Editing Frederick II of Denmark (section)

== Reign ==

=== Proclaimed King ===
[[File:Coronatio Regis et equitum auratorum creatio, Hafniæ, post gestum bellum Dithmarsicum, eadem æstate, 20. Augusti.jpg|thumb|20 August 1559: ''Coronatio Regis et equitum auratorum creatio, Hafniæ, post gestum bellum Dithmarsicum, eadem æstate, 20. Augusti''.]]

Frederick's father [[Christian III of Denmark|Christian III]] died on 1 January 1559 at [[Koldinghus]]. Frederick was not present at his father's bedside when he died, a circumstance that did not endear the new king, now King Frederick II of Denmark-Norway, to the councillors who had grown to appreciate and revere Christian.<ref name=":12"/>

On 12 August 1559 Frederick signed his [[haandfæstning]] (lit. "Handbinding" viz. curtailment of the monarch's power, a Danish parallel to the [[Magna Carta]]) and on 20 August 1559 Frederick II was [[Coronation|crowned]] at the [[Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)|Church of Our Lady]] in Copenhagen<ref>{{cite book|last1=Monrad Møller|first1=Anders|title=Enevældens kroninger. Syv salvinger – ceremoniellet, teksterne og musikken|publisher=Forlaget Falcon|year=2012|isbn=978-87-88802-29-0|page=11}}</ref> by a Danish [[Superintendent (ecclesiastical)|superintendent]], with [[Nicholas Palladius|Nicolaus Palladius]] and [[Jens Skielderup]] two Norwegian [[Superintendent (ecclesiastical)|superintendent]] assisting, symbolizing the relationship between the kingdoms of [[Denmark–Norway|Denmark and Norway]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bugge, Alexander |title=Norges historie: fremstillet for det norske folk.|date=1916|publisher=Aschehoug|page=123|oclc=911156583}}</ref> Week-long and elaborate celebrations are said to have taken place after the coronation.<ref name=":12" />

=== Conquest of Ditmarschen ===
[[File:Schleswig_holstein_hei_(1).png|thumb|[[Dithmarschen]]]]
Within weeks of Christian's passing, Frederick joined with his uncles in [[Holstein]], [[John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev|John]] and [[Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp|Adolf]], in a [[military campaign]] to conquer the [[Dithmarschen|Ditmarschen]], under [[Johan Rantzau]]. Frederik II's [[Uncle|great-uncle]], [[John, King of Denmark|King John]], had failed to subjugate the peasant republic in 1500, but the Frederick's 1559-campaign was a quick and relatively painless victory for the Danish Kingdom. The brevity and low cost of the campaign were cold comforts to the members of the [[Council of the Realm (Denmark)|Council of the Realm]], [[Johan Friis]] in particular. Friis had warned Frederick that a very real threat of conflict with Sweden loomed just over the horizon, but the king had not listened, and had not even consulted with the Council about the Ditmarschen.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bølling|first=Hans|title=Danmarks Konger: fra Christian I til Christian X|publisher=Nationaltidene|year=1944–1945|page=14}}</ref>

=== Early relationship with the Council of the Realm ===
The adversarial king–Council relationship improved relatively quickly however, and not because Frederik caved in to conciliar opposition. Rather, the two parties quickly learned to work together because their interests, and the Kingdom's, required that they did so. From an early time, the council invested much power in Frederick, as they had no desire to go back to the destructive near-anarchy of the pre-civil war years.<ref>Lockhart, Paul D., page 37</ref>

Frederik would soon learn how to play the constitutional game, that is required in a consensual monarchy, such as Denmark; namely to humour the Council without sacrificing his own royal interests. This meant showing generosity to the conciliar [[aristocracy]] through various gifts and concessions, which he did in grand style. Shortly before the signing of his coronation charter (''[[haandfæstning]]''), [[Andreas von Barby]], leader of the German Chancery, died. Barby was not well liked in the Council of the Realm, but he was extreamly wealthy.<ref>DFH, i. 78–80; Colding, Studier, 68–77; Peder Enevoldsen, 'Lensreformerne i Danmark 1557–96', HTD, 81 (1981–82), 343–98</ref> The extensive [[fief]]s in his possession reverted to the Crown, and Frederik was careful to distribute out these properties among the leading members of the Council of the Realm. Throughout his reign, Frederik would reward his conciliar aristocracy generously. Fiefs were distributed on highly favourable terms.<ref>Lockhart, Paul D., page 38</ref>

The substantially warmer relationship between king and Council of the Realm after the [[Dithmarschen|Ditmarschen]] campaign is best illustrated by the Danish central administration's performance in the greatest national crisis of the reign, the [[Northern Seven Years' War]] (1563–70) against Sweden.

