page_title: John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev
section_title: Family
hierarchical_section_title: John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev / Family
caption_attribution_description: English: Coat of arms in Hertug Hans Church in Haderslev Denmark. Photo by Jens Christensen, Haderslev Denmark Italiano: Stemma nella chiesa di Hertug Hans in Haderslev, Danimarca. Foto di Jens Christensen, Haderslev, Danimarca
context_page_description: John of Denmark or John the Elder was the only Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev. The predicate the Elder is sometimes used to distinguish him from his nephew, John the Younger, who held Sønderborg from 1564 as a partitioned-off duke. As a co-ruler in the duchies of Holstein and of Schleswig, John the Elder is numbered as John II, continuing counting King John of Denmark as John I, Duke of Holstein and Schleswig.
context_section_description: John was the son of King Frederick I of Denmark and his second wife, Sophie of Pomerania.  As a possible heir to the throne, he enjoyed a careful education and spent several years at the court of his brother-in-law Albert, Duke of Prussia, in Königsberg. This was in Lutheran Ducal Prussia, a Polish fief, modernized into a secular state from the Teutonic State of Prussia since 1525. This successful policy would be seminal for John's understanding of politics and the state, as he also never became a fully sovereign prince.
caption: The Duke's coat of arms.
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