Christian II of Denmark
|
|
Christian II (1481 – 1559) was a Danish monarch and King of Denmark, Norway (1513 – 1523) and Sweden (1520 – 1521), under the Kalmar Union. Christian was born the son of King John of Denmark ("Kong Hans") and Christina of Saxony, at Nyborg Castle in 1481 and succeeded his father as king and regent in Denmark and Norway, where he later was to be succeeded by his uncle king Frederick I of Denmark. In Sweden he was as a result of his conquest of Sweden and his involvement in the Stockholm Bloodbath to be remembered as Christian the Tyrant.
| Missing image Christian_II.jpg Image:Christian II.jpg | |
| Reign in Denmark | July 22, 1513 – January 20, 1523 |
| Reign in Norway | July 22, 1513 – January 20, 1523
|
| Reign in Sweden | November 1, 1520 – August, 1521 |
| Coronation | June 11, 1514 in Denmark
|
| Queen | Isabella of Burgundy |
| Predecessors | John in Denmark and Norway
|
| Successors | Frederick I in Denmark and Norway
|
| Date of Birth | July 1, 1481 |
| Place of Birth | Nyborg Castle, Denmark |
| Date of Death | January 25, 1559 |
| Place of Death | Kalundborg Castle, Denmark |
| Place of Burial | Odense, Denmark |
| Contents |
Christian's Politics
As viceroy of Norway (1506 – 1512) he had already displayed a singular capacity for ruling under exceptionally difficult circumstances. Patriotism, insight, courage, statesmanship, energy -- these great qualities were indisputably his; but unfortunately they were vitiated by obstinacy, suspicion and a sulky craftiness, beneath which simmered a very volcano of vengeful cruelty.
Another peculiarity, more fatal to him in that aristocratic age than any other, was his fondness for the common people, which was increased by his passion for a pretty Norwegian girl of Dutch heritage, named Dyveke Sigbritsdatter, who became his mistress in 1507 or 1509.
Christian's succession to the throne was confirmed at the Herredag, or assembly of notables from the three northern kingdoms, which met at Copenhagen in 1513. The nobles and clergy of all three kingdoms regarded with grave misgivings a ruler who had already shown in Norway that he was not afraid of enforcing his authority to the uttermost.
The Privy Council of Denmark and the Privy Council of Norway, or Rigsraad of Denmark and Norway, insisted in the Haandfæstning (i.e. the charter extorted from the king) that the crowns of both kingdoms were elective and not hereditary, providing explicitly against any transgression of the charter by the king, and expressly reserving to themselves a free choice of Christian's successor after his death. But the Swedish delegates could not be prevailed upon to accept Christian as king at all.
"We have", they said, "the choice between peace at home and strife here, or peace here and civil war at home, and we prefer the former." A decision as to the Swedish succession was therefore postponed. On August 12, 1515, Christian married Isabella of Burgundy, the granddaughter of the emperor Maximilian I. But he would not give up his liaison with Dyveke, and it was only the death of the unfortunate girl in 1517, under suspicious circumstances, that prevented serious complications with the emperor Charles V.
Christian avenged himself by executing the magnate Torben Oxe, who on very creditable evidence was supposed to have been Dyveke's murderer, despite the strenuous opposition of Oxe's fellow-peers; and henceforth the king lost no opportunity to suppress the nobility and raise commoners to power.
His chief counsellor was Dyveke's mother Sigbrit, a born administrator and a commercial genius of the first order. Christian first appointed her controller of the Sound tolls, and ultimately committed to her the whole charge of the finances. A bourgeoise herself, it was Sigbrit's constant policy to elevate and extend the influence of the middle classes. She soon became the soul of a middle-class inner council, which competed with the Rigsraad itself.
The patricians naturally resented their supersession and nearly every unpopular measure was attributed to the influence of "the foul-mouthed Dutch sorceress who hath bewitched the king."
