Who was Christian IV of Denmark?

In the previous blog post  about Windsor Castle, the Allaboutroyalfamilies blog mentioned a drinking feast in England with King Christian IV of Denmark. Who was this King Christian IV of Denmark? Check it in this brand new  post. 

12 April 1577 marks the birth of Christian IV of Denmark. He was born at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark as the third child and eldest son of King Frederick II of Denmark–Norway and Sofie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

At the time, Denmark was still an elective monarchy, so in spite of being the eldest son Christian was not automatically heir to the throne. But Norway was an hereditary monarchy, and electing someone else would result in the end of the union of the crowns. However, in 1580, at the age of 3, his father had him elected Prince-Elect and successor to the throne of Denmark. 

His paternal grandparents were Christian III of Denmark and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg.

His maternal grandparents were Ulrich II of Mecklenburg- Güstrow and Elisabeth of Denmark.

Christian IV was a member of the royal House of Oldenburg.

Reign

At the death of his father on 4 April 1588, Christian was 11 years old.He succeeded to the throne, but as he was still under-age a regency council was set up to serve as the trustees of the royal power while Christian was still growing up. It was led by chancellor Niels Kaas and consisted of the Rigsraadet council members Peder Munk (1534–1623), Jørgen Ottesen Rosenkrantz (1523–1596) and Christoffer Valkendorff (1525-1601). His mother Queen Dowager Sophie, 30 years old, had wished to play a role in the government, but was denied by the Council. At the death of Niels Kaas in 1594, Jørgen Rosenkrantz took over leadership of the regency council.

Education

Christian continued his studies at Sorø Academy where he had a reputation as a headstrong and talented student.

In 1595, the Council of the Realm decided that Christian would soon be old enough to assume personal control of the reins of government. 

On 17 August 1596, at the age of 19, Christian signed his haandfæstning (lit. "Handbinding" viz. curtailment of the monarch's power, a Danish parallel to the Magna Carta), which was an identical copy of his father's from 1559.

Twelve days later, on 29 August 1596, Christian IV was crowned at the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen by the Bishop of Zealand, Peder Jensen Vinstrup (1549–1614). He was crowned with a new Danish Crown Regalia which had been made for him by Dirich Fyring (1580–1603), assisted by the Nuremberg goldsmith Corvinius Saur. 

Love and Marriage

His first queen was Anne Catherine of Brandenburg. They were married 1597–1612. She died after bearing Christian seven children. In 1616 four years after her death the king privately married Kirsten Munk, by whom he had twelve children. 

In 1632 an English envoy to king Christian IV, then aged 55, primly remarked : "Such is the life of that king : to drink all day and to lie with a whore every night".

In the course of 1628 he discovered that his wife, Kirsten Munk, was having a relationship with one of his German officers. Christian had Munk placed under house arrest. She endeavoured to cover up her own disgrace by conniving at an intrigue between Vibeke Kruse, one of her discharged maids, and the king.  

In January 1630 the rupture became final, and Kirsten retired to her estates in Jutland. Meanwhile, Christian openly acknowledged Vibeke as his mistress, and she bore him several more children.

With his first wife, Anne Catherine of Brandenburg he fathered the following children:

Stillborn son (1598).

Frederik (15 August 1599 – 9 September 1599).

Christian (10 April 1603 – 2 June 1647).

Sophie (4 January 1605 – 7 September 1605).

Elisabeth (16 March 1606 – 24 October 1608).

Frederick III (18 March 1609 – 9 February 1670).

Ulrik (2 February 1611 – 12 August 1633); murdered,
Administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin as Ulrich III (1624–1633).

With his second wife, Kirsten Munk, he had 12 children, though the youngest, Dorothea Elisabeth, was rumoured to be the daughter of Kirsten's lover, Otto Ludwig:

Stillborn child (b. & d. 1615).

Unnamed infant (b. & d. 1617).

Countess Anna Cathrine of Schleswig-Holstein
(10 August 1618 – 20 August 1633).

Countess Sophie Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein
(20 September 1619 – 29 April 1657).

Countess Leonora Christina of Schleswig-Holstein
(8 July 1621 – 16 March 1698); married Corfitz Ulfeldt.

Count Valdemar Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
(26 June 1622 – 26 February 1656).

Countess Elisabeth Auguste of Schleswig-Holstein
(28 December 1623 – 9 August 1677).

