Christian IV of Denmark (12 April 1577-28 February 1648) was King of Denmark-Norway from 4 April 1588 to 28 February 1648, succeeding Frederick II and Frederick III.
Biography[]
Christian was born in Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark in 1577, the son of King Frederick II of Denmark. He succeeded his father as King at the age of ten, and Chancellor Niels Kaas and a regency council served as his regents during his minority. He assumed full powers in 1596 at the age of 19, and he oversaw the construction of new fortifications with the help of Dutch engineers, as well as the expansion of the navy of Denmark-Norway. He also established friendly relations with his brother-in-law King James I of England, and both men became renowned for their love of drinking.
King Christian attempted to ameliorate Denmark's economic woes by pursuing colonial projects, sending expeditions to Greenland (1605-1607), Hudson Bay (1619), and Ceylon (1620); all three expeditions failed, though Denmark did establing colonial outposts on the Indian mainland which would remain Danish until 1869. In 1621, he intervened in the Thirty Years' War to defend the rights of his German Protestant neighbors against the Catholic Habsburgs; his army consisted of 20,000 mercenaries, 15,000 Danish soldiers, and an expeditionary force of 13,700 Scottish soldiers under Robert Maxwell, 1st Earl of Nithsdale. In 1626, Count Tilly routed the Danes at the Battle of Lutter, and, in 1627, Tilly and Albrecht von Wallenstein occupied the entirety of Jutland. On 1 January 1628, Christian formed an alliance with his old enemy, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, against the Holy Roman Empire. In May 1629, however, he was forced to conclude a peace treaty with the Imperials.
As the war continued, and Sweden made gains in Central Europe, Christian IV enacted a number of increases in the "Sound Dues", the tolls required for ships to pass through the Kattegat straits. In 1643, Christian also engaged in alliance talks with the Empire to counter Sweden's rising power, resulting in the Torstenson War with Sweden. While Christian personally led the Danish navy to a number of small victories against ths Swedes in the Baltic Sea, he was blinded in the eye at the Battle of Colberger Heide and decisively defeated at the Battle of Fehmarn. Christian was forced to make peace with Sweden in 1645, ceding Gotland, Osel, Halland, Jamtland, and Harjedalen to Sweden. He died in Copenhagen in 1648.