Christian IV

Christian IV (1577-1648), king of Denmark and Norway (1588-1648), the son of Frederick II. Frederick made an agreement with his nobles in 1582 to support his son after his death. Christian succeeded to the throne in 1588 as a minor, and his first years as king were dominated by regents. After 1596 he ruled in his own right. An independent but not always judicious ruler, he was above all a man of action. He built up the Danish navy, encouraged industry and commerce, established a regular postal service, and founded a series of new towns. As a builder he left a lasting mark on Copenhagen, which he enlarged and beautified.

Christian’s foreign ventures were less fortunate. Despite personal bravery, he was an undistinguished military leader, although his war against Sweden from 1611 to 1613 succeeded in halting Swedish expansion into northern Norway, mainly because the Swedes were otherwise engaged. He dreamed of a Danish empire in north Germany, and this dream led not only to the war with Sweden but also to Danish intervention in the Thirty Years’ War. His participation in the Thirty Years’ War was disastrous, however, and ended with his defeat by the armies of the Holy Roman Empire, although he managed to win a lenient peace at Lübeck in 1629. Even worse was the second war with Sweden (1643-1645) in which Denmark lost forever considerable territories in the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Baltic.