Three Crowns
Three Crowns is a national emblem of Sweden, present in the coat of arms of Sweden, composed of three yellow or gilded coronets ordered two above and one below, placed on a blue background. The emblem is used as a symbol of official State authority by the Monarchy, the Riksdag, the Government of Sweden and by Swedish embassies around the world, but appears in other less formal contexts, such as the Sweden men's national ice hockey team, who wear the symbol on their sweaters and hence are called "Three Crowns", atop the Stockholm City Hall; the Three Crowns are used as the roundel on military aircraft of the Swedish Air Force and as a sign on Swedish military equipment in general, on the uniforms and vehicles of the Swedish Police Authority. Because of their common Scandinavian origin, the Three Crowns are featured in the royal coat of arms of Denmark where they might be referred to as the "union mark". One of several, traditional explanations have suggested Albrekt of Mecklenburg, who ruled Sweden 1364-89, brought the symbol from Germany as a sign of his reign of Sweden and Mecklenburg.
Apart from the fact that Finland was not regarded as a country in its own right at the time, this theory has, been refuted by research, the announcement in 1982 of the discovery of a frieze in Avignon in southern France, estimated to date back to 1336. The frieze was painted for an international congress led by the Pope and contains the symbols of all participant countries, including Sweden; this discovery suggests the symbol was introduced no than by Albrekt's predecessor Magnus Eriksson. Use of the three crowns as a heraldic symbol of Sweden has been attested, in the Nordisk Familjebok, to the late 13th century, the three crowns first ringing the shield of Magnus Ladulås and appearing on the coins of Magnus Eriksson; the first coat of arms of Sweden from the 13th century featured a golden lion on a background of wavy blue and white diagonal lines. It is still part of the present greater coat of arms of Sweden, quartered between the lion coat of arms and the three crowns; as the lion and the crowns were re-interpreted as the coat of arms of the provinces of Götaland and Svealand the lion was earlier, called the Göta lion.
Magnus used the symbols probably to mark his three kingdoms. At the middle of the 14th century, neighbouring Denmark's severe financial problems caused most of the country to be pawned to German princes Gerhard III and John III. Since Denmark's king was forced into exile in 1332, the Danish Archbishop in Lund requested that Magnus become king of the Scanian provinces of Denmark. Magnus was sworn in as king of Scania the same year. Since he had ambitions of redeeming the rest of Denmark, the crowns marked his dignity as king of three realms. Although Denmark was reconsolidated under King Valdemar Atterdag in 1340 and regained its territory, Norway left the union with Sweden in 1380, the following Swedish kings continued to use the union coat of arms with the three crowns. An alternative, less well-supported theory suggests that the three crowns are the three kingdoms in the traditional title of the Swedish king, king of Swedes and Wends.. The Swedes-Goths-Wends represent a timely fifteenth-century re-interpretation of the well-established emblem.
When the Kalmar Union, the personal union between Denmark and Sweden, was instituted by Queen Margrete I in 1397, the three crowns symbol reverted to its use as a symbol of the union of the three realms. Thus, her successor, Eric of Pomerania used a coat of arms quartered between the coats of arms of Denmark and Sweden plus the union mark with the three golden crowns on a blue shield, the case for the following union Kings in the 15th century. Since the three crowns had been used in Sweden between the unions, both King Karl Knutsson Bonde who periodically drew Sweden out of the Kalmar Union, King Gustav Vasa who terminated it in 1521, used the crowns - quartered with the lion - as a symbol of Sweden, this has been the case to the present day. Since the 15th century the crowns have been regarded as the "main" arms of Sweden and thus can be used independently as the lesser coat of arms of the country; the symbol is known to have been placed atop the mighty central tower of the castle Tre Kronor in Stockholm, destroyed by fire in 1697, no than the early 16th century.
In the 1550s, King Gustav Vasa of Sweden found that the Danish King Christian III had added the three crowns to his own coat of arms. Because the three crowns had been a Swedish symbol since the 14th century and were used by Danish monarchs only during the Kalmar Union, Gustav interpreted Christian III's use of the symbol as a sign of intent to conquer Sweden and resurrect the union. Christian countered that since the monarchs of the union had used the three crowns, the symbol now belonged to both kingdoms and thus he had as much a right as the Swedish king to use it. In Sweden, on the other hand, the Three Crowns were regarded as an Swedish symbol; this conflict played a role
Sweden
Sweden the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre; the highest concentration is in the southern half of the country. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats and Swedes and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is forested. Sweden is part of the geographical area of Fennoscandia; the climate is in general mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence, that in spite of this still retains warm continental summers.
