Catherine Jagiellon, the youngest daughter of Sigismund the Old, was Queen of Sweden for 16 years following her marriage to John Vasa. After her death, she was laid to rest in Uppsala Cathedral. Remembered by her subjects as a kind and pious ruler, she is also commemorated near Taxinge.

Near the village of Taxinge (Nykvarn municipality), situated about 50 km west of Stockholm, there is a little-known Polish monument in the woods. It is a commemorative slab of red sandstone, shaped roughly like an upright rectangle with irregular edges. An inscription is carved into the flat face of the slab, above which a royal crown, highlighted with gilding, has been engraved. The stone was erected on a slope above a triple spring, which was venerated as far back as pagan times. The exact date of the monument’s creation is unknown. Swedish sources date it rather broadly to the modern era, but this monument was already described in nineteenth-century encyclopaedias devoted to Swedish antiquities.

The marriage of Catherine Jagiellon and John Vasa

Catherine Jagiellon was born on 1 November 1526 in Kraków as the youngest daughter of King Sigismund I the Old and Bona Sforza. Her marriage to the Finnish Prince John III was the result of the Jagiellonian dynasty’s political strategy. Previously, the following had been considered as suitors for Catherine: King Gustav of Sweden, Albrecht of Hohenzollern, Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg and Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia. Ultimately, it was Prince John of Finland who won the day; his marriage to the Polish princess was intended to assist him in his political struggles with his brother – the then King Eric XIV of Sweden. Despite Eric’s objections, the marriage took place on 4 October 1562 in Vilnius. The royal couple chose as their residence a medieval castle in what was then the Finnish capital, Åbo (now Turku), where Catherine Jagiellon ran her own court.

Imprisonment at Gripsholm Castle

Fearing his brother’s growing political influence, King Eric XIV began a siege of the castle in Åbo, which he captured on 12 August 1563. The princely couple were imprisoned at Gripsholm Castle, not far from Stockholm. There, Catherine Jagiellon and John Vasa spent the next four years. During this time, the royal couple’s son was born (1566) – the future King of Poland and Sweden, Sigismund III Vasa.
Legend

The inscription on the commemorative plaque refers to a legend according to which Catherine Jagiellon drew water from the spring every day and brought it to her husband whilst he was imprisoned at Gripsholm Castle. She feared that the guards might try to kill him by giving him poisoned water to drink. Since then, the spring has been called Drottningkällan – which means ‘The Queen’s Spring’.
The Queen of Sweden

As a result of the civil war that broke out in 1568 between the supporters of the two brothers, John III Vasa took power in Sweden. In January 1569, the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament) approved the formal act of deposing Eric XIV from the throne and elected John III as king; thus, Catherine Jagiellon became queen. The royal couple’s coronation took place in the summer of 1569 at Uppsala Cathedral.

During her 16 years as Queen of Sweden, Catherine Jagiellon worked to maintain good relations between Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As a devout Catholic, she sought to preserve the influence of Catholicism in Sweden. It was certainly thanks to her that, in 1576, at the behest of John III, a new liturgy modelled on the Catholic rite was adopted in the country. Many Swedish art historians believe that Catherine had a decisive influence on King John’s artistic tastes, and thus on the emergence of the Renaissance in Swedish art.

Catherine Jagiellon died on 16 September 1583 and was buried in Uppsala Cathedral.

A plaque commemorating Catherine Jagiellon underwent comprehensive conservation work in 2019, funded by the National Institute of Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad (POLONIKA).