Count Friedrich Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
(26 April 1625 – 17 July 1627).

Countess Christiane of Schleswig-Holstein
(15 July 1626 – 6 May 1670); married Hannibal Sehested

Countess Hedwig of Schleswig-Holstein
(15 July 1626 – 5 October 1678).

Countess Maria Katharina of Schleswig-Holstein
(29 May 1628 – 1 September 1628).

Countess Dorothea Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein
(1 September 1629 – 18 March 1687).

With Kirsten Madsdatter:

Christian Ulrik Gyldenløve (1611–1640).

With Karen Andersdatter:

Dorothea Elisabeth Gyldenløve (1613–1615).

Hans Ulrik Gyldenløve (1615–1645).

With Vibeke Kruse:

Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve (1630–1658).

Elisabeth Sophia Gyldenløve (1633–1654); married
Major-General Klaus Ahlefeld.

Duty

Christian took an interest in many and varied matters, including a series of domestic reforms and improving Danish national armaments. New fortresses were constructed under the direction of Dutch engineers. The Danish navy, which in 1596 had consisted of but twenty-two vessels, in 1610 rose to sixty, some of them built after Christian's own designs. The formation of a national army proved more difficult. Christian had to depend mainly upon hired mercenary troops as was common practice in the times—well before the establishment of standing armies—augmented by native peasant levies recruited for the most part from the peasantry on the crown domains.

Up until the early 1620s, Denmark's economy profited from general boom conditions in Europe. This inspired Christian to initiate a policy of expanding Denmark's overseas trade as part of the mercantilist wave fashionable in Europe. He founded a number of merchant cities, and supported the building of factories. He also built a large number of buildings in Dutch Renaissance style.

Travels to England

His sister Anne had married King James VI of Scotland, who succeeded to the English throne in 1603. To foster friendly relations between the two kingdoms, Christian paid a state visit to England in 1606. The visit was generally judged to be a success, although the heavy drinking indulged in by English and Danes alike caused some unfavourable comments: both Christian and James had an ability to consume great amounts of alcohol, while remaining lucid, which most of their courtiers did not share.

Christian IV visited England again in August 1614, coming incognito  to surprise his sister at Denmark House, accompanied only by Andrew Sinclair and a page. He had sailed with only three ships and
captured some pirates during the voyage. More ships with his Danish courtiers arrived on 5 August. 

The diplomatic purpose of the visit was kept secret. The Venetian ambassador Antonio Foscarini heard that Anne of Denmark had written to him about a dispute with King James. Foscarini described
Christian as, "above the average in height, dressed in the French fashion. His nature is warlike".

War

In 1611, he first put his newly organised army to use. Despite the reluctance of Rigsrådet, Christian initiated a war with Sweden for the supremacy of the Baltic Sea. 

It was later known as the Kalmar War because its chief operation was the Danish capture of Kalmar, the southernmost fortress of Sweden. Christian compelled King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to give way on all essential points at the resulting Treaty of Knäred of 20 January 1613. However, despite Denmark's greater strength, the gains of the war were not decisive.

He now turned his attention to the Thirty Years' War in Germany. Here, his objectives were twofold: first, to obtain control of the great German rivers— the Elbe and the Weser— as a means of securing his dominion of the northern seas; and secondly, to acquire the secularised German Archdiocese of Bremen
and Prince-Bishopric of Verden as appanages for his younger sons. He skillfully took advantage of the alarm of the German Protestants after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, to secure co-adjutorship of the See of Bremen for his son Frederick (September 1621). A similar arrangement was reached in November at Verden. Hamburg was also induced to acknowledge the Danish overlordship of Holstein by the compact of Steinburg in July 1621.

Christian IV had obtained for his kingdom a level of stability and wealth that was virtually unmatched elsewhere in Europe.

Denmark was funded by tolls on the Øresund and also by extensive war-reparations from Sweden. Denmark's intervention in the Thirty Years' War was aided by France and by Charles I of England, who agreed to help subsidise the war partly because Christian was the uncle of both the Stuart king and
his sister Elizabeth of Bohemia through their mother, Anne of Denmark. 