Today, the sovereign state of Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state, like its neighbour Norway. The capital city is Stockholm, 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 divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population, the Hanseatic League threatened Scandinavia's culture and languages; this led to the forming of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397, which Sweden left in 1523. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years War on the Reformist side, an expansion of its territories began and the Swedish Empire was formed; this became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809.
The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since Sweden has been at peace, maintaining an official policy of neutrality in foreign affairs; the union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905. Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars and the Cold War, albeit Sweden has since 2009 moved towards cooperation with NATO. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, but declined NATO membership, as well as Eurozone membership following a referendum, it is a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, the 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 universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens, it has the world's eleventh-highest per capita income and ranks in numerous metrics of national performance, including quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, equality and human development.
The name Sweden was loaned from Dutch in the 17th century to refer to Sweden as an emerging great power. Before Sweden's imperial expansion, Early Modern English used Swedeland. Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod, which meant "people of the Swedes"; this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige means "realm of the Swedes", excluding the Geats in Götaland. Variations of the name Sweden are used in most languages, with the exception of Danish and Norwegian using Sverige, Faroese Svøríki, Icelandic Svíþjóð, the more notable exception of some Finnic languages where Ruotsi and Rootsi are used, names considered as referring to the people from the coastal areas of Roslagen, who were known as the Rus', through them etymologically related to the English name for Russia; the etymology of Swedes, thus Sweden, is not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning "one's own", referring to one's own Germanic tribe. Sweden's prehistory begins in the Allerød oscillation, a warm period around 12,000 BC, with Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province, Scania.
This period was characterised by small bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers using flint technology. Sweden is first described in a written source in Germania by Tacitus in 98 AD. In Germania 44 and 45 he mentions the Swedes as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow at each end. Which kings ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a long line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC; as for literacy in Sweden itself, the runic script was in use among the south Scandinavian elite by at least the 2nd century AD, but all that has come down to the present from the Roman Period is curt inscriptions on artefacts of male names, demonstrating th
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous urban area in the Nordic countries. The city stretches across fourteen islands. Just outside the city and along the coast is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago; the area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is the capital of Stockholm County. Stockholm is the cultural, media and economic centre of Sweden; the Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the country's GDP, is among the top 10 regions in Europe by GDP per capita. It is an important global city, the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region; the city is home to some of Europe's top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and Royal Institute of Technology. It hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the city's most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited non-art museum in Scandinavia.
The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is well known for the decor of its stations. Sweden's national football arena is located north of the city centre, in Solna. Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city; the city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, 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, the Prime Minister's residence is adjacent at Sager House. Stockholm Palace is the official residence and principal workplace of the Swedish monarch, while Drottningholm Palace, a World Heritage Site on the outskirts of Stockholm, serves as the Royal Family's private residence. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BC, there were many people living in what is today the Stockholm area, but as temperatures dropped, inhabitants moved south.
Thousands of years as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable and the lands became fertile, people began to migrate back to the North. 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 trade impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholm's location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, 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 be connected to an old German word meaning fortification; the second part of the name means islet, is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. According to Eric Chronicles the city is said to have been founded by Birger Jarl to protect Sweden from sea invasions made by Karelians after the pillage of Sigtuna on Lake Mälaren in the summer of 1187.
Stockholm's core, the present Old Town was built on the central island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid-13th century onward. The city rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League. Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Gdańsk, Visby and Riga during this time. Between 1296 and 1478 Stockholm's City Council was made up of 24 members, half of whom were selected from the town's German-speaking burghers; the strategic and economic importance of the city made Stockholm an important factor in relations between the Danish Kings of the Kalmar Union and the national independence movement in the 15th century. The Danish King Christian II was able to enter the city in 1520. On 8 November 1520 a massacre of opposition figures called the Stockholm Bloodbath took place and set off further uprisings that led to the breakup of the Kalmar Union. With the accession of Gustav Vasa in 1523 and the establishment of a royal power, the population of Stockholm began to grow, reaching 10,000 by 1600.