Reconquest of Sweden
Meanwhile Christian was preparing for the inevitable war with Sweden, where the patriotic party, headed by the freely elected Viceroy Sten Sture the Younger, stood face to face with the pro-Danish party under Archbishop Gustav Trolle.
Christian, who had already taken measures to isolate Sweden politically, hastened to the relief of the archbishop, who was beleaguered in his fortress of Stake, but was defeated by Sture and his peasant levies at Vedila and forced to return to Denmark. A second attempt to subdue Sweden in 1518 was also frustrated by Sture's victory at Brännkyrka. A third attempt made in 1520 with a large army of French, German and Scottish mercenaries proved successful.
Sture was mortally wounded at the battle of Bogesund, on January 19, and the Danish army, unopposed, was approaching Uppsala, where the members of the Swedish Privy Council, or Riksråd, had already assembled. The councillors consented to render homage to Christian on condition that he gave a full indemnity for the past and a guarantee that Sweden should be ruled according to Swedish laws and custom; and a convention to this effect was confirmed by the king and the Danish Privy Council on March 31.
Sture's widow, Dame Christina Gyllenstierna, still held out stoutly at Stockholm, and the peasantry of central Sweden, roused by her patriotism, flew to arms, defeated the Danish invaders at Balundsås on March 19, and were only with the utmost difficulty finally defeated at the bloody battle of Uppsala, on Good Friday, April 6, 1520.
In May the Danish fleet arrived, and Stockholm was invested by land and sea; but Dame Gyllenstierna, resisted valiantly for four months longer, and took care, when she surrendered on September 7, to exact beforehand an amnesty of the most explicit and absolute character. On November 1 the representatives of the nation swore fealty to Christian as hereditary king of Sweden, though the law of the land distinctly provided that the Swedish crown should be elective.
The Stockholm Bloodbath
Christian_II_of_Denmark,_engraving_by_Jan_Gossaert_c_1523.jpg
On November 4, he was anointed by Gustavus Trolle in Stockholm Cathedral, and took the usual oath to rule the Realm through native-born Swedes alone, according to prescription. The next three days were given up to banqueting, but on November 7 "an entertainment of another sort began." On the evening of that day Christian summoned his captains to a private conference at the palace, the result of which was quickly apparent, for at dusk a band of Danish soldiers, with lanterns and torches, broke into the great hall and carried off several carefully selected persons.
By 10 o'clock the same evening the remainder of the king's guests were safely under lock and key. All these persons had previously been marked down on Archbishop Trolle's proscription list. On the following day a council, presided over by Trolle, solemnly pronounced judgment of death on the proscribed, as manifest heretics.
At 12 o'clock that night the patriotic bishops of Skara and Strängnäs were led out into the great square and beheaded. Fourteen noblemen, three burgomasters, fourteen town councillors and about twenty common citizens of Stockholm were then drowned or decapitated. The executions continued throughout the following day; in all, about eighty-two people are said to have been thus murdered.
Moreover, Christian revenged himself upon the dead as well as upon the living, for Sten Sture's body was dug up and burnt, as well as the body of his little child. Dame Christina and many other noble Swedish ladies were sent as prisoners to Denmark. It has well been said that the manner of this atrocious deed, the Stockholm Bloodbath as it is generally referred to, was even more detestable than the deed itself. The massacre and deeds in the Old Town of Stockholm is perhaps the primary reason why Christian is remembered in Sweden, as Christian the Tyrant.
Christian suppressed his political opponents under the pretense of defending an ecclesiastical system which in his heart he despised. Even when it became necessary to make excuses for his crime, we see the same double-standard. Thus, while in a proclamation to the Swedish people he represented the massacre as a measure necessary to avoid a papal interdict, in his apology to the Pope for the decapitation of the innocent bishops he described it as an unauthorized act of vengeance on the part of his own people.
