Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/539

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CHRISTIAN IV.
527

ter of insanity until he died. He had had three children. John, the eldest, was educated under Charles V., but died at Ratisbon on the day his father was imprisoned at Sonderburg. A daughter, Dorothea, was married to the elector palatine, Frederick II.; and Christina first to Francis Sforza, and subsequently to the duke of Lorraine. II. Christian IV., born in the palace of Fredriksborg, April 12, 1577, died in Copenhagen, Feb. 28, 1648. His father, Frederick II., died April 4, 1588. Under the direction of his mother, Sophia of Mecklenburg, and the senatorial council of noblemen, which latter usurped the regency during his minority, he became proficient in foreign languages and mathematics, and especially in naval sciences. After the declaration of his majority as duke in Schleswig-Holstein in 1593, and as king in Denmark and Norway in 1596, and his coronation in the latter year, he applied himself to the promotion of reforms in Norway, which country he had previously visited, and where he subsequently founded Christiania, the capital, and Christiansand. Russia and Sweden claiming sovereignty over the Norwegian portion of North Lapland, Christian made in 1599 a naval demonstration against the former power, and considerably increased his armaments. But peace was not disturbed till 1611, when Charles IX. of Sweden, who had arrogated to himself the title of king of Lapland, and who was jealous of the increasing power of Denmark on the Baltic, attempted to exclude the Danish shipping from the coasts of Livonia and Courland, fortified the town of Gothenburg, and perpetrated other acts of defiance which led Christian to engage in hostilities. He immediately occupied the island of Oland and the citadel of Calmar, whence the name war of Calmar; captured other Swedish strongholds, and destroyed Gothenburg. Gustavus Adolphus, who succeeded to the Swedish throne after the death of Charles IX. in 1611, concluded a treaty of peace with Christian at Siorod in 1613, through the mediation of James I. of England, who had married the princess Anne of Denmark, sister of Christian. By the terms of this treaty the Swedish sovereign relinquished the title of king of Lapland, recognized the freedom of navigation of the Baltic, and paid 1,000,000 rix dollars for regaining the territory taken by Christian, who waived the claims which he had occasionally asserted to the Swedish crown. Christian now devoted himself more than ever before to the arts of peace. He extended and embellished Copenhagen, reorganized the university, increased the number of churches and palaces, established an observatory, a botanical garden, a free school for poor students, gymnasia, and libraries, and founded an academy at Sorö for young noblemen, with eminent foreign professors, to check the practice of studying abroad. Displaying the same energy in promoting commerce and enterprise, he opened the trade with the East Indies, where the first Danish settlement at Tranquebar was founded by a trading company under his auspices. He stimulated geographical explorations by sending out a number of expeditions for the discovery of a passage between North America and Asia, which paved the way for Norwegian and Danish settlements in Greenland. Among the new towns founded by him was Glückstadt, as capital of Holstein, for the defence of the Elbe, whence arose the name of the Holstein-Glückstadt dynasty, to distinguish it from that of Holstein-Gottorp. As duke of Holstein, and to that extent a sovereign German prince, and owing to his high renown, he was selected in 1625, during the thirty years' war, as chief of the Protestant armies, and personally assumed command in the circle of Lower Saxony. He crossed the Elbe at Stade with 25,000 Danes, Germans, Scotch, and English, and was reenforced by 7,000 troops from the circle. He was defeated, Aug. 27, 1626, by the vastly superior forces of the Bavarian general Tilly at Lutter, near Wolfenbüttel, and was obliged to fall back on Stade, where he was joined by 6,000 British troops and by a small corps of French. But he was forced to retreat before Wallenstein, who had made a junction with Tilly; and the imperialists invaded Holstein and Jutland. The duke Frederick III. of Holstein-Gottorp, Christian's nephew and vassal, betrayed Denmark by making a separate treaty with Wallenstein in 1627, surrendering to him the national fortresses; while the foreign occupation created a spirit of discontent in the duchies, which became a source of disturbance and contention. Supported by Austrian and Spanish forces, Wallenstein occupied the ports of Rostock, Wismar, and other places on the Baltic; but Christian inflicted severe losses on him at Stralsund, and forced him to raise the siege of that city. Peace was finally concluded at Lübeck in May, 1629, Denmark recovering Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland, but, with the exception of these territories, renouncing all interference in German affairs. Her allies, especially the dukes of Mecklenburg, were stripped of all their possessions; and except for the influence of France, Christian himself would have been doomed to great humiliations. Barely recovered from these calamities, but nothing daunted, Christian in 1630 chastised the citizens of Hamburg, who had disputed the Danish supremacy of the Elbe, by destroying 30 of their men-of-war, and imposing upon them the payment of dues for each vessel passing Glückstadt, and at a later period demanding an indemnity of nearly 300,000 rix dollars. The senate, consisting of the nobles, continued in the mean while to thwart the attempts of Christian to protect the national interests on the Baltic against encroachments by foreign powers. Sweden availed herself of this state of things to form a coalition with Holland against Denmark, and Christian made a secret alliance with the emperor Ferdinand III.