Christian II (Denmark, Norway and Sweden)

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King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Signature of Christian II.

Christian II (born July 1, 1481 in Nyborg , † January 25, 1559 in Kalundborg ) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1513 to 1523 and King of Sweden from 1520 to 1523 .

Life

Christian II of Denmark

Christian II was the third son of John I of Denmark (1455–1513) and his wife Christina of Saxony (1461–1521). During his time as Viceroy of Norway from 1506 to 1513, he met his lover Dyveke Sigbritsdatter , whose mother Sigbrit Villoms (Dutch: Sigrid Willems) exercised great political influence on him even after Dyveke's murder in 1517. On August 12, 1515 he married Isabella of Austria , sister of the future Emperor Charles V , with whom he had five children.

King of Denmark and Norway

After the death of his father, the Danish and Norwegian councilors elected Christian against the usual festivities as king. Christian tried to push back the oppressive influence of the nobility and the Imperial Council , and instead promoted the flourishing cities and merchants and also strengthened them against the Hanseatic League , whose privileges severely hindered local trade. The rural population also benefited from his policies directed against the omnipotence of the nobility.

He also tried to assert himself against the church, the country's most important political and economic force alongside the nobility, by appointing his own followers to be bishops. He did not shrink from having papal candidates for the office of Archbishop of Lund murdered. In 1521/22 he passed some laws that were supposed to restrict the economic influence of the church and especially the power of the bishops, who were subjected to a state control body. At the same time, Christian II began to be increasingly interested in Martin Luther , so much so that rumors circulated at the Diet of Worms in 1521 that the Danish ambassadors had been commissioned to bring Luther to Copenhagen.

Dispute in Sweden

As crown prince Christian had fought against Sweden from 1501 in the Danish-Swedish (1501–1512) and Danish-Luebian wars (1509–1512). Unlike the Danes and Norwegians, the Swedes refused to recognize Christian II as king and tried to question the Kalmar Union . Sten Sture the Younger ruled as imperial administrator , while Archbishop Gustav Trolle represented the pro-Danish party. Several attempts to force Sweden under Danish rule failed. It was not until 1520 that Christian II defeated the Swedes with a mercenary army in the battle of Bogesund . Sten Sture fell, but his widow Christina Gyllenstierna gathered the patriots around him and resisted well into the autumn before she capitulated after promising an amnesty for her supporters and against the promise that Sweden would be governed by Swedish law. Christian II immediately broke his promises: when he was crowned king on November 1, 1520, he introduced a hereditary kingship, although Sweden's law provided for an electoral kingship as in Denmark and Norway.

On November 7th, 1520 he had many leading Swedish nobles and clergy arrested as alleged heretics and executed with the help of Gustav Trolle. This massacre went down in history as the Stockholm bloodbath , earned Christian in Sweden the nickname the tyrant and led to the Swedish rebellion led by Gustav I. Wasa . In the fight against this his fleet leader Søren Norby proved to be one of Christian's most loyal followers.

Deposition and exile

Christian II had to leave Copenhagen in 1523 (illustration by Rasmus Christiansen, around 1900)

In Denmark and Norway, too, the nobility rose up against Christian II and forced him to flee to the Netherlands in 1523, after shortly before - contrary to the agreement with Frederick I - he had forcibly and single-handedly obtained access to the "Landesarchiv" on the Siegesburg would have. His uncle Friedrich I succeeded him on the Danish and Norwegian throne in 1523. Soon after his deposition, Christian traveled to Wittenberg with his wife and visited Martin Luther . Christian and Isabella received the Lord's Supper in both forms and thus professed their support for the Lutheran Church . In Wittenberg they made the acquaintance of Melanchthon and Lucas Cranach , in whose house they probably lived until July 1524. Katharina von Bora , Luther's later wife, gave Christian a gold ring. In 1524 the former king published the New Testament in Danish , the so-called Christian II's Bible . In their prefaces to the individual biblical books, there is an extremely strong polemic against the old faith and the expelled king is promoted. After returning to the Netherlands, Christian stayed in contact with the reformers by letter throughout his life. In his book Whether people of war can also be in a happy position , Luther presented the Danes, who had expelled Christian II, as a negative example.

Although his brother-in-law Emperor Charles V did not support him because of his Lutheran faith, Christian tried to recapture Norway in 1531/1532. After his defeat had become inevitable, he had no choice but to return to negotiations with his uncle Frederick I in Copenhagen, where he was captured and initially held at Sønderborg Castle and from 1549 at Kalundborg Castle until his death .

Even after his dismissal, he enjoyed great popularity among the citizens and farmers, which was revealed in the count feud after King Friedrich's death in 1533 , when not only the cities of Malmö and Copenhagen joined Christoph von Oldenburg with the aim of bringing Christian II back to the To bring the throne, but also the peasants under Skipper Clement rose.

progeny

The following children emerged from his marriage to Isabella of Austria (1501–1526):

  • Christian (* 1516; † as a toddler)
  • Johann (1518–1532)
  • Maximilian (* 1519; † as a toddler)
  • Philipp (* 1519; † as a toddler)
  • Dorothea (1520–1580) ⚭ 1535 Friedrich II. (1482–1556), Elector Palatinate
  • Christina (1521–1590)
    1. ⚭ 1533 Francesco II Sforza (1495–1535), Duke of Milan
    2. ⚭ 1541 Francis I (1517–1545), Duke of Lorraine

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dietrich von Oldenburg (1390–1440)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christian I (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) (1426–1481)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Heilwig von Holstein (1400–1436)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
John I (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) (1455–1513)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Johann (Brandenburg-Kulmbach) (1406–1464)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dorothea of ​​Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1430–1495)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Barbara of Saxony-Wittenberg (1405–1465)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christian II (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) (1481–1559)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Frederick II (Saxony) (1412–1464)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ernst (Saxony) (1441–1486)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Margaretha of Austria (1416–1486)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christina of Saxony (1461–1521)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Albrecht III. (Bavaria) (1401–1460)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Elisabeth of Bavaria (1443–1484)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anna of Braunschweig-Grubenhagen (1420–1474)
 
 
 
 
 
 

See also

literature

Non-fiction

  • Matthias Asche, Anton Schindling: Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the age of the Reformation and confessionalization . Aschendorff Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-402-02983-9 .
  • Heinz Scheible: Melanchthon's correspondence people 11
  • Rudy van Elslande: Het verblijf van Christiaan II koning van Denemarken, Zweden en Noorwegen te Zwijnaarde , in: Schedeveld, jb. XXXIX, 2010, blz.181-211.

Fiction

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Martin Schwarz Lausten: The Reformation in Denmark . Gütersloh 2008 (publications of the Association for Reformation History 208); P. 13
  2. ^ Lausten: The Reformation in Denmark ; 21st
  3. Christian Kuß: The city of Segeberg in the prehistory , Kiel 1847, p. 20.
  4. ^ Lausten: The Reformation in Denmark ; 24-27
  5. Diplamatarieum Norvegicum . Vol. 8 No. 531.

Web links

Commons : Christian II (Denmark, Norway and Sweden)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Johann I. King of Denmark
1513–1523
Friedrich I.
Johann I. King of Norway
1513–1523
Friedrich I.
Sten Sture the Younger
(Reichsverweser)
King of Sweden
1520–1523
Gustav I. Wasa
(already imperial administrator since 1521)