1.
Govert Dircksz Camphuysen
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Govert Dircksz Camphuysen was an animal painter, whose style was influenced by Paulus Potter. When his father Dirck Rafaelsz Camphuysen died in 1627, his mother moved with the children to Amsterdam and he married in 1647 and left the city around 1650, not long after he became a poorter. By that time he was living in Kalverstraat and probably in financial trouble and he portrayed queen Hedvig Eleonora in Stockholm, but Camphuyzen is most famous for his stables, with farmers and farmers wives. Camphuijsen, the Brussels Gallery has an Interior of a Farm, signed with his name and dated 1650, in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, are two Interiors of Cow-sheds, both bearing his signature. Govaert Camphuysens works are scarce, probably some of them are known as paintings by Paulus Potter and he was buried on 4 July 1672 from his house on Lastage
2.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
3.
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
4.
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
5.
Birger Jarl
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Birger Jarl, or Birger Magnusson, was a Swedish statesman, Jarl of Sweden and a member of the House of Bjelbo, who played a pivotal role in the consolidation of Sweden. Birger also led the Second Swedish Crusade, which established Swedish rule in Finland, additionally, he is traditionally attributed to have founded the Swedish capital, Stockholm around 1250. Birger used the Latin title of Dux Sweorum which in English equals Duke of Sweden, and it is known that Birger grew up and spent his adolescence in Bjälbo, Östergötland but the exact date of his birth remains uncertain and available historical sources are contradictory. Examinations of his mortal remains indicate that he was probably about 50 upon his death in 1266 which would indicate a birth around 1216. However, his father Magnus Minnesköld is assumed to have died no later than 1210 and his brothers or half-brothers — Eskil, Karl, and Bengt — were all born long before 1200, and it can therefore be assumed that they had another mother. He was also a nephew of the jarl Birger Brosa from the House of Bjelbo, the combination of this background proved to be of vital importance. During the 15 years to follow, Birger then consolidated his position and was one of the most influential men years before being formally given the title jarl in 1248 by King Eric XI. Although Birger Jarl saw many battles, some have speculated that traces of a blow in Birgers cranium might have originated from this battle. However, the original 14th-century Russian version of the battle had no information on this at all, in 1247, royal troops led by Birger at the Battle of Sparrsätra fought with Folkung forces led by pretender Holmger Knutsson, son of King Canute II. The Folkungs lost the battle and were unable to resist the central government, Holmger Knutsson fled to Gästrikland and was captured there by Birger in the following year. Quickly brought to trial, he was beheaded, in 1249, Birger succeeded in ending a decades-long period of hostilities with Norway. As a part of the Treaty of Lödöse, he managed to marry off his daughter Rikissa, then only 11 years old, to Haakon Haakonsson the Young. Presumably later that year, Birger led an expedition to Finland, later dubbed as the Second Swedish Crusade, on King Erics death in 1250, Birgers son Valdemar was elected as the new king while Birger acted as regent, holding the true power in Sweden until his death. Birger thus combined financial support from Germany with papal political support to consolidate his own position, ingeborg died in 1254 and in 1261 Birger married the widow of King Abel of Denmark, the Danish queen dowager, Matilda of Holstein. Birger died on 21 October 1266, at Jälbolung in Västergötland and his grave in Varnhem Abbey was opened in May 2002. There is a cenotaph for him at the base of the tower of Stockholm City Hall and it was originally intended that his remains be removed there, but this was never done. Several other historical structures there are named for him including the street Birger Jarlsgatan on Norrmalm. The Hotel Birger Jarl is located in Stockholms Norrmalm neighborhood and he is also the central figure of Bröllopet på Ulvåsa by Frans Hedberg
6.
