John I of Sweden

John I (Swedish: Johan Sverkersson; c. 1201 – March 10, 1222) was a Swedish king elected in 1216.

John was the son of King Sverker II of Sweden of the House of Sverker and Queen Ingegerd of the Bjälbo dynasty. When he was one year old, his maternal grandfather Jarl Birger Brosa died. King Sverker appointed his son as nominal jarl in order to strengthen his own ruling powers and secure the increasingly important jarl institution. This enraged the rival House of Eric as well as some of Birger Brosa's offspring, and John was contemptuously known as the "breech-less jarl". John retained his dignity until his father King Sverker was beaten in the Battle of Lena in 1208, later to be killed in the Battle of Gestilren in 1210. His rival Erik Knutsson, from the House of Eric, became King Eric X of Sweden.

When King Eric died suddenly in fever in 1216, the teen-aged John was hailed king by the Swedish aristocracy against the will of the Pope in Rome. The Danish King Valdemar Sejr also opposed the choice, since the posthumous son of Eric X was a nephew of his. In Sweden itself the succession did not take place without strife. The Church had a big stake in the appointment, and it is apparent that John had a number of church leaders at his side, including Archbishop Valerius, Bishop Bengt of Skara and Bishop Karl of Linköping. The last-mentioned was termed chancellor; this is the first time that the title occurs in Sweden. The young ruler was crowned in 1219 and immediately issued a charter of privileges to the Swedish bishops. The charter confirmed the privileges that his father Sverker II had issued i 1200, but expanded them. The properties of the church were to be free from royal revenue demands, and fines paid by tenants of the Church would go to the bishops.

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