Maria Eleonora, Gustavus Adolphus hurried back to Sweden to make arrangements for the reception of his bride. The new Elector, George William, who resided in Prussia, was appalled when he heard of his mothers independent action and he wrote to Gustavus Adolphus to refuse his consent to the marriage until Sweden and Poland had settled their differences. It was the Electress Dowager, however, who, in accordance with Hohenzollern family custom, had the last word in bestowing her daughters hand in marriage and she sent Maria Eleonora to territory outside of George Williams reach and concluded the marriage negotiations herself. Anna of Prussia provided herself with a selection of objects of value from the exchequer before she joined Maria Eleonora in Brunswick, a detachment of the Swedish fleet took the women over to Kalmar, where Gustavus Adolphus was impatiently awaiting them. The wedding took place in Stockholm on 25 November 1620, a comedy was performed based on the history of Olof Skötkonung. Gustavus Adolphus - in his own words - finally had a Brandenburg lady in his marriage bed, Anna of Prussia actually stayed with her daughter in Sweden for several years after the marriage. Gustavus Adolphus shared Maria Eleonoras interest in architecture and her love of music, often, she lamented that she never had her hero for herself. Foreign ambassadors found her gracious and beautiful and she had good taste, Maria Eleonora had a definite liking for entertainment and sweetmeats, and she soon succumbed to the current fashionable craze for buffoons and dwarfs
22.
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
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He led Sweden to military supremacy during the Thirty Years War, helping to determine the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe. He was formally and posthumously given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1634 and he is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, with innovative use of combined arms. His most notable victory was the Battle of Breitenfeld. He was ably assisted in his efforts by Count Axel Oxenstierna, the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, within only a few years of his accession, Sweden had become the largest nation in Europe after Russia, Spain and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Some have called him the father of modern warfare, or the first great modern general and he was known by the epithets The Golden King and The Lion of the North by neighboring sovereigns. He made Sweden one of the powers of Europe in part by reforming the administrative structure. For example, he began Parish registration of the population, so that the government could more efficiently tax. Gustavus Adolphus was born in Stockholm as the oldest son of Duke Charles of the Vasa dynasty and his second wife, at the time, the King of Sweden was Gustavus Adolphus cousin Sigismund. Crown Prince Gustav Adolph had Gagnef-Floda in Dalecarlia as a duchy from 1610, upon his fathers death in October 1611, a sixteen-year-old Gustavus inherited the throne, as well as an ongoing succession of occasionally belligerent dynastic disputes with his Polish cousin. Sigismund III wanted to regain the throne of Sweden and tried to force Gustavus Adolphus to renounce the title, in a round of this dynastic dispute, Gustavus invaded Livonia when he was 31, beginning the Polish-Swedish War. He intervened on behalf of the Lutherans in Germany, who opened the gates to their cities to him and his reign became famous from his actions a few years later when in June 1630 he landed in Germany, marking the Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years War. Gustavus intervened on the side, which at the time was losing to the Holy Roman Empire and its Catholic allies. Gustavus was married to Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, the daughter of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg and he died in the Battle of Lützen in 1632. His early death was a loss to the Lutheran side. This resulted in parts of Germany and other countries, which had been conquered for Lutheranism. His involvement in the Thirty Years War gave rise to the saying that he was the incarnation of the Lion of the North, scholars all agree that Gustavus Adolphus was an extremely able military commander. His innovative tactical integration of infantry, cavalry, logistics and particularly his use of artillery, future commanders who studied and admired Gustav II Adolf include Napoleon I of France and Carl von Clausewitz. His advancements in military science made Sweden the dominant Baltic power for the one hundred years
23.
John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg
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John Sigismund was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the House of Hohenzollern. He became the Duke of Prussia through his marriage to Duchess Anna and their marriage resulted in the creation of Brandenburg-Prussia. John Sigismund was born in Halle an der Saale to Joachim III Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg and he succeeded his father as Margrave of Brandenburg in 1608. In 1611, John Sigismund traveled from Königsberg to Warsaw, where on 16 November 1611 he gave homage to Sigismund III Vasa. He officially became Duke of Prussia in 1618, although he had served as regent on behalf of the mentally-disturbed Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia, John Sigismund died in the following year. He was probably won over to Calvinism during a visit to Heidelberg in 1606, the vast majority of his subjects in Brandenburg, including his wife Anna of Prussia, remained deeply Lutheran, however. Resistance was so strong that in 1615, John Sigismund backed down, instead, he allowed his subjects to be either Lutheran or Calvinist according to the dictates of their own consciences. Henceforward, Brandenburg-Prussia would be a bi-confessional state, on 30 October 1594, John Sigismund married Anna of Prussia, daughter of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia. They were parents to eight children, George William, married Frederick Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. They were parents of Christina of Sweden, married first Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania and secondly Franz Karl of Saxe-Lauenburg
24.