=== Relationship with Livonia ===
From his predecessor, Frederick inherited the [[Livonian War]]. In 1560, he installed his younger brother, [[Magnus of Holstein]] (1540–1583), in the [[Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek]]. King Frederick II largely tried to avoid conflict in [[Livonia]] and consolidated amicable relations with Tsar [[Ivan IV of Russia]] in the 1562 [[Treaty of Mozhaysk]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Magnus, Konge af Lifland, 1540–83|url=https://runeberg.org/dbl/11/0050.html|access-date=15 August 2016|publisher=Dansk biografisk Lexikon}}</ref> His brother Magnus was later made titular King of Livonia, as a vassal of Tsar Ivan IV.

=== Northern Seven Years' War ===
{{Further|Northern Seven Years' War}}King Frederick's competition with Sweden for supremacy in the [[Baltic region|Baltic]] broke out into open warfare in 1563, the start of the [[Northern Seven Years' War]], the dominating conflict of his rule.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frederik 2 – Udforsk slottet – Kronborg Slot – Slotte og haver – Kongelige Slotte|url=https://kongeligeslotte.dk/da/slotte-og-haver/kronborg-slot/udforsk-kronborg-slot/frederik-2.html|access-date=23 July 2020|website=kongeligeslotte.dk}}</ref>

The leading councillors, [[Johan Friis]] foremost among them, had feared a Swedish onslaught for several years, and after the succession of Frederick II's first cousin, the ambitious and unbalanced [[Eric XIV of Sweden|Eric XIV]] (reigned 1560–1568) to the [[Gustav I of Sweden|Vasa]] throne a confrontation appeared inevitable. Still, few councillors wanted war, and they preferred to wait until it was forced upon them, while Frederik preferred a [[Preemptive war|preemptive strike]]. Despite its initial opposition to the war, the [[Riksråd|Council of the Realm]] went along with the king. Frederik II, wisely, made no effort to exclude the council from the direction of the war, and though he retained chief operational control he entrusted much responsibility to his councillors, including Holger Ottesen [[Rosenkrantz (noble family)|Rosenkrants]], [[Marshal]] [[Otte Krumpen]], and [[Admiral]] [[Herluf Trolle]].<ref name=":13">Lockhart, Paul D., page 39</ref>
[[File:Fredrik_II_conqueres_Älvsborg_1563.jpg|left|thumb|460x460px|Frederick II of Denmark-Norway [[Siege of Älvsborg (1563)|attacking Älvsborg]], 1563.]]
Only one constitutional crisis emerged during [[Northern Seven Years' War|the war]]; in late 1569, after six years of war, the Council decided not to provide the king with further grants of taxation. The war had been costly, both in lives and in gold, but since 1565 Denmark-Norway had made no appreciable gains. The council had already asked Frederik to make peace, and he had made a half-hearted attempt to do so in 1568, but neither Frederik nor his [[Eric XIV of Sweden|Swedish opponent]] was willing to concede defeat.<ref name=":14">{{Cite book|last=Jensen, Frede P.|title=Danmarks konflikt med Sverige 1563–1570|date=1982|publisher=Den danske historiske forening|isbn=87-87462-19-2|pages=286–94|oclc=185811858}}</ref>

The war developed into an extremely expensive [[war of attrition]] in which the areas of [[Scania]] were ravaged by the Swedes, and [[Norway]] was almost lost. During this war, King Frederick II led his army personally on the battlefield, but although with some small success, overall without much result.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

The council, in cutting off financial support, had hoped to coerce the king into ending the war. Frederik felt betrayed, and after some reflection, Frederick felt that the only honourable recourse was [[abdication]].<ref name=":14" /> With his [[letter of resignation]] in the hands of the councillors, he left [[Copenhagen|the capital]] to go hunting in the [[Rural area|countryside]]. The king, still unmarried, had no heir, and consequently the [[Council of the Realm (Denmark)|Council of the Realm]] had good reason to fear another leaderless [[interregnum]] and even another civil war. It played into the king's hands; the Council begging for his return to the throne and allowed him to summon a [[Diet (assembly)|Diet]] to consider additional [[Tax levy|tax levies]].<ref name=":14" />

