Christian

kings in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The most important were:

Christian I. Born 1426; died May 21, 1481, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark from 1448 to 1481, of Norway from 1450 to 1481, and of Sweden from 1457 to 1464.

Christian I was the founder of the Oldenburg royal dynasty (from the family of the German counts of Oldenburg). During his reign a personal union of Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein was established in 1460. His defeat at the hands of the Swedes at Brunkeberg in 1471 led to the virtual dissolution of the Danish-Swedish union.

Christian II Born July 1,1481, in Nyborg; died Jan. 25,1559, in Kalundborg. King of Denmark and Norway from 1513 to 1523 and of Sweden from 1520 to 1523.

Christian II tried to break the domination of the aristocracy by relying on the lower ranks of the nobility and the burghers. He removed the aristocratic state council from power and granted the burghers a monopoly on foreign trade. He was the last to restore the Danish-Swedish union by force of arms and massacred the opposing Swedish aristocracy and burghers (the Stockholm Blood Bath of 1520). Christian II was overthrown by an uprising of the Danish nobility.

Christian III. Born Aug. 12, 1503, in Gottorp; died Jan. 1, 1559, in Koldinghus. King of Denmark and Norway from 1534 to 1559.

A protégé of the nobility and the clergy, Christian III ascended the royal throne after the defeat of Christian IPs followers (Count’s War of 1534–36). He implemented the Lutheran reformation in 1536.

Christian IV. Born Apr. 12, 1577, in Frederiksborg; died Feb. 28, 1648, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark and Norway from 1588 to 1648 (a council of regents ruled until he came of age in 1596).

Denmark flourished during the reign of Christian IV. He promoted the development of trade and industry and strove to strengthen Danish supremacy in the Baltic and to consolidate Denmark’s influence in northern Germany. His first war with Sweden (Kalmar War, 1611–13) was successful, but his intervention in the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) in 1625–29 on the side of the anti-Hapsburg coalition ended in failure. The second war with Sweden (1643–45) led to the crushing defeat of Denmark (the Treaty of Brömsebro).

Christian VIII. Born Sept. 18, 1786, in Copenhagen; died there Jan. 20, 1848. King of Denmark from 1839.

Christian VIII was the grandson of Frederick V. As viceroy of Norway (from 1813) he refused to recognize the term of the Kiel Peace Treaty of 1814 on the transfer of Norway from Denmark to Sweden. In May 1814 he was elected king of Norway but was not recognized by the great powers, and in October 1814 he abdicated. Christian did not participate in government affairs from 1818 to 1831. From 1831 to 1839 he was a member of the Privy Council. After he became king of Denmark in 1839, Christian opposed the peasant and liberal bourgeois movement in Denmark and the national liberation movements in Schleswig and Holstein.

Christian IX. Born Apr. 8, 1818, in Gottorp; died Jan. 29, 1906, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark from 1863.

Christian IX was the first Danish king of the Gliicksborg dynasty; he acquired his right to the throne from his marriage to a niece of Christian VIII. In 1901, under the pressure of the democratic and liberal bourgeois movement in the country, he granted to the parliament the right to form the Danish government. Christian IX’s daughter, Louise Sophie Frederikke Dagmar, became in 1866 the wife of the Russian emperor Alexander III under the name of Empress Mariia Fedorovna.

Christian X. Born Sept. 26, 1870, in Charlottenlund; died Apr. 20, 1947, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark from 1912 and of Iceland 1918 to 1944.

Christian X was the son and heir of Frederick VIII. In World War II (1939–45) he gained popularity by his firmly unyielding attitude toward the fascist German occupation authorities.