630 



DENMARK. 



Frederic 

 dies, 



V D. 1533. 



llisputes 

 respecting 

 the suc- 

 cession. 



History, to keep him company : the door of the dungeon was 

 v ~"^~"~"' immediately walled up, only one small window being 

 left, which served both to give light to the place, and 

 to convey provisions to the prisoner. Here he conti- 

 nued till the death of Frederic, which happened at Got- 

 torp in the year 1533. 



• Frederic left two sons, Christian and John : the lat- 

 ter had been brought up in the Catholic religion ; the 

 former A\as a Protestant. The bishops, who had re- 

 pented of their opposition to Christian the Second, 

 when they perceived that Frederic favoured the reform- 

 ed religion, were desirous that John should succeed his 

 father. As soon as Frederic's death was known, the 

 senate convoked the deputies of the different orders 

 of the states at Copenhagen. The bishops opened the 

 debate, by inveighing, with great zeal and warmth, on 

 the subject of religion ; and when they found that the 

 lay senators did not coincide with their opinions, they 

 demanded that the decree of the diet of Odensee, which 

 had given the nobles such extensive power over their 

 farmers, should be annulled : the nobility were alai'med, 

 and endeavoured to sooth the clergy, but the latter 

 feeling their weight in the assembly, carried their point 

 so far, that the tenths were restored to them. The 

 . next subject discussed related to the choice of a suc- 

 cessor to Frederic ; the Catholic and ecclesiastic sena- 

 tors declared for John ; the lay and Protestant senators 

 for Christian ; debates ran high, till at last it was pro- 

 posed that the states of Norway should be invited to 

 send their deputies. Although these were all Roman 

 Catholics, yet the proposition was so fair, that the Pro- 

 testant senators could not object to it. The bishops 

 considering the election of John as now secure, began 

 to persecute the reformists, and to harass the people 

 with heavy taxes. The friends of Christian the Second, 

 considering this a favourable opportunity to endeavour 

 to reinstate him, made an attempt to that effect ; but 

 Christian this attempt, though at first successful, ended in the 

 III. elected election of Christian the Third : for the bishops, alarm- 

 •aBB* ed at the endeavours to reinstate Christian the Second, 



and perceiving that then- former conduct had incurred 

 the indignation of the nation at large, consented to the 

 election of Christian the Third, on the condition that 

 the privileges and rights of the senate and states should 

 be confirmed, and that he should not be the enemy of 

 their religion. The rights of all classes, except those 

 of the farmers, were amply secured by the capitulation 

 which Christian signed, when he ascended the throne ; 

 but the farmers were, if possible, in a still worse and 

 more oppressed condition than they had ever been be- 

 fore. 



Christian found the state of public affairs such as re- 

 quired the display and exercise of considerable energy 

 and activity, united to moderation and forbearance : 

 the differences on religious subjects still existed ; the 

 army that had been sent to reinstate Christian the Se- 

 cond, was still in possession of some part of the Danish 

 dominions, and had been joined by all the discontented. 

 The province of Fioni demanded his first and princi- 

 pal attention : the Count of Oldenberg, who was at 

 the head of the invading army, had reduced nearly the 

 whole of it, and though it was restored by a victory 

 which Christian gained over this general, yet no sooner 

 did the king leave it to prosecute the war in other parts, 

 tihan the Count returned, and being assisted by the 

 whole body of farmers, again subdued the whole pro- 

 vince, and made them take a new oath of fidelity to 

 Christian the Second. In this situation of affairs, Chris- 

 tian the Third had recourse to the King of Sweden, who 



coming himself at the head of a large foree, turned the History. 



fortune of war in favour of his ally. The troops of the > """ N .~^* / 



Count of Oldenberg were soon driven out of Jutland, 



and afterwards out of Fioni, by Christian's army ; 



while Gustavus reconquered Scania. The Count was 



now obliged to act on the defensive, and to retire into 



Zealand, where he shut himself up in Copenhagen. The 



siege of this place was immediately undertaken: it made 



a long and obstinate defence, but at last it was reduced, 



and the Count of Oldenberg was taken prisoner. 



As soon as Christian the Third was firmly seated on State of re- 

 the throne, he turned his attention to the state of reli- I'gion. 

 gion ; and resolved to carry into execution a plan which 

 had been communicated to him by Gustavus, for redu- 

 cing the power of the clergy. He accordingly assem- 

 bled the senate with great secrecy, and they immediate- 

 ly came to the resolution to annex all the church-lands, 

 towns, fortresses, and villages, to the crown, and to abo- 

 lish for ever the temporal power of the clergy. All the 

 bishops in the different parts of the kingdom were ar- 

 rested about the same time ; and that the nation might 

 not be alarmed by this extraordinary measure, the king 

 convoked the states at Copenhagen ; the nobility were 

 ordered to be there in person, and the commons by 

 their deputies, but the clergy were not summoned to 

 attend. After a strong speech from the king against 

 the rapacity of the clergy, the senate confirmed the de- 

 cree of the diet, and the power and privileges of the 

 clergy were declared to be annihilated for ever. The 

 senate next settled the succession in the person of Duke 

 Frederic, the king's eldest son. In return for these 

 concessions, the king confirmed the nobility in all their 

 rights, particularly in what they called the right of life 

 and death over their vassals, and of punishing them in 

 what manner they thought proper. Thus was the 

 power of the clergy for ever destroyed in Denmark; 

 but the conclusion which the nobles drew from this, 

 that their own authority and power would be so much 

 the more augmented, was soon proved to be erroneous ; 

 for as a great part of the crown-lands had fallen into the 

 hands of the clergy, these lands being again annexed to 

 the crown, the royal authority was considerably in- 

 creased. The oppression of the farmers still continued, 

 and the nobles displayed a restless and increasing desire 

 to prevent them from ever rising in the state ; for the 

 senate passed a law, forbidding any person, either ec- 

 clesiastic or secular, who was not noble, to buy any 

 freehold lands in the kingdom, or to endeavour to ac- 

 quire such lands by any other title. 



Norway was still unwilling to acknowledge Chris- Di»turb- 

 tian ; the Catholic religion kept its ground there longer ances in 

 and more firmly than it did in Denmark. The states of A °j) V i536. 

 the former kingdom being assembled at Drontheim, in 

 the begining of the year 1 536, Christian sent notice to 

 them that he was king of Denmark, and demanded, by 

 virtue of the union of the two kingdoms, to be elected 

 their king also; but the clergy representing this de- 

 mand as haughty, and the presage of a tyrannical go- 

 vernment, the people rose in a tumultuous manner, 

 massacred several of the king's friends, and compelled 

 the rest to quit the kingdom. Christian on this resol- 

 ved to have recourse to the most decisive measures. He 

 accordingly marched an army into Norway, and before 

 the end of the year, the whole kingdom was reduced 

 to a state of obedience and tranquillity. The Danish 

 nobility persuaded the king to take advantage of the 

 subjugation of Norway, to strip this kingdom of its in- 

 dependence ; and a decree was accordingly passed, stat- 

 ing, that as the kingdom of Norway had declined in 