The conflict damaged his relationship with his noble councillors; however, the later [[Sture murders]] of 24 May 1567 by the insane King Eric XIV in Sweden, eventually helped stabilize the situation in Denmark-Norway. After King [[John III of Sweden]], King Eric's successor, refused to accept a peace favoring Denmark-Norway in the [[Treaties of Roskilde (1568)]], the ongoing war dragged on until it was ended by a status quo peace in the [[Treaty of Stettin (1570)]], that let Denmark-Norway save face but also show limits of Danish and Norwegian military power.<ref name=":33">{{cite web|title=Frederik 2|url=https://snl.no/Frederik_2|access-date=15 August 2016|publisher=Store norske leksikon}}</ref>

Frederik II learned a great deal about kingship during the war with Sweden. He learned to include the [[Council of the Realm (Denmark)|Council of the Realm]] in most matters of policy, but he also learned that it was possible to manipulate the council, even to bend it to his own will, without humiliating it or undermining its authority.<ref name=":13" /> He would later come to master this ability and use it extensively.<ref name=":13" />

=== Later reign ===
During the eighteen remaining years of his reign, Frederik would come to drew extensively on the lessons he learned in the [[Northern Seven Years' War]] with [[Eric XIV of Sweden]]. In the peacetime years, he maintained a rather peripatetic court, moving from residence to residence throughout the Danish countryside, spending a fair share of his time in [[hunting]]. This allowed him the opportunity to meet members of the [[Riksråd|Council]] individually and informally, in their home regions. As was required of the Danish King, he did summon the [[Council of the Realm (Denmark)|Council of the Realm]] once annually to meet at the ''herredag'', but most of his business with the council was done on a one-to-one basis.<ref name=":15">Lockhart, Paul D., page 40</ref> This ensured a very close personal bond with each member of the council while minimizing the opportunity for the council to oppose him as a full body. Frederik's personable disposition also helped,<ref name=":33" /> and so, too, did the informal nature of court life under Frederik II. The king [[Hunting|hunted]], [[Banquet|feasted]], and drank with his noble [[councillor]]s and [[adviser]]s, and even with visiting [[Dignitary|foreign dignitaries]], treating them as his equal peers and companions rather than as political opponents or inferiors. The eighteenth-century chronicler [[Ludvig Holberg]] claimed that when dining at his court, Frederik would frequently announce that 'the king is not at home', which signalled to his guests that all court [[Formality|formalities]] were temporarily suspended, and that they could talk and joke as they pleased without restraint. The Danish court of Frederick II may have appeared to be unsophisticated to outside observers, but the openness and bawdiness of court life served Frederik's political purposes.<ref name=":15" /> In 1585, he visited Norway for the first and only time as king, but only went to [[Bohuslen]].<ref>[http://nbl.snl.no/Frederik_2 Norsk biografisk leksikon – Frederik II]</ref>

==== Financial situation ====
The great cost of the [[Northern Seven Years' War]], some 1.1&nbsp;million [[Danish rigsdaler|rigsdaler]], was recovered chiefly from higher taxation on both Danish and Norwegian farm properties.<ref name=":16">Lockhart, Paul D., page 41</ref> After state finances collapsed in the aftermath of the war, King Frederick II called [[Peder Oxe]] home to address the kingdom's economy. The taking over of Danish administration and finances by the able councillor, provided a marked improvement for the national treasury. Councillors of experience, including [[Niels Kaas]], [[Arild Huitfeldt]], and [[Christoffer Valkendorff]], took care of the domestic administration. Subsequently, government finances were put in order and Denmark-Norway's economy improved. One of the chief expedients of the improved state of affairs was the raising of the [[Sound Dues]]. Oxe, as lord treasurer, reduced the national debt considerably and redeemed portions of [[crown land]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Christian III, Peder Oxe and the 1557 Meeting of the Great Council: Royal Purges and Succession|url=http://www.historisktidsskrift.dk/summary/108_387.html|access-date=15 August 2016|publisher=historisktidsskrift.dk}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Oxe, Peder, 1520–75, Rigshofmester|url=https://runeberg.org/dbl/12/0497.html|access-date=15 August 2016|publisher=Dansk biografisk Lexikon}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=''Frederik 2'' (Danish Kings and their History)|url=http://www.danskekonger.dk/eng/biografi/FreII.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729205146/http://www.danskekonger.dk/eng/biografi/FreII.html|archive-date=29 July 2010|access-date=10 May 2010}}</ref>

