Editing Sture (section)

==Younger Sture Family (Natt och Dag)==
[[File:COA_family_se_Natt_och_Dag.svg|thumb|right|150px|Arms of the [[Natt och Dag]] family, also borne by the Younger Sture family.]]
[[File:Svante Nilsson Regent of Sweden seal 1879.jpg|thumb|150px|Seal of [[Svante Nilsson (regent of Sweden)|Svante Nilsson]]]]

After Sven Sture's death, his castle at Eksjö was inherited first by his son-in-law Bo Stensson (Natt och Dag), and then by Bo's son Nils.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carlsson |first=Gustaf |date=1918 |title=Nordisk familjebok, Volume 27 |url=https://runeberg.org/nfcg/0286.html |location=Stockholm |publisher=Nordisk Familjeboks Forlag |page=508}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://runeberg.org/hgsl/2/0204.html|title=Historiskt-geografiskt och statistiskt lexikon öfver Sverige, Vol. II (C-F)|pages=200–1}}</ref> Nils subsequently adopted his grandfather's surname, calling himself [[Nils Bosson Sture]], and thus founded a third Sture line, traditionally referred to as the 'Younger Sture Family' ({{langx|sv|Yngre Stureätten/Sturesläkten}}),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34629 |title=Sture (yngre ätten), släkt |last=Gillingstam |first=Hans |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Carlsson |first=Gustaf |date=1918 |title=Nordisk familjebok, Volume 27 |url=https://runeberg.org/nfcg/0286.html |location=Stockholm |publisher=Nordisk Familjeboks Forlag |page=508}}</ref> though he nevertheless continued to use the same [[Natt och Dag]] arms as his father and other paternal relatives. As a result, the Younger Sture Family is usually considered an offshoot of the Natt och Dag rather than a continuation of the Danish Sture line.

To make matters even more confusing, Nils's Natt och Dag ancestors were linked by marriage to the Sture (Sjöblad) family. Thus Nils Bosson Sture and Sten Sture the Elder were distant cousins (Sten's great-grandmother Märta Bosdotter was also Nils's great-aunt), but their shared surname of Sture came from ''unrelated'' ancestors. Nils was initially one of Sten's most prominent supporters, but the two men later became estranged, and by the time of his death Nils was a leading member of the unionist opposition to Sten's regency.
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34640 |title=Nils Sture |last=Westin |first=Gunnar |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>

Nils's son [[Svante Nilsson (regent of Sweden)|Svante]] rejected the surname Sture, instead simply styling himself 'Svante Nilsson'. This may have been a gesture of opposition to Sten Sture, to whom he was initially hostile as his father had been. As such he was one of the leaders of the 1497 rebellion which deposed Sten as regent and invited in King [[John, King of Denmark|Hans of Denmark]] to rule Sweden instead, thereby restoring the [[Kalmar Union]]. Hans, however, alienated Svante and other erstwhile opponents of Sten by his clumsy attempts to play the different Swedish factions off against each other in order to increase his own power, and in 1501 Svante helped Sten to foment a rebellion which led to the expulsion of Hans's troops and Sten's restoration as regent. After Sten died in 1503, Svante succeeded him as regent, and ruled Sweden until his own death a decade later.
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34641 |title=Svante Nilsson |last=Westin |first=Gunnar |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>

Svante's son Sten Svantesson succeeded him as regent, and revived the Sture surname in order to associate himself with the memory of Sten Sture the Elder; he is therefore known to history as [[Sten Sture the Younger]]. The younger Sten ruled Sweden for eight years before being defeated  and killed by [[Christian II of Denmark]] at the [[Battle of Bogesund]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34642 |title=Sten Svantesson Sture |last=Westin |first=Gunnar |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>

[[File:Svante Mauritzon Sture (1587-1616) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|160px|left|Svante Mauritzson Sture (1587-1616), the last of the Stures.]]

The regent's sons, [[Nils Stensson Sture|Nils Stensson]] and [[Svante Stensson Sture|Svante Stensson]], were both captured by the Danes and imprisoned in [[Copenhagen]]. In their absence, a nobleman called [[Gustav I of Sweden|Gustav Eriksson Vasa]] led a [[Swedish War of Liberation|successful rebellion]] against Christian and declared himself King of Sweden in 1523. The following year the Stenssons were released by the new Danish king, [[Frederick I of Denmark|Frederick I]], and returned to Sweden. It appears Nils died soon afterward, but an apparent impostor, the so-called ''Daljunker'', led an abortive [[Dalecarlian Rebellions#Second Dalecarlian Rebellion|revolt against Gustav]] in 1527-8. Gustav died in 1560, and was succeeded by his son [[Erik XIV of Sweden|King Erik XIV]]. Erik soon became suspicious of Svante and his eldest son [[Nils Svantesson Sture|Nils Svantesson]], whom he believed was plotting to usurp the throne, and in 1567 he had them arrested along with Nils's brother Erik and then personally killed all three of them in a violent outburst known to history as the [[Sture Murders]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34643 |title=Svante Sture |last=Samuelson |first=Jan |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>

Svante's youngest son, Mauritz, managed to avoid the king's suspicions due to his youth. He later had a son called Svante, but Svante Mauritzson failed to have children of his own, and so the Younger Sture family died with him in 1616.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34629 |title=Sture (yngre ätten) |last=Gillingstam |first=Hans |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref>

===Revived Sture Line===
The Younger Stures were survived by their cousins in the main Natt och Dag line, descended from Bo Stensson's elder brother Bengt Stensson. One of Bengt's descendants, Sten Arfvidsson (1681–1730), was an officer in the [[Swedish Army]] during the [[Great Northern War]], rising to the rank of [[Major-General]] and marrying a daughter of the prominent statesman [[Carl Piper]]. He was [[ennobled]] in 1720 as Baron Sture, thus establishing a new Sture line. This iteration of the Sture family died out in 1875, but the principal Natt och Dag line survives to the present day, and is indeed reckoned to be the oldest surviving family within the [[Swedish nobility]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=8768 |title=Natt och Dag, släkt |website=Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://nattochdag.org/|title=Natt Och Dag: Hemsidan|website=Natt och Dag.org|access-date=2022-04-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Svenska Adelns Ättar-Taflor|last=Anrep|first=Gabriel}}</ref>