Some 13,700 Scottish soldiers were to be sent as allies to help Christian IV under the command of General Robert Maxwell, 1st Earl of Nithsdale. Moreover, some 6000 English troops under Charles Morgan also eventually arrived to bolster the defence of Denmark though it took longer for these to arrive than Christian hoped, not least due to the ongoing British campaigns against France and Spain. Thus Christian, as war-leader of the Lower Saxon Circle, entered the war with an army of only 20,000 mercenaries, some of his allies from Britain and a national army 15,000 strong, leading them as

Duke of Holstein rather than as King of Denmark.

Despite the growing power of Roman Catholics in North Germany, and the threat to the Danish holdings in the Schleswig-Holstein duchies, Christian for a time stayed his hand. The urgent solicitations of other powers, and his fear that Gustavus Adolphus should supplant him as the champion of the Protestant cause, finally led him to enter the war on 9 May 1625. 

He also feared that Sweden could use a war to further expand their holdings in the Baltic Sea. Christian embarked on a military campaign which was later known in Denmark and Norway as "The Emperor War"

He had at his disposal from 19,000 to 25,000 men, and at first gained some successes but on 27 August 1626 he was routed by Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly in the Battle of Lutter.Christian had not thoroughly planned the advance against the combined forces of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Catholic League, as promises of military support from the Netherlands and England did not materialise.
In the summer of 1627 both Tilly and Albrecht von Wallenstein occupied the duchies and the whole peninsula of Jutland.

Christian now formed an alliance with Sweden on 1 January 1628, as he and Gustavus Adolphus shared the reluctance of German expansion in the Baltic region. 

Gustavus Adolphus pledged to assist Denmark with a fleet in case of need, and shortly afterwards a Swedo-Danish army and fleet compelled Wallenstein to raise the siege of Stralsund. Thus with the help of Sweden, the superior sea-power enabled Denmark to tide over her worst difficulties, and in May 1629 Christian was able to conclude peace with the emperor in the Treaty of Lübeck, without any diminution of territory.

However, the treaty bound Christian not to interfere in the Thirty Years' War any further, removing any Danish obstacles when Gustavus Adolphus entered the war in 1630.

Norway

Christian IV spent more time in the kingdom of Norway than any other Oldenburg monarch and no Oldenburg king made such a lasting impression on the Norwegian people. He visited the country a number of times and founded four cities. He also established and took control over one silver mine (Kongsberg), one copper mine (Røros), and tried to make an iron plant with limited success in Eiker. He also restored and restructured the castle Akershus, where he invited the people of Norway to the official

and age-old installment of the king in 1590, and again in 1610.

In 1623, Christian again visited Norway for an entire summer, this time to oversee the foundation of Kongsberg. He was also present in the area in 1624, when Oslo burned in August of that year. The king was able to reach the area in a few weeks, being in Eiker. Over the years, fire had destroyed major parts of the city many times, as many of the city's buildings were built entirely of wood. After the fire in 1624 which lasted for three days, Christian IV decided that the old city should not be rebuilt again. He decided that the new town be rebuilt in the area below Akershus Fortress, a castle which later was converted into a palace and royal residence. His men built a network of roads in Akershagen and demanded that all citizens should move their shops and workplaces to the newly built city of Christiania.

Art

Christian was reckoned a typical renaissance king, and excelled in hiring musicians and artists from all over Europe. Many English musicians were employed by him at several times, among them William Brade, John Bull and John Dowland. Dowland accompanied the king on his tours, and as he was employed in 1603, rumour has it he was in Norway as well. 

Christian was an agile dancer, and his court was reckoned the second most "musical" court in Europe, only ranking behind that of Elizabeth I of England. Christian maintained good contact with his sister Anne, who was married to King James. Christian asked Anne to request for him the services of
Thomas Cutting, a lutenist employed by Arbella Stewart.

His other sister, Elizabeth, was married to the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and artists and musicians travelled freely between the courts.

Later years and Death

The last years of Christian's life were embittered by sordid differences with his sons-in-law, especially with Corfitz Ulfeldt.

His personal obsession with witchcraft led to the public execution of some of his subjects during the Burning Times. He was responsible for several witch burnings, including 21 people in Iceland, and most notably the conviction and execution of Maren Spliid, who was victim of a witch hunt at Ribe and was burned at the Gallows Hill near Ribe on 9 November 1641.

On 21 February 1648, at his earnest request, he was carried in a litter from Frederiksborg to his beloved Copenhagen, where he died a week later. 

He was buried in Roskilde Cathedral. The chapel of Christian IV had been completed 6 years before the King died.

Source pictures: Wikipedia