I want to do something really simple like this:
JPanel htmlPanel = new HtmlPanel(\"hello world
>
In case anyone is still looking for an easy solution to just enable display of HTML-Markup: Use a JLabel and enclose the text in '' and '' (body tag isn't needed).
Have a look at How to Use HTML in Swing Components. I just came across this when looking for an easy way to display data in tables, and it works like a charm.