Christian I. (Denmark, Norway and Sweden)

Christian I as King of Denmark with his wife Dorothea von Brandenburg , contemporary depiction of the 15th century in Frederiksborg Palace

Christian I as Count of Oldenburg, tapestry (around 1580; Danish National Museum , Copenhagen)

Christian I of Denmark, portrait from the 19th century

Christian I (* February 1426 in Oldenburg ; † May 21, 1481 in Copenhagen ) founded the Danish royal dynasty from the House of Oldenburg as King of Denmark , Norway and Sweden . He was also Duke of Schleswig and Holstein .

Life

As the eldest son of Count Dietrich von Oldenburg and Delmenhorst and his wife Heilwig von Holstein , Christian was first from 1440 to 1448 as Christian VII. Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.

King of Denmark

Because the Danish ruling house with the death of Christoph III in 1448 . was extinct in the male line, the Danish imperial council Christian's uncle and tutor Adolf VIII. von Holstein , who descended in the female line from King Waldemar the Great of Denmark († 1182), the crown. Because he had no offspring himself, Adolf refused and recommended that his nephew Christian be chosen . On September 1, 1448, Christian I was elected King of Denmark. His reign began on September 28, 1448 in Denmark. On October 28, 1449 he married Dorothea , the 19-year-old widow of his predecessor, and was crowned on the same day in the Frauenkirche in Copenhagen . He renounced the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, which his younger brother Gerd the Brave took over in 1450 .

King of Sweden and Norway

Christian I was not recognized in Sweden and Norway. In Sweden, the nobility elected the previous imperial administrator Karl Knutsson Bonde as Charles VIII , who was also crowned King of Norway the following year. The first armed conflict with Sweden led to a renewal of the Kalmar Union on May 18, 1450 in Halmstad . Accordingly, the status quo should remain in place until the death of one of the two kings. After that, the other should rule in both realms. Norway was handed over to Denmark by Charles VIII. The Norwegian Imperial Council thus declared an eternal union.

But Christian I was not satisfied and started another war with Sweden in 1452 for possession of the island of Gotland . This dragged on for years without leading to a decision. Only after Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna , the Archbishop of Uppsala , also sided with him in 1457, a decision was made. Charles VIII fled to Danzig. Christian I was elected as the last Swedish king at the Stein von Mora and was crowned King of Sweden on July 29, 1457, and his son Johann was confirmed as his successor in 1458.

But as early as 1464 the Swedes rose up under Oxenstierna and Sten Sture the Elder because of the high taxes that Christian imposed on the country. Charles VIII was reinstated. After his death in 1470, Christian I tried again to gain power in Sweden and landed near Stockholm in 1471. In this renewed Danish-Swedish war , however, Christian was wounded in the Battle of Brunkeberg and beaten by Sten Sture.

Duke of Schleswig and Holstein

After the death of Duke Adolf VIII. Christian was in 1460 with the help of the estates in the Treaty of Ribe Duke of the Danish fief of Schleswig and Count of the Holy Roman Empire belonging Holstein (1474 Duke of Holstein ). Christian I became a vassal of the German King Friedrich III. The Ripen treaty drawn up in this context was intended to put an end to the conflicts between the Danish royal family and the Holstein counts. The resulting personal union between the Danish king and the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein lasted until 1864.

Both the Schauenburg Holstein-Pinneberg line and his brothers were to receive a large sum of money from Adolf's will as compensation for the renunciation of Holstein, which Christian was unable to raise. Therefore his brother Gerd invaded Holstein several times with an army and in 1470 allowed the farmers of the western marshes to pay homage to him, but was forced to retreat by Christian. Two years later the North Frisians tried an uprising in Husum , again supported by Gerd von Oldenburg. To suppress this uprising, Christian needed support from Duke Magnus II of Mecklenburg and the Hanseatic cities of Bremen and Hamburg . This and above all the financial support from the Hanseatic League for the severance payment for his relatives led to the king becoming heavily dependent, who had to pledge the majority of the duchies to Hamburg, Lübeck and the Schleswig-Holstein knighthood . Only after his death could his widow redeem the pledges.

1473 Christian was by Emperor Friedrich III. enfeoffed with Dithmarschen . On the occasion of Christian's visit to the emperor, he elevated the county of Holstein to a duchy and incorporated it into Dithmarschen. This enabled Christian I to assert his claim to Dithmarschen. The Dithmarscher, however, claimed to be a feudal property of the Bremen Church , which Pope Sixtus IV confirmed in 1477. The emperor then withdrew his loan. Christian's sons tried again as Dukes of Holstein to enforce their claim, but were defeated in 1500 in the Battle of Hemmingstedt .

Foreign policy

In 1469 Christian I married his daughter Margarethe to the Scottish King James III. Scotland received the Shetland Islands and the Orkneys as dowry .

In 1473 Christian I sent a sea expedition to the North Atlantic under the leadership of Didrik Pining and Hans Pothorst . These seafarers possibly reached North America , which the Vikings had already reached (see " Vinland "). The suggestion for this exploration trip was a request from the Portuguese King Alfons V. João Vaz Corte-Real and Álvaro Martins Homen took part in the expedition as representatives of Portugal .

In 1474 Christian and his wife visited the emperor in Augsburg and the pope in Rome . The Pope issued a bull that forbade the Schleswig-Holstein nobility from usury . The Pope also authorized him to found a university in Copenhagen , which he implemented in 1479.

Christian I had the Epiphany Chapel built on Roskilde Cathedral as a burial chapel for himself and his successors in 1462 . He and his wife are buried there. According to the king's column in the chapel, it was 2.19 m tall, which is probably due to a measurement error.

ancestry

Christian V. (Oldenburg) (~ 1342– ~ 1399) Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst

Dietrich von Oldenburg (1390–1440) Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst

Agnes von Hohnstein-Heringen (1360–1404)

Christian I (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) (1426–1481) King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden

Gerhard VI. (Holstein-Rendsburg) (1367–1404) Count of Holstein-Rendsburg

Heilwig von Holstein (1400–1436)

Elisabeth of Braunschweig († around 1420)

progeny

Christian I. and Dorothea von Brandenburg (* 1430, † 1495) married on October 28, 1449. The couple had five children:

• Olav (born September 29, 1450; † 1451)
• Knut (* 1451; † 1455)
• John I (June 5, 1455 - February 20, 1513), King of Denmark 1481–1513
• Margarethe , (* 1456; † 1486), ⚭ King Jacob III. of Scotland
• Frederick I , (* 1471; 1533), King of Denmark 1523 to 1533

See also

• List of the Counts of Oldenburg
• Family table of the Danish kings

literature

• Georg Hille:  Christian I, Duke of Schleswig and Holstein . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 180-184.
• Wilhelm Suhr:  Christian I .. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 232 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Hartmut Platte: The Oldenburg House. Börde, Werl 2006, ISBN 3-9810315-4-7

Web links

Commons : Christian I.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hartmut Platte: Das Haus Oldenburg, Werl 2006, p. 6.
2. ↑ Hartmut Platte: Das Haus Oldenburg, Werl 2006, p. 7.
3. ↑ History of the Roskilder Domkirche ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Danish)  

predecessor	Office	successor
Dietrich the lucky one	Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst 1440–1448	Gerd the brave
Christopher III.	King of Denmark 1448–1481	Johann I.
Charles VIII	King of Norway 1450–1481	Johann I.
Charles VIII	King of Sweden 1457–1464	Charles VIII
Adolf I./VIII.	Duke of Schleswig 1460–1481	Johann
Adolf I./VIII.	Count of Holstein from 1474, Duke 1460–1481	Johann