Magnus IV of Sweden
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Magnus IV was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1343, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360. By adversaries he has been called Magnus Smek, referring to Magnus Eriksson as Magnus II is incorrect. The Swedish Royal Court lists three Swedish kings before him of the same name, Magnus was born in Norway in April or May 1316 to Eric, Duke of Södermanland and Ingeborg, a daughter of Haakon V of Norway. Magnus was elected king of Sweden on 8 July 1319, under the regencies of his grandmother, Helwig of Holstein, and his mother, Ingeborg of Norway, the countries were ruled by Knut Jonsson and Erling Vidkunsson. Magnus was declared to have come of age at 15 in 1331 and this provoked resistance in Norway, where a statute from 1302 stipulated that a king came of age at the age of 20, and a rising by Erling Vidkunsson and other Norwegian nobles ensued. In 1333, the rebels submitted to King Magnus, in 1332 the King of Denmark, Christopher II, died as a king without a country after he and his older brother and predecessor had pawned Denmark piece by piece. King Magnus took advantage of his neighbours distress, redeeming the pawn for the eastern Danish provinces for a amount of silver. On 21 July 1336 Magnus was crowned king of both Norway and Sweden in Stockholm and this caused further resentment in Norway, where the nobles and magnates desired a separate Norwegian coronation. A second rising by members of the nobility of Norway ensued in 1338. In 1335 he married Blanche of Namur, daughter of John I, Marquis of Namur, and Marie of Artois, the wedding took place in October or early November 1335, possibly at Bohus castle. As a wedding gift Blanche received the province of Tunsberg in Norway and they had two sons, Eric and Haakon, plus at least three daughters who died in infancy and were buried at Ås Abbey. Opposition to Magnus rule in Norway led to a settlement between the king and the Norwegian nobility at Varberg on 15 August 1343, in violation of the Norwegian laws on royal inheritance, Magnus younger son Haakon would become king of Norway, with Magnus as regent during his minority. Later the same year, it was declared that Magnus older son, thus, the union between Norway and Sweden would be severed. This occurred when Haakon came of age in 1355, on 12 August 1323, Magnus concluded the first treaty between Sweden and Novgorod at Nöteborg where Lake Ladoga empties into the Neva River. The treaty delineated spheres of influence among the Finns and Karelians and was supposed to be an eternal peace, but Magnus relations with Russia were not so peaceful. In 1337, religious strife between Orthodox Karelians and the Swedes led to a Swedish attack on the town of Korela and Viborg, a Swedish commander named Sten also captured the fortress at Orekhov. In this treaty, the Swedes claimed that Sten and others acted on their own without the consent of the king, in 1335, Magnus outlawed Thralldom for thralls born by Christian parents in Västergötland and Värend, being the last parts of Sweden where slavery had remained legal. The Novgorodians retook the fortress in 1349 after a seven-month siege, while he spent much of 1351 trying to drum up support for further crusading action among the German cities in the Baltic States, he never returned to attack Novgorod
7.
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
8.
Kalmar Union
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The Union was not quite continuous, there were several short interruptions. Legally the countries remained separate sovereign states, but with their domestic, one main impetus for its formation was to block German expansion northward into the Baltic region. The main reason for its failure to survive was the struggle between the monarch, who wanted a strong unified state, and the Swedish and Danish nobility which did not. Diverging interests gave rise to a conflict that would hamper the union in several intervals from the 1430s until its breakup in 1523 when Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden. Norway continued to remain a part of the realm of Denmark–Norway under the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three centuries until its dissolution in 1814. Then Union between Sweden and Norway lasted until 1905, when a grandson of the incumbent king of Denmark was elected its king, the union was the work of Scandinavian aristocracy wishing to counter the influence of the Hanseatic League. Margaret, a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden, Margaret succeeded in having her son Olav recognized as heir to the throne of Denmark. In 1376 Olav inherited the crown of Denmark from his grandfather as King Oluf III, with his mother as guardian. The two kingdoms were united in a union under a child king, with the kings mother as his guardian, later. On 2 February the next year, she was recognized as regent of Norway. Their common enemy was the Hanseatic League and the growing German influence over the Scandinavian economy. The Nordic union was established on 17 June 1397 by the Treaty of Kalmar, signed in the Swedish castle of Kalmar on Swedens south-east coast, at each junction, installation of a new monarch tended to mean a break-up of the union for a while. Eric of Pomerania, however, became the monarch of all three kingdoms, at Kalmar, the 15-year-old Eric of Pomerania was crowned king of all three kingdoms by the archbishops of Denmark and Sweden, but Margaret managed to remain in control until her death in 1412. It is said that contemporaries of the Union would not recognize the term, Union of Kalmar—that they just understood that much of the time. While the term meaning Treaty of Kalmar was known already at the time, the Swedes were not happy with the Danes frequent wars on Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania, which were a disturbance to Swedish exports to the European continent. Furthermore, the centralization of government in Denmark raised suspicions, the Swedish Privy Council wanted to retain a fair degree of self-government. The unity of the union eroded after the Danish defeat against the German Hanseatic League in the 1430s, even to the point of armed rebellion, erik was deposed as the union king and was succeeded by his nephew, the childless Christopher of Bavaria. In the power vacuum that arose following Christophers death, Sweden elected Charles VIII king with the intent to reestablish the union under a Swedish king, during the next seven decades struggle for power and the wars between Sweden and Denmark would dominate the union
9.