The 17th century saw Sweden grow into a major European power, reflected in the development of the city of Stockholm. From 1610 to 1680 the population multiplied sixfold. In 1634, Stockholm became the official capital of the Swedish empire. Trading rules were created that gave Stockholm an essential monopoly over trade between foreign merchants and other Swedish and Scandinavian territories. In 1697, Tre Kronor was replaced by Stockholm Palace. In 1710, a plague killed about 20,000 of the population. After the end of the Great Northern War the city stagnated. Population growth halted and economic growth slowed; the city was in shock after having lost its place as the capital of a Great power. However, Stockholm maintained its role as the political centre of Sweden and continued to develop culturally under Gustav III. By the second half of the 19th century, Stockholm had regained its leading economic role. New industries emerged and Stockholm was transformed into an important trade and service centre as well as a key gateway point within Sweden.
The population grew during this time through immigration. At the end
Carlsten
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 access to an ice free port. A square stone 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, until 1860 when it was reported finished. Carlsten was 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, but remained in military use until the early 1990s. The fortress was 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 and in 1719 by the Norwegian Vice-Admiral Tordenskjold.
At both occasions the fortress was returned to Swedish control through treaties. Bohus Fortress Fredriksten Pater Noster Lighthouse Media related to Carlstens fästning at Wikimedia Commons Carlsten Fortress Carlsten lighthouse
Johan Fredrik Höckert
Johan Fredrik Höckert was a well-known Swedish artist from Jönköping known for his colorful, dramatic oil paintings depicting historical events. He is one of the most famous nineteenth-century painters in Sweden, one of the painters most associated with Swedish national romanticism. Höckert studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts from 1844 to 1845, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1846 to 1849. During the summer of 1850, he traveled throughout Lapland in the northern parts of Sweden; the scenery in this area became the inspiration for many of Höckert's upcoming paintings. After moving to Paris in 1851, Höckert made his first painting that gained attention from a larger audience, Drottning Kristina och Monaldeschi, it was awarded with a mention honorable at the Paris Salon in 1853. Höckert rose to fame two years in 1855, with Gudstjänst i Lövmokks fjällkapell, it was put on display at the 1855 World's Fair in Paris and was bought by Napoleon III of France. At this time, Höckert became recognized as one of Sweden's foremost figure painters.
Höckert's success continued and he made several popular paintings during the subsequent years. He was hired as a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in 1864. At this time, Höckert was working on the painting Slottsbranden i Stockholm den 7 maj 1697, displayed at the 1866 Scandinavian art fair in Stockholm, it is today regarded as one of Sweden's foremost paintings. Höckert died soon thereafter, after several years of health issues. Höckert was born to his parents Gustaf Adolf Höckert and Sofia Elisabet Melinon on 26 August 1826 in Jönköping, Sweden, he received drawing lessons from teacher J. J. Ringdahl at the age of twelve. Ringdahl suspected then that the young boy "would never become anything other than an artist". During his school years, Höckert became friends with Swedish painter Johan Christoffer Boklund, who he had met by coincidence; this led to Höckert quitting his normal school studies to study at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, where Boklund was a teacher. He studied at the school, located in Stockholm, from 1844 to 1845.
During his final year at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Höckert went on a study tour through Sweden in Jönköping. In 1846, after graduating, Höckert traveled with Boklund to Munich for further studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. For three years he studied there with eagerness, exploring figure genre works. Höckert's first oil painting, Två banditer, som dela rofvet, was sent to Sweden and offered to Konstförening, but they did not buy it. After completing his studies in Munich in 1849, Höckert returned to Sweden in 1850. During the summer of that year, he traveled extensively throughout Lapland in the northern parts of Sweden. Höckert chose Lapland because he had been inspired by the lively descriptions botanic Nils Johan Andersson had made about the nature and people there. While studying in Munich, Höckert realized his passion for historical painting, he moved to Paris in 1851, brought with him several sketches he had made depicting events in Swedish history from the two past centuries.
While living in Paris, Höckert painted his first painting that gained attention from a larger audience. It was called Drottning Kristina och Monaldeschi, pictured Christina of Sweden ordering her soldiers to kill Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi in Fontainebleau in 1657; the painting was awarded with a mention honorable at the Paris Salon in 1853. Höckert made a brief visit to Sweden in 1854 to display the painting there, it was praised by many and he was given the honorary title of agré by the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Höckert was given a travel scholarship by the Academy and he returned to Paris at the end of 1854. Although Drottning Kristina och Monaldeschi was popular, Höckert rose to fame in 1855 with his painting Gudstjänst i Lövmokks fjällkapell, it was inspired by a sketch Höckert had made while traveling in Lapland, he thought it would draw attention to itself. The painting was put on display at the 1855 World's Fair in Paris, Höckert was awarded with a gold medal for it. French critics characterized it as a piece of French art, commenting that Höckert was most influenced by Eugène Delacroix and Thomas Couture.
