Johannes was the second

Archbishop of Uppsala The Archbishop of Uppsala (spelled Upsala until the early 20th century) has been the primate (bishop), primate of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward un ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, with a short-lived reign between 1185 and 1187.

Biography

His name is sometimes spelled as 'Johan', the Swedish form of 'Johannes', but since the

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countr ...

had yet to be established it is of little importance. Little is known about Johannes. Only a few months after the death of the first Archbishop Stefan, Johannes was selected by the Pope to be his successor. He was ordained by the

Archbishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Danish Reformation the centre of a great Latin (arch)bishopric, Lund has been in Sweden since the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Diocese of Lund is now one of thirteen in the Church of Sweden. Cathol ...

Absalon Absalon (21 March 1201) was a Danish statesman and prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Roskilde from 1158 to 1192 and archbishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Danish Reformation the centre of a gr ...

—the

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

over the newly established Swedish

archbishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

—by November 1185. Johennes was killed during

pillage of Sigtuna The Pillage of Sigtuna was the raid of Swedish town Sigtuna by pagans from Eastern Baltic in 1187. The pillage is most commonly attributed to Estonians or Karelians. Pillage According to chronicles the town of Sigtuna was burned down on 12 Augu ...

in 1187 by pagan raiders (

Estonians Estonians or Estonian people ( et, eestlased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to Estonia who speak the Estonian language. The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to other ...

Curonians :''The Kursenieki are also sometimes known as Curonians.'' The Curonians or Kurs ( lv, kurši; lt, kuršiai; german: Kuren; non, Kúrir; orv, кърсь) were a Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic Sea in what are now the western p ...

, or

Karelians Karelians ( krl, karjalaižet, karjalazet, karjalaiset, Finnish: , sv, kareler, karelare, russian: Карелы) are a Finnic ethnic group who are indigenous to the historical region of Karelia, which is today split between Finland and Russi ...

).Enn Tarvel (2007)
''Sigtuna hukkumine.
Haridus, 2007 (7-8), p 38–41 In 1187, a ship from the not yet christianed

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

entered

Mälaren Mälaren ( , , or ), historically referred to as Lake Malar in English, is the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden (after Vänern and Vättern). Its area is 1,140 km2 and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from e ...

, a lake close to Uppsala, on a plundering expedition. It sailed to

Sigtuna Sigtuna () is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 8,444 inhabitants in 2010. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta. Sigtuna is for historical reasons often still referre ...

, a prosperous city at that time, and plundered it. On its way back, barricades had been set up at

Almarestäket Almarestäket, or ''Stäket'', is a strait at the inlet of Lake Mälaren in mid-east Sweden. A fortress existed there between about 1370 and 1517, also named Almarestäket. A place mentioned as Stocksund by Old Norse author Snorre Sturlasson wa ...

, the only exit point and the place where Johannes was currently residing, to prevent the ship from escaping. The ship was however able to get around the barricades through a creek. There followed a battle, and during the battle Johannes was killed.

Ext. links

Raid on Sigtuna

References

* ''Svea Rikes Ärkebiskopar'', Uppsala, 1935 Roman Catholic archbishops of Uppsala 12th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Sweden Military personnel killed in action {{Sweden-RC-archbishop-stub