John III of Sweden
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John III was King of Sweden from 1568 until his death. He was the son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud and he was also, quite autonomously, the ruler of Finland, as Duke John from 1556 to 1563. In 1581 he assumed also the title Grand Prince of Finland and he attained the Swedish throne after a rebellion against his brother Eric XIV. He is mainly remembered for his attempts to close the gap between the newly established Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Catholic church and his first wife was Catherine Jagellonica of the Polish-Lithuanian ruling family, and their son Sigismund eventually ascended both the Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish thrones. He was the son of Gustav Vasa. His mother was Margareta Leijonhufvud, a Swedish noblewoman, as a Duke of Finland, he opposed his half-brother Eric XIV of Sweden and was imprisoned in 1563. After his release from prison, probably because of his brothers insanity, John again joined the opposition, deposed Eric and his important ally was his maternal uncle Sten Leijonhufvud, who at deathbed was made Count of Raseborg. Shortly after this John executed his brothers most trusted counsellor, Jöran Persson, after two more years of fighting, this war was concluded without many Swedish concessions in the Treaty of Stettin. During the following years he successfully fought Russia in the Livonian War, concluded by the Treaty of Plussa in 1583, as a whole his foreign policy was affected by his connection to Poland of which country his son Sigismund III Vasa was made king in 1587. In domestic politics John showed clear Catholic sympathies, inspired by his Polish queen and he launched the Red Book, which reintroduced several Catholic customs and resulted in the Liturgical Battle, which was not to end for twenty years. In 1575, he gave his permission for the remaining Catholic convents in Sweden to start receiving novices again, from time to time he was also at odds with his younger brother Duke Charles of Sudermannia. John III was a patron of art and architecture. In January 1569, John was recognized as king by the riksdag that forced Eric XIV off the throne. But this recognition was not without influence from John, Duke Karl received confirmation on his dukedom without the restrictions of his power that the Arboga articles imposed, the nobilities power and rights were extended and their responsibilities lessened. John was still concerned about his position as king as long as Eric was alive. The fear of a liberation of the locked up king worried him to the point that in 1571 he ordered the guards to, in any suspicion of liberation attempt. It is possible this is how his life ended in 1577, John married his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, house of Jagiello, in Vilnius on 4 October 1562. In Sweden, she is known as Katarina Jagellonica and she was the sister of king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland
10.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
11.
Keep
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A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. The Anglo-Normans and French rulers began to stone keeps during the 10th and 11th centuries, these included Norman keeps, with a square or rectangular design. Stone keeps carried considerable political as well as military importance and could take up to a decade to build, during the 12th century, new designs began to be introduced – in France, quatrefoil-shaped keeps were introduced, while in England polygonal towers were built. In Spain, keeps were increasingly incorporated into both Christian and Islamic castles, although in Germany tall towers called Bergfriede were preferred to keeps in the western fashion, in the second half of the 14th century, there was a resurgence in the building of keeps. In France, the keep at Vincennes began a fashion for tall, heavily machicolated designs, meanwhile, tower keeps in England became popular amongst the most wealthy nobles, these large keeps, each uniquely designed, formed part of the grandest castles built during the period. By the 16th century, however, keeps were slowly falling out of fashion as fortifications, many were destroyed in civil wars between the 17th and 18th centuries, or incorporated into gardens as an alternative to follies. During the 19th century, keeps became fashionable once again and in England, despite further damage to many French and Spanish keeps during the wars of the 20th century, keeps now form an important part of the tourist and heritage industry in Europe. Since the 16th century, the English word keep has commonly referred to large towers in castles. The word originates from around 1375 to 1376, coming from the Middle English term kype, meaning basket or cask, the term came to be used for other shell keeps by the 15th century. By the 17th century, the word keep lost its reference to baskets or casks. Early on, the use of the keep became associated with the idea of a tower in a castle that would serve both as a fortified, high-status private residence and a refuge of last resort. By the 19th century, Victorian historians incorrectly concluded that the etymology of the keep and tenazza were linked. As a result of evolution in meaning, the use of the term keep in historical analysis today can be problematic. Contemporary medieval writers used various terms for the buildings we would today call keeps, in Latin, they are variously described as turris, turris castri or magna turris – a tower, a castle tower, or a great tower. The 12th-century French came to them a donjon, from the Latin dominarium lordship, linking the keep. Similarly, medieval Spanish writers called the buildings torre del homenaje, in England, donjon turned into dungeon, which initially referred to a keep, rather than to a place of imprisonment. This ambiguity over terminology has made historical analysis of the use of keeps problematic, while the term remains in common academic use, some academics prefer to use the term donjon, and most modern historians warn against using the term keep simplistically. The fortifications that we would today call keeps certainly did not necessarily part of a unified medieval style
12.
