Christian II

Christian II (born July 1, 1481, Nyborg, Den.—died Jan. 25, 1559, Kalundborg) was the king of Denmark and Norway (1513–23) and of Sweden (1520–23) whose reign marked the end of the Kalmar Union (1397–1523), a political union of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

After serving as viceroy in Norway (1502, 1506–12), Christian succeeded his father, John, king of Denmark and Norway, in 1513. He obtained office by agreeing to a royal charter that granted extensive privileges to the nobility, including effective control of the government by the noble-dominated Rigsråd (Council of the Realm). He soon bypassed the Rigsråd, however, and used the chancellery to grant commercial privileges to merchants, overriding the claims of Danish nobles and traders of the Hanseatic League (a north German trading confederation).

In Norway, Christian had taken up with two bourgeois Dutch women: Dyveke, who was his mistress, and her mother, Sigbrit Villoms, his counsellor. After he became king, Sigbrit took charge of the state’s financial affairs; and Christian continued his association with Dyveke even after his marriage (1515) to Elizabeth of Habsburg, sister of the future Holy Roman emperor Charles V. In 1517 Christian accused the governor of Copenhagen Castle of poisoning Dyveke, and thereafter he ignored the Rigsråd and the royal charter. He created an essentially bourgeois government with the burgomaster of Malmö, Hans Mikkelsen, as his special counsellor; and he gave the chancellery control of the provinces with loyal burghers as governors. He also appointed bishops freely.

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In 1517 Christian decided to punish Sweden, which had repeatedly rebelled against the Kalmar Union after 1448. He allied with the Swedish Unionist Party headed by Archbishop Gustav Trolle, and after two setbacks (1517–18), he finally defeated the forces of the Swedish regent, Sten Sture the Younger, in 1520; Christian was crowned king of Sweden on Nov. 4, 1520. Four days later he ordered the execution of more than 80 leaders of Sten Sture’s Swedish Nationalist Party after they had been accused of heresy by Gustav Trolle. The massacre (Stockholm Bloodbath) helped incite a Swedish war of liberation against Danish rule, led by Gustav Vasa, a Swedish nobleman. With the aid of leading Swedish magnates and the north German trading centre of Lübeck, Gustav established Swedish independence in 1523. His election (1523) to the Swedish throne as King Gustav I Vasa marked the end of the Kalmar Union.

Christian’s sweeping commercial reforms, his anti-Hanseatic policies, and his defeat in Sweden led the Jutland nobles to revolt (1523) and to appoint his uncle, Frederick, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, as king. Christian was forced to flee to the Netherlands and did not launch a campaign to regain his kingdom until 1531, when he invaded Norway. After giving up the struggle the following year, he was arrested by Danish forces while attempting to negotiate with Frederick. He spent the rest of his life imprisoned in Danish castles at Sønderborg and, after 1549, at Kalundborg.