SKYTTE, JOHAN BENGTSON [SSNE 4754]

Surname: SKYTTE, SKIJT, SKITE, SKITTE, SKYTE, DUDERHOF, SCHRODERUS
First name: JOHAN BENGTSON
Title/rank: BARON DUDERHOF
Nationality: SWEDISH
Social status: NOBILITY

Text source

Johan Skytte, born in May 1577 to Bengt Nilsson and Anna Andersdotter in Nykoping. Johan had two brothers and two sisters. He attended school in Nykoping until 1589 and the following year he went to Stockholm to attend college there. When that college closed Johan began an academic tour of Germany by heading for university at Frankfurt an der Oder in the summer of 1592. However by October 1593 he enrolled at Wittenberg university and in September 1594 he registered at Marburg university, where it appears he obtained a baccalaureate the next year. The university was closed due to the plague later in 1595 and it seems that during the next 12 months or so Johan undertook further travels to the Netherlands and Britain, certainly to London. He returned to Sweden in the spring of 1596, only to set off once again to Germany a few months later, this time to Lemgo, and then eventually back to Marburg until 1599. Johan then returned again temporarily to Sweden to undertake duties in duke Karl(later king Karl IX)'s Chancellery. However by the end of the year he was again in Marburg, where he remained until the following summer. He then made his way via Austria to Paris where he remained for half a year, and then visited London again in 1601. He subsequently travelled north, even participating in a hunt with King James VI and I of Scotland before Johan returned to Scandinavia at the end of the year, calling in on King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway. in 1610 he conducted several further important diplomatic missions to Great Britain and The Dutch Republic.

From February 1602 Johan also conducted duties in Stockholm. He served as the tutor to the crown prince, Gustav Adolf from this period until 1611; during which time he also published a pedagogical work known as Een Kort Undervisning [full title: Een kort Vnderwijsning Vthi Huad konster och Dygder Een Furstelig Person skal sigh öfwe och bruke then ther tencker medh tijdhen lyckosalighen regere land och rijke(n.p., 1604)] which listed the various academic subjects a prince needed to master in order to later become king. He later established the school for the nobility in 1626 in Stockholm and also set up schools in other parts of Sweden, notably a "Lappschool" in Piteå.

In 1629 Skytte became governor general of Livonia, Ingermanland and Karelia, living in a palace at Riga. His differences with the powerful Oxenstierna family dogged him much of his life and he was appointed president of the Göta court in 1634. Despite this he also served on embassies to Denmark-Norway, the Netherlands and Britain during this period. In January 1635 he was engaged in negotiations with King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway. Johan and his son, also named Johan [SSNE 6280], travelled to Britain in 1635 on a mission to recruit soldiers for the Swedish army. However in late February the Swedish council decided that the recruiting funds should be returned to Hamburg as English troops were not worth the levying: “Mentes vara godt att skriffva Her Johan Skytte aff värffningen i Engelandh och begära, att han remitterar penningerne på Hamburg, medan som thet Engelske folcket dock intet mycket duger och man intet behöffver Konungen i Engelandh ther öffver något att besvära. Elljest så kunne officerarne heller draga uthur Skåttlandh soldater till hundradetals och mindre trouper aff them, som förr haffve tjent, medh hvilka Chronan kan vara batter benögd.” In March Johan was negotiating with Bremen, but it was not until late June that he provided a verbal relation of how his mission to the Stuart court had gone. Similarly it was on 1 July that he discussed his negotiations with the Netherlands - stressing that the States General were keen to renew their alliance with Sweden. Johan sr.'s duties also included being prince Karl Gustav's tutor. When the refugee Johan Amos Comenius came to Sweden in 1642 Skytte was an enthusiastic supporter.