Charles XII of Sweden
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Charles XII, also Carl, Latinized to Carolus Rex, was the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a line of the House of Wittelsbach. Charles was the surviving son of Charles XI and Ulrika Eleonora the Elder. He assumed power, after a caretaker government, at the age of fifteen. Leading the Swedish army against the alliance Charles won multiple victories despite being usually significantly outnumbered, a major victory over a Russian army some three times the size in 1700 at the Battle of Narva compelled Peter the Great to sue for peace which Charles then rejected. Russia was now the remaining hostile power. The defeat was followed by Surrender at Perevolochna, two campaigns met with frustration and ultimate failure, concluding with his death at the Siege of Fredriksten in 1718. At the time, most of the Swedish Empire was under military occupation. This situation was later formalized, albeit moderated in the subsequent Treaty of Nystad, Charles was an exceptionally skilled military leader and tactician as well as an able politician, credited with introducing important tax and legal reforms. With the war consuming more than half his life and nearly all his reign, Charles, like all kings, was styled by a royal title, which combined all his titles into one single phrase. The fact that Charles was crowned as Charles XII does not mean that he was the 12th king of Sweden by that name, Swedish kings Erik XIV and Charles IX gave themselves numerals after studying a mythological history of Sweden. He was actually the 6th King Charles, the non-mathematic numbering tradition continues with the current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, being counted as the equivalent of Charles XVI. In late 1699 Charles sent a detachment to reinforce his brother-in-law Duke Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp. A Saxon army simultaneously invaded Swedish Livonia and in February 1700 invested Riga, Russia also declared war, but stopped short of an attack on Swedish Ingria until September 1700. Leading a force of 8,000 and 43 ships in an invasion of Zealand, Charles rapidly compelled the Danes to submit to the Peace of Travendal in August 1700, Russia had opened their part of the war by invading the Swedish-held territories of Livonia and Estonia. Charles countered this by attacking the Russian besiegers at the Battle of Narva, the Russians outnumbered the Swedish army of ten thousand men by almost four to one. Charles attacked under cover of a blizzard, effectively split the Russian army in two and won the battle, many of Peters troops who fled the battlefield drowned in the Narva River. The total number of Russian fatalities reached about 10,000 at the end of the battle, while the Swedish forces lost 667 men, Charles did not pursue the Russian army
13.
Regalia of Sweden
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Swedens Royal Regalia are kept deep in the vaults of the Royal Treasury, underneath the Royal Palace in Stockholm, in a museum which is open to the public. The crowns and coronets have not been worn by Swedish royalty since 1907, until 1974 the crown jewels were also displayed at the solemn opening of the Riksdag. Among the oldest priceless objects are the sword of Gustav Vasa, the Crown of Eric XIV, made in Stockholm in 1561 by Flemish goldsmith Cornelius ver Welden, is typical of the Renaissance style of jewelry of his time. When he was deposed by his brother, John III, John had each of these letters covered with identical cartouches each set with two pearls. However, they replaced the original orb and cross at the top of the crown with a new large orb enameled blue with star and set with diamond. This is the form the crown has in the portrait of Oscar II painted by Oscar Björck, in the early twentieth century this orb and cross and these diamond rosettes were removed and the crown restored to essentially the form it had under John III. Eric also had a scepter, an orb and a key made for his coronation and this key is an item found only in the Swedish regalia. His scepter was made by Hans Heiderick in 1561 and is of gold, enameled and set with diamonds, rubies and sapphires and it originally was surmounted by a large round sapphire at the top enclosed by two intersecting rows of pearls. This sapphire was lost at the baptism of Gustav IV Adolf and was replaced by the present dark blue enamelled orb in 1780. The orb is also of gold and is unique among European regalia in that it is engraved and enamelled with a map of the according to the cartography current at the time it was made. At the top of the orb is an orb in blue enamel and covered with stars. The orb was made by Cornelius ver Weiden and probably engraved by Franz Beijer in Antwerp in 1568, the present blue enamel dates from 1751 and replaces the original black enamel that was badly damaged at the coronation of Charles XI. The original model used for the engraving is not known, but the engraver placed the northern hemisphere upside down, while placing the names where they would have been if the map were right side up. The anointing horn was made in 1606 in Stockholm by Peter Kilimpe for the coronation of Carl IX and is of gold in the shape of s bulls horn supported by a pedestal. The large end is closed by a lip with a chain, the horn is decorated in ornamental relief work with multi-colored opaque and translucent enamel and set with 10 diamonds and 14 rubies, including 6 Karelian rubies. The burial crown and sceptre of King Carl IX are kept at Strängnäs Cathedral and these items were originally interred with his body but were later exhumed and put on display. As her coronation and state crown Christina of Sweden used the crown that her mother Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg had used as the consort of Gustav II Adolph. Christina had two more added to her mothers crown matching the first two and had more diamonds and rubies added to it to enhance the crowns appearance as the crown of a queen regnant
14.