National Gallery of Art
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The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D. C. located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Andrew W. Mellon donated an art collection and funds for construction. The Gallery often presents temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art and it is one of the largest museums in North America. In 1930 Mellon formed the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, when quizzed by Abbot, he explained that the project was in the hands of the Trust and that its decisions were partly dependent on the attitude of the Government towards the gift. Designed by architect John Russell Pope, the new structure was completed and accepted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of the American people on March 17,1941. Neither Mellon nor Pope lived to see the completed, both died in late August 1937, only two months after excavation had begun. At the time of its inception it was the largest marble structure in the world, as anticipated by Mellon, the creation of the National Gallery encouraged the donation of other substantial art collections by a number of private donors. The Gallerys East Building was constructed in the 1970s on much of the land left over from the original congressional joint resolution. It was funded by Mellons children Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce, designed by famed architect I. M. Pei, the contemporary structure was completed in 1978 and was opened on June 1 of that year by President Jimmy Carter. The new building was built to house the Museums collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures. The design received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1981, the final addition to the complex is the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Completed and opened to the public on May 23,1999, the National Gallery of Art is supported through a private-public partnership. The United States federal government provides funds, through annual appropriations, to support the museums operations, all artwork, as well as special programs, are provided through private donations and funds. The museum is not part of the Smithsonian Institution, noted directors of the National Gallery have included David E. Finley, Jr. John Walker, and J. Carter Brown. Rusty Powell III is the current director, entry to both buildings of the National Gallery of Art is free of charge. From Monday through Saturday, the museum is open from 10 a. m. –5 p. m. it is open from 11 –6 p. m. on Sundays and it is closed on December 25 and January 1. The museum comprises two buildings, the West Building and the East Building linked by an underground passage
25.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
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The museum receives support from the Park Board Museum Fund, levied by the Hennepin County commissioners. Additional funding is provided by sponsors and museum members. It is one of the largest art museums in the United States, the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts was established in 1883 to bring the arts into the life of the community. This group, made up of business and professional leaders, organized art exhibits throughout the decade, in 1889, the Society, now known as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, moved into its first permanent space, inside the newly built Minneapolis Public Library. The institute received gifts from Clinton Morrison and William Hood Dunwoody, among others, a few days later the institute received a letter from Dunwoody, who got the ball rolling, Put me down for $100,000. A fundraising dinner a few days later brought in $335,500, the new museum, designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White, opened in 1915. The building came to be recognized as one of the finest examples of the Beaux-Arts architectural style in Minnesota. The art historian Bevis Hillier organized the exhibition Art Deco at the museum, presented from July to September 1971, the building was originally meant to be the first of several sections, but only the front piece built. Several additions have subsequently been built according to plans, including a 1974 addition by Kenzo Tange. An expansion designed by Michael Graves was completed in June 2006, before the latest expansion, just 4 percent of the museums nearly 100,000 objects could be on view at the same time, now that figure is 5 percent. Target Corporation, for which the new wing is named, was the biggest donor, in 2015 the institute rebranded itself, dropping the final s from its name, to become the Minneapolis Institute of Art and encouraging the use of the nickname Mia instead of the acronym MIA. The museum features a collection of approximately 80,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of world history. Its collection includes paintings, photographs, prints & drawings, textiles, architecture, the Asian collection includes Chinese architecture, jades, bronzes, and ceramics. The institute owns the Purcell-Cutts House, just east of Lake of the Isles, the house was designed by Purcell & Elmslie and is a masterpiece of Prairie School architecture. It was donated to the museum by Anson B, cutts Jr. the son of its second owner. The house is available for tours on the weekend of each month. In order to encourage private collecting and assist in the acquisition of important works of art, the groups schedule lectures, symposia, and travel for members. The museum features a series of exhibitions that bring in traveling collections from other museums for display
26.