Attempting reforms
It was with his brain teeming with great designs that Christian II returned to his native kingdom. That the welfare of his dominions was dear to him there can be no doubt. Inhuman as he could be in his wrath, in principle he was as much a humanist as any of his most enlightened contemporaries. But he would do things his own way; and deeply distrusting the Danish nobles with whom he shared his powers, he sought helpers from among the wealthy and practical middle classes of Flanders.
In June 1521 he paid a sudden visit to the Low Countries, and remained there for some months. He visited most of the large cities, took into his service many Flemish artisans, and made the personal acquaintance of Quentin Matsys and Albrecht Dürer, the latter of whom painted his portrait. Christian also entertained Erasmus, with whom he discussed the Reformation, and let fall the characteristic expression: "Mild measures are of no use; the remedies that give the whole body a good shaking are the best and surest."
Never had King Christian seemed so powerful as upon his return to Denmark on September 5, 1521, and, with the confidence of strength, he at once proceeded recklessly to inaugurate the most sweeping reforms. Soon after his return he issued his great Landelove, or Code of Laws. For the most part this is founded on Dutch models, and testifies in a high degree to the king's progressive aims. Provision was made for the better education of the lower, and the restriction of the political influence of the higher clergy; there were stern prohibitions against wreckers and "the evil and unchristian practice of selling peasants as if they were brute beasts"; the old trade guilds were retained, but the rules of admittance thereto made easier, and trade combinations of the richer burghers, to the detriment of the smaller tradesmen, were sternly forbidden.
Unfortunately these reforms, excellent in themselves, suggested the standpoint not of an elected ruler, but of a monarch by right divine. Some of them were even in direct contravention of the charter; and the old Scandinavian spirit of independence was deeply wounded by the preference given to the Dutch.
Downfall
Sweden too was now in open revolt; and both Norway and Denmark were taxed to the uttermost to raise an army for the subjection of the sister kingdom. Foreign complications were now added to these domestic troubles. With the laudable objective of releasing Danish trade from lhe grinding yoke of the Hanseatic League, and making Copenhagen the great emporium of the north, Christian had arbitrarily raised the Sound tolls and seized a number of Dutch ships which presumed to evade the tax.
Thus his relations with the Netherlands were strained, while with Lübeck and her allies he was openly at War. Finally Jutland rose against him, renounced its allegiance and offered the Danish crown to Christian's uncle, Duke Frederick of Holstein, January 20, 1523. So overwhelming did Christian's difficulties appear that he took ship to seek help abroad, and on May 1 landed at Veere in Zeeland.
Eight years later, October 24, 1531 he attempted to recover his kingdoms, but a tempest scattered his fleet off the Norwegian coast, and on July 1, 1532, by the convention of Oslo, he surrendered to his rival, King Frederick, in exchange for a promise of safe conduct. But king Frederick did not keep his promise, and for the next 27 years king Christian was kept prisoner, first in the Castle of Soenderborg untill 1549, and afterwards at the castle of Kalundborg. Stories of solitary confinement in small dark chambers are inaccurate, however; king Christian was treated like a nobleman, particularly in his old age, and he was allowed to host parties, go hunting, and wander freely as long as he did not go beyond the boundaries of the town of Kalundborg.
His cousin, king Christian III of Denmark, son of Frederick I, died in early 1559, and it was said that even then, with the old king nearing 80, did people in Copenhagen look warily towards Kalundborg. But king Christian II died peacefully just a few days later, and the new king, Frederick II, ordered that a royal funeral be held in memory of his unhappy kinsman, who lies buried in Odense next to his wife and his parents.
| Preceded by: John | King of Denmark | Succeeded by: Frederick I |
| King of Norway | ||
| Preceded by: Sten Sture the Younger | King of Sweden | Succeeded by: Gustav I |
de:Christian II. (Dänemark) et:Christian II fi:Kristian II fr:Christian II de Danemark ja:クリスチャン2世 (デンマーク王) nl:Christiaan II van Denemarken nb:Christian II nn:Christian II sv:Kristian II