CHRISTIAN III. king of Denmark and Nor way, was the eldest son of Frederick I. of Denmark and his first consort, Anne of Brandenburg. Educated by German Lutheran teachers, Christian travelled in Germany in 1521 and was present at the Diet of Worms. On his return he found that his father had been elected king of Denmark in place of Christian II. Christian's unconcealed Lutheran views brought him into collision with the Catholic Rigsraad, and the religious intolerance which he showed in his capacity of stadtholder of the Duchies in 1526, and as vice roy of Norway in 1529, greatly provoked the Catholic party. On the death of Frederick I. in 1533 confusion arose over the election of his successor. Christian was supported by the nobility of Den mark; a strong Catholic party wished to put his younger brother, Hans, who was a child and still a Catholic, on the throne; while the peasants and burghers hoped for the restoration of the captive Christian II. (q.v.), and allied themselves with the citizens of Lubeck, who were led by Count Christopher of Oldenburg. Duke Christian crushed the rising of the peasants, made peace with Lubeck and in March 1535 was proclaimed king of Denmark at Viborg.
Christian III.'s triumph brought about the fall of Catholicism. On Aug. 12, 1536, the archbishop and bishops were arrested; on Oct. 3o a national assembly abolished episcopacy, made over the episcopal property to the Crown and established the Lutheran Church in Denmark, with the king as its head. The royal charter issued the same day proclaimed the Crown of Denmark, hitherto elective, hereditary in Christian's line.
The first six years of Christian's reign in Denmark were marked by a contest between the Danish Rigsraad and the German coun sellors, both of whom sought to rule "the pious king" exclusively. Though the Danish party won a signal victory at the outset, by obtaining the insertion in the charter of provisions stipulating that only native-born Danes should fill the highest dignities of the State, the king's German counsellors continued paramount during the earlier years of his reign. The ultimate triumph of the Danish party dates from 1539, the dangers threatening Christian III. from the emperor Charles V., and other kinsmen of the imprisoned Christian II., compelling him to lean exclusively on Danish mag nates and soldiers. The complete identification of the Danish king with the Danish people was accomplished at the Herredag of Copenhagen, when the nobility of Denmark voted Christian a twentieth part of all their property to pay off his heavy debt to the Holsteiners and Germans.
The pivot of the foreign policy of Christian III. was his alliance with the German Evangelical princes, as a counterpoise to the per sistent hostility of Charles V., who was determined to support the hereditary claims of his nieces, the daughters of Christian II., to the Scandinavian kingdoms. War was actually declared against Charles V. in 1542, and though the German Protestant princes proved faithless allies, the closing of the Sound against Dutch ship ping proved such an effective weapon in King Christian's hand that the Netherlands compelled Charles V. to make peace with Den mark at the Diet of Spires on May The foreign policy of Christian's later days was regulated by the Peace of Spires. He carefully avoided all foreign complications; refused to participate in the Schmalkaldic War of 1546; mediated between the emperor and Saxony after the fall of Maurice of Saxony at the battle of Sievershausen in 1553, and contributed essentially to the conclu sion of peace. King Christian III. died on New Year's day, Though not, perhaps, a great, he was, in the fullest sense of the word, a good ruler. A strong sense of duty, genuine piety and a cautious, but by no means pusillanimous common-sense, coloured every action of his patient, laborious and eventful life. He found Denmark in ruins ; he left her stronger and wealthier than she had ever been before.
See Danmarks Riges Historic, vol. iii. (Copenhagen, 1897-1901) ; Huitfeld, King Christian III.'s Historie (Copenhagen, ; R. N. Bain, Scandinavia, ch. iv., v. (Cambridge, 1905) .