Christian IV of Denmark
Christian IV reigned over Denmark and Norway for sixty years, built more of Copenhagen than any king before or since, founded Oslo, took his country into the Thirty Years' War and was beaten out of it in a year, lost an eye on the deck of his flagship at sixty-seven, and left the kingdom smaller and poorer than he found it and himself the most popular Dane who ever reigned. He was born in 1577, was king at eleven under a regency of the council and took the government at nineteen in 1596, tall, drinking, tireless, and building. He built Rosenborg, the Exchange with its dragon spire, the Round Tower with its observatory, the Arsenal, Christianshavn on reclaimed ground, Christiania in Norway after Oslo burned in 1624, and Kristianstad and Glückstadt as fortresses against Sweden and Hamburg. The Sound dues paid for it and Norway's timber and Iceland's fish. He beat Sweden in the Kalmar War of 1611 to 1613 and took an indemnity, and that was the last war he won. In 1625, as Duke of Holstein and head of the Lower Saxon circle, he led the Protestant intervention in Germany against the emperor, and at Lutter in August 1626 Tilly destroyed his army. Wallenstein overran Jutland, and the peace of Lübeck in 1629 let him keep his lands on condition he stayed out, which handed the Protestant cause and the Baltic to Sweden. He sent ships to India and founded Tranquebar, sent Jens Munk to find the North-West Passage and lost the crew, and raised the Sound dues until the Dutch and Swedes had had enough. Sweden attacked without declaring war in December 1643, and at the sea fight off Kolberger Heide in July 1644 a Swedish shot took his right eye and thirteen splinters; he stayed on deck, which is the line of the royal anthem. The peace of Brömsebro in 1645 cost him Gotland, Ösel and the Norwegian provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen. He died in February 1648 with the treasury empty and the council stronger than the crown, and his son had to sign away more to be elected.
- Lived: 1577 CE – 1648 CE
- Nationality: Danish
- Roles: king, monarch