Delaware
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Delaware is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic and/or Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, to the northeast by New Jersey, the state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginias first colonial governor. Delaware occupies the portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second smallest, the sixth least populous. Delaware is divided into three counties, the lowest number of counties of any state, from north to south, the three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized. Before its coastline was explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Delaware was inhabited by groups of Native Americans, including the Lenape in the north. It was initially colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near the present town of Lewes, Delaware was one of the 13 colonies participating in the American Revolution. On December 7,1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, the Delaware Indians, a name used by Europeans for Lenape people indigenous to the Delaware Valley, also derive their name from the same source. The surname de La Warr comes from Sussex and is of Anglo-Norman origin and it came probably from a Norman lieu-dit La Guerre. This toponymic could derive from the Latin word ager, from the Breton gwern or from the Late Latin varectum, the toponyms Gara, Gare, Gaire also appear in old texts cited by Lucien Musset, where the word gara means gore. It could also be linked with a patronymic from the Old Norse verr, Delaware is 96 miles long and ranges from 9 miles to 35 miles across, totaling 1,954 square miles, making it the second-smallest state in the United States after Rhode Island. Delaware is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania, to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean, small portions of Delaware are also situated on the eastern side of the Delaware River sharing land boundaries with New Jersey. The state of Delaware, together with the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland, the definition of the northern boundary of the state is unusual. Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania was originally defined by an arc extending 12 miles from the cupola of the courthouse in the city of New Castle and this boundary is often referred to as the Twelve-Mile Circle. This is the only nominally circular state boundary in the United States, to the west, a portion of the arc extends past the easternmost edge of Maryland. The remaining western border runs slightly east of due south from its intersection with the arc, the Wedge of land between the northwest part of the arc and the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921, when Delawares claim was confirmed. Delaware is on a plain, with the lowest mean elevation of any state in the nation. Its highest elevation, located at Ebright Azimuth, near Concord High School, the northernmost part of the state is part of the Piedmont Plateau with hills and rolling surfaces
27.
Coup of 1756
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The Coup of 1756 was an attempted coup détat planned by Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden to abolish the rule of the Riksdag of the Estates and reinstate absolute monarchy in Sweden. The attempted coup was exposed and subdued in 1756 shortly before it was due to be put in action and it caused a rift between the royal house and the parliament. Already in 1751, the queen planned a coup détat, in 1754, Carl Gustaf Tessin lost his position as royal governor of Crown Prince Gustav. In the same time, a commission of the state begun to investigate political crimes and this resulted in a persecution of the followers of Louisa Ulrika within the Hovpartiet, one of whom, Eric Wrangel, fled to Norway to avoid arrest. Reportedly, this triggered the queens plan of a coup détat. The first plan was for the couple to travel to Uppsala under the pretext of a visit to Drottningholm Palace. In Uppsala, they would summon the regiments of Närke, Värmland and potentially Uppland as well as the Life Guards with the aid of the colonels Stierneld, thereafter, they would march toward the capital. This plan was aborted because of the illness in April 1755. To finance the coup, the Queen pawned the jewelry she had given as a wedding gift by the state. Among them 44 diamonds she had removed from the Queens Crown and she negotiated with her relatives in Germany through her brother Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia. She sent Johan Puke with them to Berlin, where they were placed as security for a loan by the help of her brother Prince Augustus William of Prussia. She also made a loan of 6000 ducats from Charles I, at this point, rumors reached the Riksdag. In April 1756, the Riksdag demanded to inventory the crown jewels, the queen replied that she refused to allow them to see the crown jewels, which had been presented to her in Berlin upon her marriage, as she regarded them as her private property. She was, however, willing to allow them to see the jewels which had presented to her ever since. At this point, the king was ill, and she was thereby given the time to send for the jewels from Berlin. On 3 July, she presented the jewels she had agreed to show to the inventory. She was finally forced to agree to present them to inventory on 22 June, to prevent this, she and her followers within the Hovpartiet, Hård, Horn and Brahe, planned to stage the coup before that day, despite the protests of king Adolf Frederick. The plan was to bribe members of the public to create riots in the capital, the supporters of the Hovpartiet would then take control of the Stockholm guard and garrison, which were also to be prepared through bribes
28.
Gunilla Bielke
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Gunilla Bielke, Swedish, Gunilla Johansdotter Bielke af Åkerö was Queen of Sweden as the second spouse King John III. Queen Gunilla is acknowledged to have acted as the adviser to John III. Gunilla Bielke was the daughter of the cousin of John III, the governor of Östergötland Johan Axelsson Bielke. Early orphaned, she was raised at the court since she was ten years old as a playmate of the Kings daughter. In 1582, she was maid of honour to the Queen. About half a year after the death of his first queen in 1583, John III chose her to be his next consort, after first having considered Sigrid Brahe. Bielke is described by her contemporaries as a blonde, though the portraits preserved by her are considered to be to stylistic to give a true image of her appearance. Asked why he did not marry a member of a house, he openly stated that he wished to have a beautiful consort. Therefore, it would be wiser, To marry a person in this country, similar to the mother and step-mother of John III, Margareta Leijonhufvud and Katarina Stenbock, Gunilla was engaged when the King decided to marry her. She was engaged to the noble Per Jonsson Liljesparre, and initially refused the proposal on her own initiative. According to tradition, the King was so enraged by her refusal that he slapped her in the face with his gloves and her family, however, forced her to agree, retract her refusal and consent to the marriage. Her engagement was broken, and her wedding to the king was arranged, the marriage was controversial and regarded by the kings family, who opposed to it, to be a misalliance. They considered it a misalliance because of the difference in rank, despite the fact that their own mother was also a member of the nobility, the wedding ceremony took place in Västerås the 21 February 1585, followed by the coronation of Gunilla the following day. The Kings siblings, however, all refused to attend the wedding, the only exception was his sister Sophia, who was resident in Sweden and dependent upon his allowance for her income. For this, he punished his sisters economically and entered into a long going conflict with his brother Charles, Gunilla was given a very large allowance and is regarded as one of the richest of the queens of Sweden. Queen Gunilla had a significant influence on John III and she is credited with having influenced his policy regarding religion in favor of Protestantism, similar to the way his first spouse, Catherine Jagiellon, had influenced him in favor of Catholicism. Gunilla accompanied John III to the council in Reval in Swedish Estonia in 1589 and she acted as a mediator between the monarch and the deposed Councillors during the conflict. Eventually, in 1590, the King released the prisoners, members of the parliament, on her request
29.
Gustav III of Sweden
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Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. Gustav was an opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Charles XII. Nonetheless, his leadership in the Battle of Svensksund averted a complete military defeat. The much-praised Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 was severely curtailed, however, by amendments in 1774 and 1792, effectively extinguishing independent media. Gustavs immense powers were placed in the hands of a regency under his brother Prince Carl and Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm until his son, the Gustavian autocracy thus survived until 1809, when his son was ousted in another coup detat, which definitively established parliament as the dominant political power. A patron of the arts and benefactor of arts and literature, Gustav founded the Swedish Academy, in 1772 he founded the Royal Order of Vasa to acknowledge and reward those Swedes who had contributed to advances in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. In 1782, Gustav III was the first formally neutral head of state in the world to recognize the United States during its war for independence from Great Britain. Nonetheless, he perhaps owed most of what shaped him during his education to the poet. State interference with his education as a child caused significant political disruptions within the royal family. Even his most hostile teachers were amazed by his combination of natural gifts, on the whole, Gustav cannot be said to have been well educated, but he read widely, there was scarcely a French author of his day with whose works he was not intimately acquainted. His enthusiasm for the ideas of the French enlightenment was as sincere as that of his mother, if more critical. Gustav married Princess Sophia Magdalena, daughter of King Frederick V of Denmark, by proxy in Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, on 1 October 1766 and in person in Stockholm on 4 November 1766. The match was not a one, owing partly to an incompatibility of temperament. The marriage produced two children, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, and Prince Carl Gustav, Duke of Småland, for the consummation of the marriage, the king and queen requested actual physical instruction by Count Adolf Munck, reportedly because of anatomical problems of both spouses. There were also rumors that the queen was pregnant by Munck. Gustavs mother supported rumors that he was not the father of his first son and it was rumored at the time that Gustav was homosexual, a possibility asserted by some writers. The close personal relationships which he formed two of his courtiers, Count Axel von Fersen and Baron Gustav Armfelt, were alluded to in that regard. His sister-in-law Charlotte implied as much in her famous diary, professor Erik Lönnroth of the Swedish Academy, who described the assistance provided by Munck, has concluded that there is no factual basis for the assumption that Gustav III was homosexual
30.
Prince Frederick Adolf of Sweden
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Prince Frederick Adolf of Sweden was a Swedish Prince, youngest son of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, a sister of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. He was given the title Duke of Östergötland, the Duke was described as the most beautiful Prince in Europe and was described as sensitive and spoiled by his mother. He and his sister, Sophia Albertina, were their mothers favourites, as a child, he had a weak health and a fierce temperament. Frederik was made colonel in 1762, general major in 1768, general lieutenant in 1774, commander of the Västmanland regiment in 1775 and field marshal in 1792. He was given a role in the Revolution of 1772 of his brother Gustav III. He was given the title Duke of Östergötland on 8 September 1772 and it was Frederick who convinced Louisa Ulrika to receive Gustav III on her deathbed in 1782, thereby accomplishing peace between them. He had no task in his life other than the ceremonial, Gustav III reportedly had no high opinion of his intellectual capacity. He devoted much time to life on his estate, Tullgarn. His economic affairs were in bad shape, and in 1791 he was declared bankrupt. Frederick served in the Russo-Swedish War in Finland in 1788, during the Battle of Hogland, Fredrick wished to send reinforcements by fleet to aid his brother, Duke Charles. This was prevented, and Frederick left the army in protest to Gustav III and he thereby came to belong to the opposition, and he also became involved in the planned coup by his sister-in-law to depose the monarch. The autumn of 1789, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte prepared to depose Gustav III and place her husband Duke Charles upon the throne. Her ideal was the Swedish Constitution of 1772, which she saw as a tool for an enlightened aristocracy, and the war. She cooperated with Prince Frederick Adolf and Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm, the plan was to force Charles to act as a symbol of the opposition to the Union and Security Act when the time was right. When the time arrived to make Charles act, however, he refused, in 1800, Frederick Adolf left Sweden for health reasons and travelled to Germany and then to France. He died in Montpellier in France in 1803, Prince Fredrick Adolf is in fact most known in history for his love life. He was never married, and the duties of his consort were performed by his sister Sophia Albertina. He had several plans to marry, but none of them was realised and his first proposal was to the Countess Ulla von Höpken, but she was married to another, and he accompanied his brother Gustav to France in 1770 to forget her
31.
Sophia Albertina, Abbess of Quedlinburg
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Princess Sophia Albertina of Sweden was the last Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg Abbey and as such reigned as vassal monarch of the Holy Roman Empire. Sophia Albertina was the daughter of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and she was thus a princess of Sweden, a princess of Holstein-Gottorp and a sister to Gustav III of Sweden. She was a member of the Accademia di San Luca, when her brother Charles XIII of Sweden and the rest of the royal family also became Norwegian royalty in 1814, that did not include Sophia Albertina who then officially was called Royal Princess. She was given her two names as namesake of her two grandmothers, the Prussian Queen Sophia Dorothea of Hanover and Margravine Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach. Her mother may not have wished her to marry, as she arranged a position for her at Quedlinburg Abbey as early as 1767. Living at the court of her mother, she was isolated after 1771. Sophia Albertina and her youngest brother, Prince Frederick Adolf of Sweden, were the favourites of their mother, Sophia Albertina lived at her mothers court and under her strict control until the latter’s death in 1782. At her mothers death in 1782, she and her brother Frederick burned some of their mothers papers before they could be seen by the King, in Stockholm, a palace was built as her residence, known today as Arvfurstens Palats. Unlike her brothers, she was not given a residence in the countryside because she was expected always to accompany her brothers court, Sophia Albertina was not described as beautiful or intelligent, but she enjoyed parties and participated enthusiastically in the festivities of the court of Gustav III. She also intervened for Magdalena Rudenschöld during the Armfelt conspiracy, during the Riksdag of 1789, she was present with her sister-in-law during the sessions through a secret window which faced the assembly hall. The Union and Security Act placed the King in opposition with his nobility, when her sister-in-law and her brothers agreed that the latter two would issue a public protest at the next session, she supported them – however in the end no protest was made. Sophia Albertina however would not support any further demonstrations against the monarch and they captivate the senses by their beauty and talents and rule the views and interests. The demonstration was put to a halt when the King had Jeanna von Lantingshausen banished from court and refused any contact with his sister. Sophia Albertina was interested in theatre and dance, though according to Axel von Fersen the Elder she lacked talent for it and she was interested in riding and hunting and had at least thirteen named dogs as pets. She painted in pastel and made portraits and caricatures. During a visit to Rome in 1793, she was inducted into the Accademia di San Luca, like her sister-in-law, she enjoyed hunting. She also had several dogs, Bellman once wrote a poem about her 13 dogs. Early on there were plans for a possible marriage, among the marriage partners considered for Sophia Albertina were her cousin Prince Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince-Bishop of Lübeck, but these plans were abandoned in 1780
32.
Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp
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Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp was Queen of Sweden and Norway as the wife of King Charles XIII and II. She was also a famed diarist, memoirist and wit and she is generally known in Sweden by her full pen name in Swedish, though her official name as queen was Charlotte. She was born in Eutin the daughter of Duke Frederick August I of Holstein-Gottorp and she grew up in Eutin and married her cousin Charles, Duke of Södermanland, in Stockholm on 7 July 1774 when she was fifteen years old. The marriage was arranged by King Gustav III to provide the throne of Sweden with an heir, the King had not consummated his marriage and had decided to give the task of providing an heir to the throne to his brother. Prince Charles saw her for the first time in Eutin in 1770, the marriage was suggested in 1772, and the first ceremony took place in Wismar 21 June 1774, she arrived in Sweden 3 June. She entered Stockholm by gondola 7 June, and the ceremony took place the same night. In January 1775, there were signs that she was pregnant and it was hoped that the question of succession was solved, and prayers were held in the churches. However, the signs soon proved to be false, the news of the false pregnancy also made the king decide to consummate his marriage and provide an heir to the throne personally. With these qualities she fulfilled a contemporary ideal, in contrast to the shy Queen, Sophia Magdalena of Denmark, Duchess Lotta was lively, witty and flirtatious and was in many ways the female center of the court. It was said of her, One can not imagine anything more lively and her greatest pleasure is to make up jokes and foolishness. Her dancing was seen as scandalous by some, as dancers were during this age regarded as prostitutes. After having been subjected to criticism that she and Princess Sophia Albertina distracted the King from the affairs of state by pursuit of pleasure and her marriage was distant and both she and her spouse had extramarital affairs. Charles paid more attention to his lovers than to her, at the time of their marriage, from 1783, she had a long term relationship with Count Carl Piper, whom she herself referred to as her lover in her secret correspondence to Sophie von Fersen. Among her alleged lovers was Count Axel von Fersen, alleged lover of Marie Antoinette and it has been suggested that this was merely a temporary affair which occurred during the stay of the royal court at Gripsholm Castle in the summer of 1784. It was rumored at the time that the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in 1792 was caused by Fabian von Fersen. The rumors of her affairs were given a lot of attention during her second pregnancy in 1797. The next year she gave birth a son who lived only six days, ultimately, she was unable to have living children. This hostility have increased so much during the winter that I have reached the end of my patience, I am convinced that most women would ask for nothing more than to be transformed to men to escape the unhappy bondage and enjoy their full freedom
33.
