Christian IV.

Christian IV., king of Denmark and Norway, and Duke of Sleswick-Holstein, the son of Frederick II., born at Frederiksborg, in Zealand, 12th April 1577, and elected successor to the throne in 1588. He assumed the government of the duchy in 1593; of the kingdom in 1596. His first war with Sweden (1611-13) ended in an advantageous peace; his second (1643-45) cost him much of the territory across the Sound. Christian's share in the Thirty Years' War was brief and inglorious. In 1625 he became chief of the Protestant league, but his disasters so damped his ardour that he was fain to retire from the struggle in 1629 under cover of the peace of Lübeck to make room for the great Gustavus Adolphus. His indefatigable labours for the improvement of his country were more successful. He strengthened its maritime power; extended its commerce as far as the East Indies, where he obtained the first possessions; and by restrictions upon the Hanse towns, greatly increased the inland trade of the country. His legislative and financial reforms, together with his love and patronage of the arts and sciences, gained for him the affection of his people. Spite of his ill-success in war he became a hero; the ballad, King Christian stood by the lofty Mast, commemorates his heroism in the sea-fight with the Swedes before Kiel in 1644, and his memory is preserved in the names of the cities of Christiansand and Christiania. He died 28th February 1648.