He held the right to Duderhof, an estate in Ingermanland, near Nyenskanz (St Petersburg). Apart from his social successes in Sweden, Johan also had a strong connection with Scotland. On 5th January 1606 he married a Scottish woman, Mary Neave [SSNE 6272], the daughter of James Neave [SSNE 4218] and his wife Karin Hampa. At the wedding Gustav Adolph held the speech on behalf of Mary. Skytte came to own property in Scotland through his wife. His sons Johan [SSNE 6280], Bengt [SSNE 4842] and Jacob [SSNE 4920] are considered Scots within the paramaters of this database, and Johan junior actually became a naturalised Scot in May 1635. The other two sons were both knighted by Charles I, out of his regard for their father. However, Johan's early visits to the Stuart court in London created a bond with the monarchy which led him into conflict with the Swedish government during the time of the Bishops' Wars in Scotland and the ensuing civil wars in Britain. He vigorously opposed the Swedish government's aid to the Covenanters in 1640. Johan's last role would have been to undertake Sweden's peace negotiations with Denmark-Norway in August 1645, but he died on 15 March that year. He was buried in Uppsala Cathedral, where his funeral monument can still be seen.

Sources:

Swedish Riksarkiv, Depositio Skytteana A:5, E 5412; Swedish Riksarkiv, 1841, Svenske Sändebuds till Utländske Hof och Deras Sändebud till Sverige, pp.77-78; Svenska Riksradets Protokoll, vol.5, pp.1,7,9,15,26,27,90,98,99,174; T. Berg, Johan Skytte, hans ungdom och verksamhet under Karl IX:s regering, (Stockholm, 1920); A.J. Loomie (ed.), Ceremonies of Charles I, The Notebooks of John Finet 1628-1641 (New York, 1987), p.317; Svenska Adelns Ättartavlor, VII, pp.319-320; M. and A. Moerner, eds. Kyrka och krona i sörmländskt 1600-tal, (Mariefred, n.d. 1996?), p.102; C. Gartz, Äreminne, öfver Riks-Rådet Johan Skytte, Friherre til Duderhoff, Herre til Grönsjö och Elfvesjö; Hvilket vunnit accessit den 20 Marii 1786", Svenska Vitterhets-Academiens Handlingar, del 5, (Stockholm, 1788), pp.116-167; F. Werner and J.H. Schröder, Uppsala Domkyrka och dess Märkvärdigheter (Stockholm, 1826), lithograph, pl.17; Svenska Män och Kvinnor, vol.7, p.93.

Inscription on funeral monument in Uppsala Cathedral:Hic recumbit Ioannis Skytte patris corculu et foelix quonda cura Mariae Neaff matris gloriosus partus Ioannis Kyle mariti deliciae breves Mariae et Hillewidis orphanaru iactura in dies acrius acrius punctura fratrum sororumque luctus insolabilis et universae sueciae sempiternu decus in illa enitebat eruditio supra sexum ante annos cana prudentia pietasque et fides et constantia non huius seculi. In Wendela demum nihil muliebre agnovisses praeter venustatem et castimoniam mortem pestem que saevam utramos belluam quadrilingui poterat exorare facundia sed vincere malvit. Iam iamque de illis triumphat. Cum trimphatore agno magno ad quem exultabunda evolavit Stralsundio anno salutis mdcxxix aetatis xxi coniugii iii.

Service record

SWEDEN, FRANKFURT AN DER ODER: Arrived 1592-01-01; Departed 1593-09-30; Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN, WITTENBERG: Arrived 1593-10-01; Departed 1594-08-31; Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN, MARBURG: Arrived 1594-09-01; Departed 1595-07-01; Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN, THE NETHERLANDS, ENGLAND: Arrived 1595-08-01; Departed 1596-03-31; Capacity MISC, purpose MISC
SWEDEN, LEMGO, MARBURG: Arrived 1596-07-01; Departed 1599-12-31; Capacity STUDENT, TEACHER, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN, MARBURG: Arrived 1599-08-01; Departed 1600-06-30; Capacity TEACHER, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN, PARIS, LONDON, SCOTLAND: Arrived 1600-08-01; Departed 1601-12-31; Capacity MISC, purpose MISC
SWEDEN, STUART COURT: Arrived 1605-01-01; Departed 1605-12-31; Capacity AMBASSADOR, purpose DIPLOMACY; Arrived 1610-03-19; Departed 1610-09-01; Capacity AMBASSADOR, purpose DIPLOMACY
SWEDEN, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK-NORWAY: Arrived 1635-01-01; Departed 1635-01-31; Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
SWEDEN, STUART KINGDOMS: Arrived 1635-01-01; Departed 1635-12-31; Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY