CHRISTIAN IV. (1577-1648), king of Denmark and Nor way, the son of Frederick II., king of Denmark, and Sophia of Mecklenburg, was born at Fredriksborg castle on April 12, 1577, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father (April 4, 1588) ; during his minority which lasted till Aug. 17, 1596, the government was carried on by a regency of four. The young king's court was one of the most joyous and magnificent in Europe ; yet he found time for work of the most various de scription, including a series of domestic reforms (see DENMARK: History) . New fortresses were constructed under the direction of Dutch engineers. The Danish navy was developed and im proved. In the war with Sweden, generally known as the "Kalmar War" (see SWEDEN : History), Christian compelled Gustavus Adolphus to give way on all essential points (treaty of Knared, Jan. 20, 1613) . After this war Christian made efforts to im prove the army, which was composed mainly of mercenaries, though it was not until after the Thirty Years' War that any effective reforms were carried through. He then turned his attention to Germany. His object was twofold: first, to obtain the control of the great German rivers, the Elbe and the Weser; secondly, to acquire the secularized German bishoprics of Bremen and Werden as appanages for his younger sons. He skilfully took advantage of the alarm of the German Protestants after the battle of White Hill in 162o, to secure the coadjutorship to the see of Bremen for his son Frederick (Sept. 1621), a step followed in November by a similar arrangement as to Werden ; while Hamburg by the compact of Steinburg (July 1621) was induced to ac knowledge the Danish overlordship of Holstein. The growing ascendancy of the Catholics in North Germany in and after 1623 almost induced Christian, for purely political reasons, to intervene directly in the Thirty Years' War. The solicitations of the West ern Powers led him in 1625 to plunge into war against the com bined forces of the emperor and the League. For this defeat at Lutteram-Barenberge and the invasion of Jutland by Tilly and Wallenstein see THIRTY YEARS' WAR. In his extremity Christian now formed an alliance with Sweden (Jan. 1, 1628), whereby Gus tavus Adolphus pledged himself to assist Denmark with a fleet in , case of need, and shortly afterwards a Swedo-Danish army and fleet compelled Wallenstein to raise the siege of Stralsund. Declin ing to form a further alliance with Sweden for the defence of the North, and of Protestantism, Christian concluded a separate peace on May 12, 1629 with the emperor at Lubeck, without any diminution of territory, at the price of abandonment of the Protestant cause. Unfortunately Christian would neither con ciliate Sweden, henceforth his most dangerous enemy, nor guard himself against her by a definite system of counter-alliances. By mediating in favour of the emperor, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, he tried to minimize the influence of Sweden in Germany, and his whole Scandinavian policy was so irritating and vexatious that Swedish statesmen made up their minds to wage war with Denmark. In May 1643 the Swedish Riksrdd decided upon war; on Dec. 12 the Swedish marshal Lennart Torstensson, advancing from Bohemia, crossed the northern frontier of Den mark; by the end of Jan. 1644 the whole peninsula of Jutland was in his possession. This totally unexpected attack, conducted from first to last with consummate ability and lightning-like rapidity, had a paralysing effect upon Denmark. Yet in his sixty seventh year Christian IV. once more displayed something of the magnificent energy of his triumphant youth. Night and day he laboured to levy armies and equip fleets. Fortunately too for him, the Swedish government delayed hostilities in Scania till Feb. 1644, so that the Danes were able to make adequate de fensive preparations and save the important fortress of Malmo. Torstensson was unable to cross from Jutland to Fiinen for want of a fleet, and the Dutch auxiliary fleet which came to his assistance was defeated between the islands of Sylt and Rona) on the west coast of Schleswig by the Danish admirals. Another attempt to transport Torstensson and his army to the Danish islands by a large Swedish fleet under Klas Fleming was frustrated by Christian IV. in person on July 1, 1644. On that day the two fleets encountered off Kolberg Heath, S.E. of Kiel Bay, and Christian displayed a heroism which endeared him ever after to the Danish nation. Darkness at last separated the fleets; and though the battle was a drawn one, the Danish fleet showed its superiority by blockading the Swedish ships in Kiel Bay. But the Swedish fleet escaped, and the annihilation of the Danish fleet by the combined navies of Sweden and Holland at the end of September exhausted the military resources of Denmark and compelled Christian to accept the mediation of France and the United Provinces. Peace was finally signed at Bromsebro in 1645. (See DENMARK : History.) The last years of the king were still further embittered by struggles with the nobility to whom he was forced to concede more and more power. He died at Copenhagen in Feb. 1648. During his reign Norway made great strides in economic and administra tive prosperity under his son-in-law, Hannibal Sehested (q.v.), as Stadtholder. (See NORWAY : History.) See Life (Dan.), by H. C. Bering Liisberg and A. L. Larsen (Copen hagen, 189o-91) ; Letters (Dan.), ed. Carl Frederik Bricka and Julius Albert Fridericia (Copenhagen, 1878) ; Danmarks Riges Historie, vol. 4 (Copenhagen, 1897-1905) ; R. N. Bain, Scandinavia, cap. vii. (1905).