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Catherine Jagiellon
Coronation	in 1569 in the Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden
Parents	Sigismund I of Poland, Bona Sforza
Consort	John III of Sweden
Date of Birth	November 1, 1526
Place of Birth	Kraków, Poland
Date of Death	September 16, 1583
Place of Death	Stockholm, Sweden
Place of Burial	Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden

Catherine Jagiellon (Polish: Katarzyna Jagiellonka; Finnish: Katariina Jagellonica; Swedish: Katarina Jagellonica av Polen; November 1, 1526 - September 16, 1583) was Duchess of Finland 1562-83, Queen Consort of Sweden 1569-83 and Grand Duchess of Finland 1581-83 and heir to her mother's claim to the title of King of Jerusalem.

She was born as the youngest daughter of Poland's King Zygmunt I the Old and Bona Sforza. Catherine became the wife of Sweden's King John III and mother to the future King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sigismund III Vasa. Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, was among her suitors.

On October 4, 1562, Catherine was married in Vilnius, Lithuania, to Duke John of Finland, second son of Sweden's late King Gustav I and brother of the then reigning Eric XIV. John had not received his brother's permission for the marriage, there were already tensions between them, since John had an independent foreign policy. The newly-weds set up house in Turku Castle in Turku, Finland. Duke John's dealings in Livonia caused Sweden's King Eric XIV, ultimately to declare war on his brother. Eric sent 10,000 men to besiege the castle. On August 12, 1563, the castle capitulated; Catherine and her husband were taken to Sweden, and imprisoned in Gripsholm Castle.

Catherine Jagiellon in prison, by Józef Simmler

Her unsuccessful suitor, Tsar Ivan, was in negotiations with Eric over Catherine, asking her to be separated from John and sent to marry him in Russia. This caused alarm, beside Catherine and her relations, in Swedish "popular" opinion and was one of the reasons for growing dissatisfaction with the increasingly insane Eric. During the incarceration, Catherine gave birth first to her eldest daughter Isabella of Finland in 1564 (died 1566), then to her son Sigismund in 1566, and finally her youngest child Anna of Finland on May 17, 1568.

Catherine and John were released in 1568. In 1569, she was crowned Queen of Sweden, as her husband became John III of Sweden, upon deposing Eric. Queen Catherine had political influence and did much to influence her husband in the cause for Catholicism and the counter-reformation, just as her successor as queen, her husbands later wife Gunilla Bielke, would influence him in Protestantism. He launched "The red book", were Lutheranism were strongly influnced by catholicism, kept a lot of catholic ceremoniel and even used Latin, which aroused a lot of opposition. She had her own, Catholic staff, among them several Catholic monks and priests, which chocked the Protestants. In 1572, she made contact with cardinal hosius to recatholize Sweden. In 1576, she sent her son to be educated by the jesuits in Braunsberg. From Rome, they received the Norwegian jesuit Laurentius Nicolai, housed him in the old Franciscan monastery, which had ben closed during the reformation, and allowed him to open a catholic school; the Protestants called him "Kloster-Lasse" ("Convent-Lasse"), and the school was stromed and shut down in 1583. A new shrine were made for the relics of king Saint Eric in the cathedral Uppsala. Queen Catherine also strongly benefitted the old Vadstena Abbey, were the last old nuns still lived, and often visited it. The first version of the later famous castle Drottningholm Palace was founded for and named after her.

Catherine raised her son Sigismund as an ardent Catholic. After 1587, he would rule the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for forty-five years as Zygmunt III Vasa. After he ascended to the Swedish throne 1592, his overt Catholicism estranged his Swedish subjects, and led to his deposition in 1599. This was followed by prolonged wars between Poland and Sweden.

The last years, Catherine suffered terribly from gaut. She died in Turku Castle on 16 September 1583. She is buried in the Uppsala Cathedral.

Bianca Maria Visconti, heiress of the Visconti dynasty, Duchess of Milan, Catherine's great-great-grandmother.

Ippolita Maria Sforza, Queen of Naples and Jerusalem, Catherine's great-grandmother.

Isabella of Aragon, Princess of Naples, Duchess of Milan, Duchess of Bari, Princess of Rossano, heir to the title of King of Jerusalem, Catherine's grandmother. Also claimed to be the model for Mona Lisa

Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland, heir to the title of King of Jerusalem, Catherine's mother.

• Herman Lindqvist,"Historien om Sverige; Gustav Vasa och hans söner och döttrar".
• Åke Ohlmarks, "Alla Sveriges drottningar".

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Catherine Jagellonica of Poland

• List of Swedish monarchs
• History of Poland (1385-1569)