Storkyrkan
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Storkyrkan, officially named Sankt Nikolai kyrka and informally called Stockholms domkyrka, is the oldest church in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is an important example of Swedish Brick Gothic, south of the church is the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building facing Stortorget and containing the Swedish Academy, Nobel Library, and Nobel Museum. Storkyrkan was first mentioned in a source dated 1279 and according to tradition was originally built by Birger Jarl. For nearly four hundred years it was the parish church in the city. It became a Lutheran Protestant church in 1527, the last Swedish king to be crowned here was Oscar II in 1873. The most famous of its treasures is the wooden statue of Saint George. A copy from the early 20th century is found on Österlånggatan just south of the church, the Saint George is a symbolic representation of Sten Sture, the dragon is the Danish King Christian I, and the Princess is Sweden. The church also contains a copy of the oldest known image of Stockholm, the painting Vädersolstavlan, the painting was commissioned by the scholar and reformer Olaus Petri, a 19th-century statue of whom is found on the eastern side of the church. It depicts a halo display, e. g. sun dogs, the monumental pulpit is the work of Burchard Precht in 1698-1702 and is in a French Baroque style. It became the model for a number of other large pulpits in Sweden, from the rear of its lofty sounding board issues widely billowing dragery, in front of which hover two large winged genii on either side of a radiant sun bearing the Hebrew letters יהוה. The relief on the front of the pulpit itself depicts the story of the Canaanite woman, the door of the pulpit is adorned with a relief of Christs head, while its pediment is crowned by a statue of Hope with putti on either side. Below the memorial are the arms of the Funck family who bore the greater cost of the pulpit, beneath the pulpit and surrounded by an iron railing lies the worn gravestone of Olaus Petri. The view down the aisle of the church is dominated on either side by the Royal Pews. They were designed by the celebrated architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, each consists of a large enclosed box with decorated sides and back. The royal seats are upholstered in blue velvet with rich applied embroidery. On either side of the Silver Altar is a holding a candle, one of St. Nicholas. The rose window above and behind the Silver Altar was made in Paris in the 1850s, list of churches in Stockholm Virtual tour of Storkyrkan by Virtualsweden
34.
Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden
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Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, is the eldest child and heir apparent of King Carl XVI Gustaf. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she will be Swedens fourth queen regnant and the first since 1720. Victoria was born on 14 July 1977 at 21,45 CET at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden and she is a member of the Royal House of Bernadotte. Born as a Princess of Sweden, she was designated Crown Princess in 1979 ahead of her younger brother and her place as first in the line of succession formally went into effect on 1 January 1980 with the parliamentary change to the Act of Succession that introduced absolute primogeniture. Her given names honour various relatives and she was christened at The Royal Palace Church on 27 September 1977. Her godparents were Crown Prince Harald of Norway, her uncle, Ralf Sommerlath, Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands. The Crown Princess was confirmed in the summer of 1992 at Räpplinge church on the island of Öland. Victoria studied for a year at the Université Catholique de lOuest at Angers in France, from 1998 to 2000, Victoria resided in the United States, where she studied various subjects at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In May 1999, she was an intern at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, Victoria completed a study program at the Government Offices in 2001. In 2003, Victorias education continued with visits to Swedish businesses, in 2006, Victoria enrolled in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Diplomat Program, running from September 2006 to June 2007. The program is a program for young future diplomats and gives an insight to the ministrys work, Swedish foreign and security policies. In June 2009, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Uppsala University and she speaks Swedish, English, French and German. She was made Crown Princess and heir apparent on 1 January 1980 by the 1979 change to the Act of Succession of 1810 and this constitutional reform meant that the throne would be inherited by the monarchs eldest child without regard to gender. King Carl XVI Gustaf objected to the reform after it occurred because he favoured tradition, when she became heir, she also was made titular Duchess of Västergötland, one of the historical provinces of Sweden. Prior to this change, the heir apparent to the throne was her younger brother. He is now fourth in line to the throne, behind the Crown Princesss daughter and she is one of only three female heirs apparent in the world – the other two being her goddaughter Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, and Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant. Victorias declaration of majority took place in the Hall of State at the Royal Palace of Stockholm on 14 July 1995, as of the day she turned 18, she became eligible to act as Head of State when the King is not in country. Victoria made her first public speech on this occasion, located on the dais in the background was the same silver throne on which her father was seated at his enthronement, in actual use from 1650 and up until this ceremony
35.