The painting was bought by Napoleon III of France and was given to the art museum in Lille. Its current home is the National Museum of Arts in Sweden. At this time, Höckert became recognized as one of Sweden's foremost figure painters; the inspiration for many of the paintings Höckert painted while living in Paris came from his earlier travels in Lapland, including Gudstjänst i Lövmokks fjällkapell, Scen från Lappmarken, Det inre af en lappkåta. While painting Gudstjänt i Lövmokks fjällkapell, which depicts a Lappish mother during a worship service in Lövmokk, Höckert hired an Italian woman named Luisiella as his model, he fell in love with her. This became the inspiration for Höckert's oil sketch Luisiellas död. Höckert traveled to the Netherlands in 1856 to study Rembrandt, he made another popular painting: Det inre af en lappkåta. This painting depicts a Lappish mother wagging her child in their goahti home, it was awarded with a mention honorable at the Paris Salon in 1857, was bought by the Swedish government
Magnus IV of Sweden
Magnus IV was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1355, 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, acclaimed as hereditary king of Norway at the thing of the Haugating in Tønsberg in August of the same year. Under the regencies of his grandmother, Helwig of Holstein, 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; this provoked resistance in Norway, where a statute from 1302 stipulated that a king came of age at the age of 20, 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 neighbour's distress, redeeming the pawn for the eastern Danish provinces for a huge amount of silver, thus became ruler of Scania. On 21 July 1336 Magnus was crowned king of both Sweden in Stockholm; this caused further resentment in Norway, where the nobles and magnates desired a separate Norwegian coronation. A second rising by members of the high nobility of Norway ensued in 1338. In 1335 he married Blanche of Namur, daughter of John I, Marquis of Namur, Marie of Artois, a descendant of Louis VIII of France; the wedding took place in October or early November 1335 at Bohus castle. As a wedding gift Blanche received the province of Tunsberg in Lödöse in Sweden as fiefs, they had two sons 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. The same year, it was declared that Magnus' older son, Eric would become king of Sweden on Magnus' death. Thus, the union between Norway and Sweden would be severed; this occurred when Haakon came of age in 1355. Because of the increase in taxes to pay for the acquisition of the Scanian province, some Swedish nobles supported by the Church attempted to oust Magnus, setting up his elder son Erik Magnusson as king, but Eric died of the plague in 1359, with his wife Beatrice of Bavaria and their two sons. 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, in which the Novgorodian and Ladogan merchants there were slaughtered.
A Swedish commander named Sten captured the fortress at Orekhov. Negotiations with the Novgorodian mayor Fedor were inconclusive and the Swedes attacked Karelians around Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega before a peace was concluded in 1339 along the old terms of the 1323 treaty. 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; this put an end to Medieval Swedish slavery - though it was only applicable within the borders of Sweden, which left an opening - used long afterwards - for the 17th and 18th Century Swedish slave trade. Relations were quiet between Sweden and Novgorod until 1348, when Magnus led a crusade against Novgorod, marching up the Neva, forcibly converting the tribes along that river, capturing the fortress of Orekhov for a second time; the Novgorodians retook the fortress in 1349 after a seven-month siege, Magnus fell back, in large part due to the ravages of the plague farther West.
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. In 1355 Magnus sent a ship to Greenland to inspect its Eastern Settlements. Sailors found settlements Norse and Christian; the Greenland carrier made the Greenland run at intervals till 1369, when she sank and was not replaced. King Valdemar IV of Denmark reconquered Scania in 1360, he went on to conquer Gotland in 1361. On 27 July 1361, outside the city of Visby, the main city of the final battle took place, it ended in a complete victory for Valdemar. Magnus had warned the inhabitants of Visby in a letter and started to gather troops to reconquer Scania. Valdemar took a lot of plunder with him. Either in late 1361 or early 1362 the inhabitants of Visby raised themselves against the few Danish that Valdemar left behind and killed them. In 1363, members of the Swedish Council of Aristocracy, led by Bo Jonsson Grip, arrived in the court of Mecklenburg.
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Media related to Tre kronor (castle) at Wikimedia Commons