=== Constructions in reign ===
[[File:Frederik_II_Builds_Kronborg_Castle_at_Elsinore,_KMS3296.jpg|alt=|thumb|416x416px|King Frederick II builds [[Kronborg Castle]] at [[Elsinore]].]]
After the [[Northern Seven Years' War]] a period of affluence and growth followed in Danish-Norwegian history. The greater financial liquidity of the crown and the king's decreased dependence on the [[Riksråd|Council]] for funding, while not meaning that Frederick was actively seeking to sidestep conciliar control,<ref name=":16" /> it did allow him to be less frugal than his late father, [[Christian III of Denmark|Christian III]], had been. Considerable funds were devoted to an expansion of [[Royal Danish Navy|the Danish-Norwegian fleet]] and of the facilities for its support, not merely for security purposes but also to aid Frederick's active endeavours to rid the [[Baltic Sea]] of [[Piracy|pirates]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Grundtvig|first=Johann|title=Frederik den Andens Statshusholdning|publisher=C. A. Reitzel|year=1876|location=Copenhagen|pages=CLXXVI–CLXXVII}}</ref> The increased revenues likewise enabled Frederik to undertake the construction of Denmark's first national [[Street network|road network]], the so-called ''kongevej'' ('[[King's Road (Denmark)|King's Road]]'), connecting the larger towns and the royal residences.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wittendorff, Alex |title=Alvej og kongevej studier i samfaerdselsforhold og vejenes topografi i det 16. og 17. århundrede ; [mit engl. Zsfassung.]|date=1973|publisher=Akad. Forl|pages=164–207, 244–57|oclc=1071371212}}</ref>

The most visible area of expenditure, however, was the royal castles and the court itself. Frederick spent freely on the reconstruction of several royal residences and other cities:<ref>{{Cite book|last=NORN, Otto Creemers.|title=Kronborgs bastioner. En fortifikationshistorisk studie. [With plans.].|date=1954|pages=19–37|oclc=562940392}}</ref>

* [[Antvorskov]] (near Slagelse, Sjælland), was one of Frederick's favourite hunting-castles. He later died at [[Antvorskov]].
* In 1567, King Frederick II founded [[Fredrikstad]] in Norway. [[Frederik II Upper Secondary School]] in [[Fredrikstad]], one of the largest schools of its kind in Norway, is named after Frederick.<ref>[http://www.fredrikstad.kommune.no/museet/default.asp?ArtID=1069 Fredrikstad museum<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080121021105/http://www.fredrikstad.kommune.no/museet/default.asp?ArtID=1069|date=21 January 2008}}</ref>
* He also rebuilt [[Kronborg]] in [[Elsinore]] from a medieval fortress into a magnificent [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance]] castle, between 1574 and 1585.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aerenlund.dk/idag/konge.asp?periode=40 |title=''Frederik II (1559–1588)'' (Familien Sørensens Hjemmeside – og Rejseholdet) |access-date=10 May 2010 |archive-date=19 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719121213/http://www.aerenlund.dk/idag/konge.asp?periode=40 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* In 1560 Frederick converted the North Sealand farm Hillerødsholm into a great [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance castle]], [[Frederiksborg Castle|Frederiksborg]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frederik 2.|url=https://dnm.dk/opslag/frederik-2/|access-date=23 July 2020|website=Frederiksborg|language=da-DK}}</ref>
* In 1561, Frederik II developed and fortified [[Skanderborg]] Castle with materials from [[Øm Abbey]].

For all Frederick's egalitarian behaviour at his court, Frederick was acutely aware of his elevated status. Like most monarchs of his day, he sought to bolster his international reputation through a measure of ostentatious display, in his patronage of artists and musicians, as well as in the elaborate ceremonies staged for royal weddings and other public celebrations.

=== Kronborg and "[[Øresund|The King's Sound]]" ===
[[File:KronborgCastle_HCS.jpg|left|thumb|321x321px|[[Kronborg]] Castle in [[Helsingør|Elsinore]].]]
Frederick II had claimed naval supremacy in 'the king's sound', as he called [[Øresund|The Sound]] and, indeed, the whole expanse of waters lying between his Norwegian and Icelandic possessions. In 1583 he secured an agreement by which England made an annual payment for permission to sail there, and France later followed suit.<ref>''Derry, T. K. (Thomas Kingston), page 100''</ref>

He also tried to bring the Icelandic trade and fisheries into the hands of his own subjects instead of Englishmen and Germans and encouraged adventurers such as [[Magnus Heinason]], to whom he gave a monopoly of trade with the [[Faroe Islands|Faeroes]], a half-share in ships captured on unlawful passage to the [[White Sea]], and backing for a bold but unsuccessful attempt to reach east [[Greenland]].<ref>''Derry, T. K. (Thomas Kingston), page 102''</ref>