an kingdoms. War was actually declared against Charles V. in
1542, and, though the German Protestant princes proved faithless allies,
the closing of the Sound against Dutch shipping proved such an effective
weapon in King Christian's hand that the Netherlands compelled Charles
V. to make peace with Denmark at the diet of Spires, the 23rd of May
1544. The foreign policy of Christian's later days was regulated by the
peace of Spires. He carefully avoided all foreign complications; refused
to participate in the Schmalkaldic war of 1546; mediated between the
emperor and Saxony after the fall of Maurice of Saxony at the battle of
Sievershausen in 1553, and contributed essentially to the conclusion of
peace. King Christian III. died on New Year's Day 1559. Though not
perhaps a great, he was, in the fullest sense of the word, a good ruler.
A strong sense of duty, genuine piety, and a cautious but by no means
pusillanimous common-sense coloured every action of his patient,
laborious and eventful life. But the work he left behind him is the best
proof of his statesmanship. He found Denmark in ruins; he left her
stronger and wealthier than she had ever been before.

See _Danmarks Riges Historie_, vol. 3 (Copenhagen, 1897-1901);
Huitfeld, _King Christian III.'s Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1595); Bain,
_Scandinavia_, cap. iv. v. (Cambridge, 1905). (R. N. B.)

CHRISTIAN IV. (1577-1648), king of Denmark and Norway, the son of
Frederick II., king of Denmark, and Sophia of Mecklenburg, was born at
Fredriksborg castle in 1577, and succeeded to the throne on the death of
his father (4th of April 1588), attaining his majority on the 17th of
August 1596. On the 27th of November 1597 he married Anne Catherine, a
daughter of Joachim Frederick, margrave of Brandenburg. The queen died
fourteen years later, after bearing Christian six children. Four years
after her death the king privately wedded a handsome young gentlewoman,
Christina Munk, by whom he had twelve children,--a connexion which was
to be disastrous to Denmark.

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 description,
including a series of domestic reforms (see DENMARK: _History_). He also
did very much for the national armaments. New fortresses were
constructed under the direction of Dutch engineers. The Danish navy,
which in 1596 consisted of but twenty-two vessels, in 1610 rose to
sixty,