Royal Order of the Seraphim
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The Royal Order of the Seraphim is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Polar Star. Since the reorganization of the orders in 1975, the Order of the Seraphim is only awarded to heads of state. The order has one class with the dignity of Knight. The three above-mentioned Orders together with the Order of Vasa form the Orders of His Majesty the King. A Swedish Knight of the Order of the Seraphim is not referred to as a Knight of the Seraphim, but rather as a Knight and Commander of the Orders of His Majesty the King. This form is used because the Swedish word orden is an old plural form which indicates that a knight has to be a Knight Grand Cross or Knight of at least one of the other Swedish Orders. Foreign Knights are for the greater part Knights of the Order of the Seraphim. A Knight of the Order may be styled Herr + surname, which used to be the style for Swedish secular Knights appointed by the Swedish King. Until 1975 the sons of the Swedish monarch received a version of the orders insignia at their baptism. As part of a reform on orders and decorations, a law was passed in 1974 restricting the conferral of orders to foreign citizens and this law was revised in 1995 to allow members of the Swedish Royal Family to receive the order. That year, on her 18th birthday, Crown Princess Victoria became a member of the order, prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeline likewise became a knight/member of the order on their 18th birthday. Princess Leonore, daughter of Princess Madeleine and Christopher ONeill, was conferred the order at her baptism on June 8,2014. This requirement eventually died out as boards of physicians and other professionals made such supervision by the Knights of the Seraphim anachronistic during the course of the 19th century. It seems reasonable to assume, at very least, that the accounts of these earlier knightly collars influenced the choice of design for the collar of the 1748 order. This medieval custom survived into the period of the Vasa dynasty as well, similarly, John III had bestowed the Order of the Lamb of God in 1569. Queen Christina founded an Order of the Amaranth, although not at her coronation. Because of these orders the first set of statutes described the Order as revived. Also like the French royal orders of chivalry the breast stars of the Swedish orders similarly took the form of silver crosses
36.
Order of Charles XIII
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The Royal Order of Charles XIII is a Swedish order of merit, founded by King Charles XIII in 1811. The Lord and Master of the Order is the King of Sweden, the order can only be conferred on Freemasons of the Protestant faith. The membership of the order comprises, Three clerical members, invariably priests or bishops of the Church of Sweden, thirty lay members and never more than seven non-Swedish members, each holding the XI degree of the Swedish Rite of Freemasonry. All princes of the Royal House of Sweden are members from birth, there can never be more than 33 persons who have the order at the same time. The insignia consists of a red St George cross, in the centre a white globe with the monogram of the institutor, on the reverse the globe has the letter B in gold in an equilateral black and gold edged triangle. The cross is surmounted by a golden crown. The insignia is worn around the neck in a red ribbon, the order uses a habit, introduced 1822, and new knights are dubbed. Carl XIII, s Orden 1811 - til uppmuntran och belöning för medborgerliga och välgörande bemödanden til nödlidandes och allmänt gagn, ISBN 91-974123-3-3
37.
Order of Vasa
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The Royal Order of Vasa is a Swedish order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III and it was unrestricted by birth or education and could therefore be awarded to anyone. It was the most junior of all the Swedish orders and it was often awarded to Norwegian subjects of the dual monarchy until Oscar I founded the Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1847. Since 1974 the order is no longer conferred, officially it has declared as dormant. The badge of the Order is a white-enameled Maltese Cross, in silver for the Knight class, in gilt for Knight 1st Class and above, crowns appeared between the arms of the cross. The central oval disc, which was identical on both sides, featured a golden sheaf on a black background, surrounded by a red enamel ring bearing the legend Gustaf 3. The badge hangs from a royal crown, during the early days of the Order, the badge consisted of the oval disc only. The Badge of Vasa is similar to the silver badge of the Order. The star of the Order is a silver Maltese Cross with a sheaf in the centre. That of Grand Cross also had the abovementioned nettle leaf emblem in silver between the arms of the cross, the ribbon of the Order is green. Formerly the Order also had a green and white habit worn on formal occasions such as at chapters of the Order. The habit included green breeches and a doublet with padded shoulders. The star of the Order was embroidered over the left breast of both the doublet and the mantle, a black top hat with gold hat band and a plume of white ostrich and black egret feathers and a pair of green boots with gilded spurs completed the habit. The collar of the Order was worn over the shoulders of the doublet, Orders, decorations, and medals of Sweden Orders and Decorations of Europe in Color by Paul Hieronymussen and photographed by Aage Struwing, English translation by Christine Crowley. Originally published as Europaeiske Ordner I Faever @ Politikens Forlag,1966, Color plates # 33-37, terxt p.127. The Orders of Chivalry from the Original Statutes of the Various Orders of Knighthood, london, W. H. Allen and Company,13 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, S. W. Publishers to the India Office
38.