Running the gauntlet
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To run the gauntlet is to take part in a form of corporal punishment in which the party judged guilty is forced to run between two rows of soldiers who strike out and attack them. The word originates from Swedish, gatlopp, from gata lane and lopp course and it was borrowed into English in the 17th century, probably from English and Swedish soldiers fighting in the Protestant armies during the Thirty Years War. The word in English was originally spelled gantelope or gantlope, but soon its pronunciation was influenced by the unrelated word meaning an armored glove. The spelling changed with the pronunciation, both senses of gauntlet had the variant spelling gantlet. The spelling gantlet is preferred for the punishment in American English usage guides by Bryan Garner, American dictionaries list gantlet as a variant spelling of gauntlet, while British dictionaries additionally label it American. Known as Xylokopia in Ancient Greece, used as a military punishment. It could also be applied to every man of a whole unit as a mode of decimation. A very similar military punishment found in later armies was known as running the gauntlet, the condemned soldier was stripped to the waist and had to pass between a double row of cudgeling or switching comrades. A subaltern walked in front of him with a blade to prevent him from running, the condemned might sometimes also be dragged through by a rope around the hands or prodded along by a pursuer. Various rules might apply, such as banning edged weapons, requiring the group to one foot in place. The punishment was not necessarily continued until death, if so, he might be finished off when unable to walk. Running the gauntlet was considered far less of a dishonor than a beating on the pillory, pranger, or stocks, since one could take it like a man upright and among soldiers. In some traditions, if the condemned was able to finish the run and exit the gauntlet at the far end, his faults would be deemed paid, elsewhere, he was sent back through the gauntlet until death. A Prussian cavalry variation was to beat the condemned with stirrup straps instead of rods and it was also common practice in the French army, especially for thieves. Also used in training, notably on military cadets, as in a scene in the movie Oberst Redl, there was also a naval version of the gauntlet, notably used in the Royal Navy as a punishment for minor theft. The condemned could also receive a dozen lashes from the cat o nine tails beforehand and this punishment was abolished by order of the British Admiralty in 1806. Mild forms, not intended to cause permanent damage, have also used on or by children. In the early records of the Dutch colonial settlement of New Amsterdam appears a detailed description of running the Gantlope/Gantloppe as a punishment for the Court Martial of Melchior Claes, in Sweden, running the gauntlet was also a civilian punishment for certain crimes until the 18th century
15.
