CHRISTIAN IL king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, son of John (Hans) and Christina of Saxony, was born at Nyborg Castle on July 1, 1481, and succeeded his father as king of Denmark and Norway in 1513. As viceroy of Norway (1502-12) he had already displayed singular capacity. Patriotism, courage, statesmanship—these qualities were indisputably his; but unfortunately they were vitiated by obstinacy, suspicion and a sulky craftiness, beneath which simmered a very volcano of revengeful cruelty. Christian's succession to the throne was con firmed at the Herredag or assembly of notables from the three northern kingdoms, which met at Copenhagen in 1513. A decision as to the Swedish succession was postponed, as the Swedish delegates refused to accept Christian as king. On June 11, 1514, he was crowned king of Denmark and Norway at Copenhagen, and on the same day he married, by proxy, Isabella, sister of the future emperor Charles V. The wedding was celebrated on Aug. 12, 1515. But he would not give up his liaison with Dyveke, a Dutch girl of bourgeois origin, and on the death of the unfor tunate girl in 1517, under suspicious circumstances, Christian revenged himself by executing the magnate Torben Oxe, who was supposed to have been Dyveke's murderer, despite the strenuous opposition of Oxe's fellow peers; henceforth the king lost no opportunity of depressing the nobility and raising plebeians to power. His chief counsellor was Dyveke's mother Sigbrit, a born administrator and a commercial genius of the first order. Chris tian first appointed her controller of the Sound tolls, and ulti mately committed to her the whole charge of the finances. A bourgeoise herself, Sigbrit 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." Meanwhile Christian was preparing for the inevitable war with Sweden, where the Patriotic Party, headed by the freely elected • governor Sten Sture the younger, stood face to face with the philo-Danish Party under Archbishop Gustavus 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 peas ant levies at Vedla and forced to return to Denmark, while the castle was destroyed and the archbishop deposed and imprisoned. A second attempt to subdue Sweden in 1518 was also frustrated by Sture's victory at Brankyrka. A third attempt made in 15 20 with a large army of French, German and Scottish mercenaries proved successful. Christian had persuaded Pope Leo X. to ex communicate Sture and to lay Sweden under an interdict. Sture was defeated at Bogesund and mortally wounded at the battle of Tiveden, on Jan. 19, and the Danish army, unopposed, was ap proaching Uppsala, where the members of the Swedish Riksrdd had already assembled. The senators 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 Swed ish laws and custom; and a convention to this effect was confirmed by the king and the Danish Rigsraad on March 31. But Sture's widow, Dame Christina Gyllenstjerna, still held out stoutly at Stockholm, and the peasantry of central Sweden, stimulated by her patriotism, flew to arms, defeated the Danish invaders at Balund sas (March 19) and were only with the utmost difficulty finally defeated at the bloody battle of Uppsala (Good Friday, April 6). In May the Danish fleet arrived, and Stockholm was invested by land and sea on Sept. 7. Christina surrendered on the promise of a general amnesty. On Nov. 1, the representatives of the nation swore fealty to Christian as hereditary king of Sweden, and on Nov. 4 he was crowned by Gustavus Trolle in Stockholm cathe dral. The next three days were given up to banqueting, but on Nov. 7 "an entertainment of another sort began." On the evening of that day a band of Danish soldiers broke into the great hall and carried off several carefully selected persons. By Io o'clock the same evening the remainder of the king's guests were safely under lock and key. All these persons were charged with heresy and violence against the church by archbishop Trolle, who pre sided over their trial on the following day. At 12 o'clock on the night of Nov. 8 the patriotic bishops of Skara and Strangnis were led out into the great square and beheaded. The executions, known as the "Stockholm bath of blood," continued throughout the following day; in all, about 82 people, most of them noble men, were thus murdered. 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. Christian suppressed his political opponents under the pretence of defending an ecclesiastical system which in his heart he despised.
With his brain teeming with great designs Christian II. re turned to his native kingdom. Deeply distrusting the Danish nobles with whom he shared his powers, he sought helpers from among the wealthy 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 acquaint ance of Quentin Matsys and Albrecht Diirer, the latter of whom painted his portrait. Christian also entertained Erasmus, with whom he discussed the Reformation, and let fall the characteris tic expression : "Mild measures are of no use; the remedies that give the whole body a good shaking are the best and surest." On his return to Denmark on Sept. 5, 1521, Christian proceeded at once to inaugurate the most sweeping reforms. Soon after his re turn, in 15 21 and 1522, he issued his great Landelove, or Code of Laws. For the most part this is founded on Dutch models, and tes tifies 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 prac tice 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 detri ment of the smaller tradesmen, were sternly forbidden. Unfor tunately 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.