OXENSTIERNA, JOHAN [SSNE 4756]

Surname
OXENSTIERNA
First name
JOHAN, JOHN
Title/rank
BARON KEMESTO, LORD OF FILHOLME AND TYNDOON
Nationality
SWEDISH
Region
STOCKHOLM
Social status
NOBILITY
Education
UNIVERSITY

Text source

Johan Oxenstierna was born in Stockholm on 24 June 1611, the son of Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna and his wife Anna Bt. He first studied at Uppsala and after 1629 travelled to The Netherlands, Britain and France. Apparently he was made colonel of the Red Regiment in 1632. He soon returned to his travels and appears to have graduated from Oxford as Masters of Arts on 13 March 1633 along with Gustavus Horne. Johan was sent to Charles I in 1634 on a recruiting and diplomatic mission. He met up with General Patrick Ruthven [SSNE 3413] and other officers in Amsterdam en route to Britain. He had little success with his first mission. A letter dated 12 April 1634 states that Johan was specifically sent in his father's name to reassure King Charles I of Sweden's continued war effort in Germany, but also to seek new British recruits to complete 12 regiments. Charles' response to that letter indicated that he viewed Johan's mission as a precursor to the next meeting of the German allies and that Johan had no authority to request financial and physical supplies from him. Indeed the following year Joseph Avery [SSNE 2830] undertook negotiations with Axel Oxenstierna. In 1635 Johan was appointed a commissioner for negotiations with Poland and as such he participated in establishing the Truce of Stuhmsdorf. On Johan's return to Sweden he became a member of the Treasury. In 1639 he became a member of the Riksrad. He was sent as a Swedish legate for the Westphalian negotiations in 1641 and received his brother Erik (who also travelled to Britain and The Netherlands) on a visit in Osnabruck in 1643. In 1650 he was sent to Pomerania to organise the governing of the province but he returned to Sweden the following year. In 1653 he was appointed "lagman" in Uppland and apparently returned to Britain that year as an ambassador - at which time three of his retinue matriculated at Oxford. He became state marshal in 1654 and the chancellor for Greifswald academy. He was sent to Germany in 1655 as the official Swedish legate and became president of the Wismar Tribunal. He died in Wismar on 5 December 1657.

C. V. Jacobowsky, 'Svenska studenter i Oxford c. 1620-1740' in Personhistorisk Tidskrift, vol. 28, 1927, p.107, 113; PRO SP75/13, F.158. Robert Anstruther to Coke, 17/22 February 1634.

Service record

SWEDEN, OXFORD
Arrived 1632-01-01
Departed 1633-03-31
Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN, STUART COURT
Arrived 1634-03-01
Departed 1634-05-01
Capacity AMBASSADOR, purpose DIPLOMACY