Unfree labour
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Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery, and related institutions. According to the Marxian economics, under capitalism, workers never keep all of the wealth they create, as some of it goes to the profit of capitalists. Slavery was common in ancient societies, including ancient Greece, ancient Rome, ancient Israel, ancient China, classical Arab states, as well as many societies in Africa. Being sold into slavery was a fate of populations conquered in wars. The term slavery is often applied to situations which do not meet the above definitions, examples are the Repartimiento system in the Spanish Empire, or the work of Indigenous Australians in northern Australia on sheep or cattle stations, from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. In the latter case, workers were rarely or never paid, in late 16th century Japan, unfree labour or slavery was officially banned, but forms of contract and indentured labour persisted alongside the period penal codes forced labour. Somewhat later, the Edo period penal laws prescribed non-free labour for the family of executed criminals in Article 17 of the Gotōke reijō. The 1711 Gotōke reijō was compiled from over 600 statutes promulgated between 1597 and 1696, according to Kevin Bales, in Disposable People, New Slavery in the Global Economy, there are now an estimated 27 million slaves in the world. Convict or prison labour is another form of unfree labour. The forced labour of convicts has often been regarded with lack of sympathy, three British colonies in Australia — New South Wales, Van Diemens Land and Western Australia — provide probably the best examples of the state use of convict labour. A considerable number of Irish convicts were sentenced to transportation for treason while fighting for Irish independence from British rule, more than 165,000 convicts were transported to Australian colonies from 1788 to 1868. Most British or Irish convicts who were sentenced to transportation, however and it is estimated that in the last 50 years more than 50 million people have been sent to Chinese laogai camps. Chinas Laogai system and North Koreas Kwalliso camps are current examples, about 12 million forced labourers, most of whom were Poles and Soviet citizens, were employed in the German war economy inside Nazi Germany. Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million romusha were forced to work by the Japanese military, about 270,000 of these Javanese laborers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia. Only 52,000 were repatriated to Java, meaning there was a death rate of 80%. Kerja rodi, was the term for forced labor in Indonesia during Dutch colonisation, the Khmer Rouge attempted to turn Cambodia into a classless society by depopulating cities and forcing the urban population into agricultural communes. The entire population was forced to become farmers in labour camps, a specific kind of truck system, in which credit advances are made against future work, is known in the U. S. as debt bondage. Many scholars have suggested that use such systems to exploit workers and/or indebt them
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Carlsten
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Carlsten is a stone fortress located at Marstrand, on the western coast of Sweden. The fortress was built on the orders of King Carl X of Sweden following the Treaty of Roskilde,1658 to protect the newly acquired province of Bohuslän from hostile attacks, the site of Marstrand was chosen because of its location and its access to an ice free port. Initially a square tower was constructed, but by 1680 it was reconstructed and replaced by a round shaped tower. Successive additions to the fortress were carried out, by the inmates sentenced to hard labor, Carlsten was exclusively a prison for men, Metta Fock in 1806-1809 was the only female prisoner to have been kept here. The fortress was decommissioned as a permanent defense installation in 1882, the fortress was attacked and besieged twice, both times falling into enemy hands. In 1677 it was conquered by Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, the Danish military commander in Norway during the Battle of Marstrand, at both occasions the fortress was returned to Swedish control through negotiations and treaties. Bohus Fortress Fredriksten Pater Noster Lighthouse Media related to Carlstens fästning at Wikimedia Commons Carlsten Fortress Carlsten lighthouse
17.
Nicodemus Tessin the Younger
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Count Nicodemus Tessin the Younger was a Swedish Baroque architect, city planner, and administrator. Tessin was born on May 23,1654, as the child of Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, son of the mayor of Stralsund. These architects, together with the study of classical monuments. In 1687-88 he traveled to Rome and back to Sweden through Austria, during the trip he made extensive notes in a diary describing works of architecture he saw during the journey. As parts of this group, Tessin the Elder was raised to lesser nobility in 1674. Their correspondence has also proven invaluable for later historical research, upon his return he immediately begun his work on the royal palace, and in 1695 his large-scale northern Baroque façade was completed, apparently inspired by Berninis project at the Louvre. Ambitions to further renew the palace first came to a halt as the king died, Tessin was appointed to produce plans for a new palace the day after the fire and he quickly produced a proposal which pleased both the young King Charles XII and his regency. Even though Tessin spent much of his life producing detailed plans for the palace. In 1690, Tessin married his mistress Hedvig Eleonora Stenbock, maid of honour of Queen Hedvig Elenora, however, at this time Tessin still belonged to the lesser nobility and his marriage to a woman from the high nobility was regarded as inappropriate. The marriage therefore had to take place secretly in Pomerania and, to repair the situation, besides his own palace, the gardens of the Drottningholm Palace and Steninge Palace, both located not far from Stockholm, are often pointed out as his greatest achievements. During his later life, he played an important role as an administrator, Tessin the Younger was the father of Carl Gustaf Tessin, one of the most influential Swedish politicians of his time. Carl Erik Tessin Hedvig Tessin von Schwerin Ulrika Maria Tessin Sparre, she was the mother of Fredrik Sparre, Stockholm Palace Tessin Palace, Steninge Palace Completion of the Drottningholm Palace Gottorp, Schleswig, Holy Trinity Church, Karlskrona King Charles Church, Kungsör von Haslingen, Birgitta. Commodare hus kan ges, men aldrig utan yttre dekorationens kostnad
18.
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
19.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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Media related to Tre kronor (castle) at Wikimedia Commons