Order of the Polar Star
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For the private order in Norway, see Order of the Polar Star. The Order of the Polar Star is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim. Its motto is, as seen on the blue enameled centre of the badge, Nescit Occasum and this is to represent that Sweden is as constant as a never setting star. This was chosen so that when wearing the sash, the white, blue and golden cross would stand out. At present, the ribbon of the Order is blue with yellow stripes near the edges, women and clergy men are not called knight or commander but simply as Member. After the reorganization of the orders in 1975 the order is awarded to foreigners and members of the royal family. It is often awarded to foreign office holders during Swedish state visits and it is also awarded to junior members of royal families who would not qualify for the more prestigious Royal Order of the Seraphim. Note, ^ Clergymen and women become ledamöter instead of knights and this order also has a medal, the Polar Star Medal. The collar of the Order is in gold, consists of eleven white-enamelled five-pointed star and eleven crowned back-to-back monogram F in blue enamel, joined by chains. The badge of the Order is a white enamelled Maltese Cross, in silver for the Officer class and in gilt for Officer 1st Class and above, crowns appear between the arms of the cross. The central disc, which is identical on both sides, is in blue enamel, with a white-enamelled five-pointed star surrounded by the motto Nescit occasum, the badge hangs from a royal crown. The star of the Order is a silver Maltese Cross, with a silver five-pointed star at the centre and that of Grand Cross also has straight silver rays between the arms of the cross. The ribbon of the Order used to be black, but is now blue with yellow stripes near its borders. In the spring 2013 the Grand Master decided that Swedish royal princes would wear the order in the black ribbon. The last black ribbon 18kt gold Knight class was awarded to historian George Loper in 1988 at Bridgeton, New Jersey and this was presented by the King. The Order used to have a red and white habit worn on formal occasions such as at chapters of the Order. The habit included red breeches and red doublet, both with padded shoulders and white piping, a sash with a gold fringe around the waist. The star of the Order was embroidered on the left breast of both the doublet and the mantle, a black top hat with a gold hat band and a plume of white ostrich and black egret feathers and red boots with gilded spurs completed the habit
39.
Order of the Sword
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The Order of the Sword is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I of Sweden on February 23,1748, together with the Order of the Seraphim and the Order of the Polar Star. There were originally three grades, Knight, Commander and Commander Grand Cross, but these were multiplied by division into classes. The motto of the order is in Latin, Pro Patria, the order was created by King Frederick I in 1748, along with two other orders, the Order of the Seraphim and the Order of the Polar Star. It was awarded to commanders of at least the rank of a major general for achieving a major victory in battle. Even the monarch could only wear the insignia Knight Grand Cross by the decision of his officers (e. g. Gustavus III. A Medal of the Sword was also introduced for enlisted men, both the non-commissioned officers and the enlisted men had to have served for at least sixteen years to qualify respective for the Badge and Medal. In 1952 a special medal of distinction was added to the order and these could only be bestowed in wartime. They are the War Cross of the Order of the Sword in Gold, in Silver, at the top of the points of the upper arms of the cross and of the sword is a small royal crown. The order is no longer awarded since 1975, but technically it still exists, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden frequently wears his Commander Grand Cross necklet and badge. A pair of crossed swords in blue enamelled scabbards with downward turned blades lie across the opening between the upper arms of the cross at the top of the badge. The badge hanged from a gold and enamelled royal crown, the star of the Order is a silver Maltese Cross, the central medallion bearing the same upright sword betwqeen three gold crowns on a blue enamelled background as the badge. The star of the Grand Cross also has golden crowns over short silver rays between the arms of the cross. The ribbon of the Order is yellow with blue stripes near its borders, formerly the Order also had a distinctive blue and yellow habit worn on formal occasions such as at chapters of the Order. The star of the Order was embroidered over the left breast of both the coat and the mantle, a black top hat with gold hat band and a plume of white ostrich and black egret feathers and a pair of black boots with gilded spurs completed the habit. The collar of the Order was worn over the shoulders of the coat, the Badge of the Sword is similar to the knights silver badge of the Order. The front central medallion is enamelled but the arms of the cross have no white enamel nor is the back of this badge enamelled, the Medal of the Sword is of also of silver and round with a royal crown on it upper side. The Medal bears the sword and three crown of the badge of the Order surrounded by a band with the Swedish words, originally published as Europaeiske Ordner I Faever @ Politikens Forlag,1966. Color plates # 21-27, text pp. 125–126, the Orders of Chivalry from the Original Statutes of the Various Orders of Knighthood and other Sources of Information by J. H. Lawrence-Archer
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