Johan of Plön

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Johan (Eng. John) III of Plön, died 1359. Holstein Count who together with Count Gerhard III was the lord of parts of Denmark 1332-1340. Known as “Johan the Mild”.

He was the son of Count Gerhard II of Holstein and of the Danish Queen Dowager Agnes of Brandenburg, a fact that made him a half-brother of Eric VI and Christopher II. Born a wealthy man he very early acted as a powerful local prince funding Danish warfare and co-operating with his cousin Gerhard III.

His financial support of the Danish kings quickly made him one of their leading creditors with his chief point in Funen. At the rebellion against Christopher II 1326 Johan failed him supporting Gerhard and the Danish magnates and enlarged his Danish possessions. The growing rivalry between him and Gerhard made him restoring Christopher as a king 1330 but the co-operation between the two half-brothers 1331 against Gerhard ended in a defeat. Johan politically survived this setback but had to accept Gerhard as his superior.

1332-1340 Johan was the master of Denmark east of the Great Belt. However already 1332 he lost Scania which rebelled against the German rule submitting to the Swedish king. Though a kind of a co-ruler with Gerhard Johan did not play a very great political role and preferred to concentrate on his economic profit – like Gerhard he was pestered by his own minor creditors. After the collapse of the Holstein rule 1340 Johan at first co-operated with King Valdemar IV in order to get his money back but during the next years he was slowly but surely outmanoeuvered from his Danish areas by war and by economic transactions. At his death he only ruled his German possessions.

In Danish tradition Johan is quite overshadowed by Gerhard as a Holstein ruler in Denmark. In fact not much is known about Johan’s character but he seems to have been a clever diplomat whose ambitions owing to circumstances were gradually limited to economic demands.