After the downfall of Christian II. (1513-24) the position of Norway was changed for the worse. She was ruled for a century and a quarter by Danish officials; her churches and monasteries were sacked by Danes, and Danes were installed as pastors under the Lutheran system, which the Norwegians were compelled to accept in 1539. Soon Norway was dragged by Denmark into the so-called Seven Years' War of the North (1563-70). However, the power of the Hanse League in Bergen was broken. The rule of the Oldenburg dynasty proved neglectful rather than tyran nical, and under it the mass of the peasants was not flagrantly oppressed. Christian IV. (1588-1648), who founded Christiania (Oslo), may almost be said to have discovered Norway anew. He reformed its government and strove to develop its resources, but his policy involved the loss of Jemtland and Herjedalen, which were ceded to the Swedes by the peace of Bromsebro The Danish war of revenge against Charles X. of Sweden resulted in further loss by Norway. By the peace of Roskilde (1658) she was compelled to renounce Trondhjem and Baahus, and although the former was restored by the peace of Copenhagen, (1660), her population fell below half a million. The Swedes had now acquired the rich provinces in the south and south-west of the Scandinavian peninsula, and their ambition to extend their fron tiers to the North sea grew. From the middle of the 17th century, however, the Dutch and English made their influence felt, and the political status of Norway could no longer be regarded as a purely Scandinavian affair. The establishment of hereditary autocracy in Denmark by Frederick III. in 1660 conferred many benefits upon Norway. The Norwegian peasant remained a freeman while his counterpart in Denmark was a serf. Norwegian law was revised and codified under Christian V. (167o-99), who was well served by the Norwegians in his attempt to regain the lost prov inces from Charles XI.
Under the sons of these monarchs, Frederick IV. and Charles XII., Norway was once more compelled to pay for Danish ag gression. Her shipping was destroyed, and in 1716, when driven
from continental Europe, Charles XII. fell upon her. Only his death, in 1718, averted the danger. During this war Peter Tor denskjold, the greatest among a long series of Norwegian heroes who served in the Danish fleet, won undying fame. Before the close of the 18th century something had been done towards dispelling the intellectual darkness. Holberg, though he flourished outside Norway, by stemming the tide of German influence made the future of Norwegian literature possible. At the close of the century Hauge, the Wesley of Norway, appeared, while the growth of the timber trade with England gave rise to a great increase in wealth and population. In a century and a half the number of the Norwegian people was doubled, so that by 1814 the population was 900,000. In 1788 the oppressive law that grain should be imported into Norway only from Denmark was repealed, and thanks to Danish policy, Norway actually drew financial profit from the wars of the French Revolution.
The Norwegian national movement was to render a decade at the beginning of the 1 gth century more memorable in Nor wegian history than any century which had passed since the Calmar Union. In i800 the Danish Government committed the Norwegians to the second Armed Neutrality, and therefore to a share in the battle of Copenhagen, by which it was broken up. It was not until 1807, however, that Norway was fully involved in the Napoleonic wars. Then, of ter the bombardment of Copen hagen, she was compelled by Danish policy to embrace the cause of Napoleon against both England and Sweden. Commerce was annihilated, and the supply of food failed. The national distress brought into the forefront of politics national leaders, among whom Count Wedel-Jarlsberg was the most conspicuous. As yet, however, patriotism went no farther than a demand for a national administration and university ; concessions which were accorded by Denmark in 1807 and 1811.