Christopher of Bavaria
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| Christoffer af Bayern Kristofer av Bayern |
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| By the grace of God, King of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Wends and the Goths, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria[1] | |
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| Reign | 9 April 1440–5 January 1448 (Denmark) 1442–5 January 1448 (Norway) 1441–5 January 1448 (Sweden) |
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| Coronation | 13 September 1441 in Uppsala (as king of Sweden) 2 July 1442 in Oslo (as king of Norway) 1 January 1443 in Ribe (as king of Denmark) |
| Born | February 26, 1418 |
| Died | 5/January 6, 1448 |
| Place of death | Helsingborg |
| Buried | Roskilde Cathedral, Roskilde |
| Predecessor | Eric of Pomerania (Denmark and Norway) Karl Knutsson Bonde, Regent (Sweden) |
| Successor | Christian I (Denmark) Carl I (Norway) Regents Bengt and Nils Oxenstierna (Sweden) |
| Consort | Dorothea of Brandenburg |
| Issue | None |
| Royal House | Pfalz-Neumarkt as branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty |
| Father | Duke John of Pfalz-Neumarkt |
| Mother | Catherine Vratislava |
Christopher of Bavaria known by his Danish and Norwegian title as Christoffer (III) af/av Bayern and by his Swedish title as Kristofer av Bayern (26 February 1416-5 January/6 January 1448) was union king of Denmark (1440-1448), Sweden (1441-1448) and Norway (1442-1448).
[edit] Biography
He was probably born at Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, the son of Duke John of Pfalz-Neumarkt and Catherine Vratislava, sister to Eric of Pomerania. Duke John was a son of King Ruprecht of Palatinate. In 1445 he married Dorothea of Brandenburg (1430-November 25, 1495), in Copenhagen.
King Eric of Pomerania was deposed as king of Denmark and Sweden in 1439. As Eric's nephew, Christopher, who was rather unfamiliar to Scandinavian conditions, was elected by the DanisState Council as the successor to his uncle, first as regent from 1439, and then proclaimed King of Denmark at the Viborg Assembly (Danish:landsting) on 9 April 1440. He was meant to be a puppet, as evidenced by the saying: "Had the Council demanded the stars of heaven from him, he would have ordered it."[1] However he succeeded in maintaining some personal control. As a whole his rule, according to the politics of the nobility and his succession, might be called the start of the long period of balance between royal power and nobility which lasted until 1660. He was later elected king of Sweden in 1441, and Norway in June 1442.
He spent much of his reign trying to put down peasant rebellions on Funen and Jutland. Once the rebellion on Funen was suppressed, he turned his attention the uprising in Jutland. North Jutland, especially Vendsyssel, was so restive that a peasant army of 25,000 led by Henrik Reventlow posed s serious threat to Christopher's continued reign. Before the king could act, Jutland's noble families raised their own army and marched west of Aalborg to meet Reventlow's forces. The peasants had created a gigantic wagon fortress three layers deep to protect themselves from the mounted knights they knew would come against them. They also placed tree branches across the bog in front of the camp and then cast earth on top to make it look like sold ground. The overconfident army of nobles led by Eske Brok appeared at St Jorgen's Hill on May 3 1441. The knights charged the camp, and were quickly mired down in the bog. The peasants moved in for the kill. Brok was killed and dismembered and the pieces sent to the towns in the area as a warning. The peasants then raided the area's most important manor at Aagard and burned it, forcing the the noble Niels Guldenstierne to flee with nothing but a staff.[2]
The treatment of the captives after the battle strengthened Christopher's determination to put down the peasants. With his own army Christopher rode north to the rebel camp at Husby Hole near St Jorgen's Hill in northern Jutland. Because the rebels outnumbered his troops, Christopher sent word that anyone who left the camp and went home would not be punished for rebellion. The men from the island of Mors and Thisted left, for which they were called cowards and traitors ever after. Christopher ordered the attack on the rebel camp on 8 June 1441 and despite fighting ferociously the rebels could not overcome the heavily armed knights. Thousands of rebels were killed, those who survived were fined heavily. The more severe consequence was that rebels lost their free status and became serfs on the farms where they worked.[3] The king made it a capital crime for peasants to carry weapons longer than a a short knife. The subjugation of Denmark's once free peasants was complete.
In May 1442 Christopher traveled to Lødøse to meet with the nobles from all three kingdoms. He was crowned King of Norway there and then went to Oslo and the Trondheim to be confirmed as the king. The nesxt year he was proclaimed King of Denmark at the Urnehoved Assembly near Ribe. When his residence at Roskilde burned down, Christopher moved to Copenhagen and made it the capital of Denmark. The Swedes did't like him, he was too German for them and allowed former King Albrecht to plunder shipping from his castle on Gotland without any attempt to stop him. They blamed a series of bad harvests on him. People were so hungry they mixed ground tree bark with the little flour they could find. Christopher was contemptously nicknamed the "Bark King" in Sweden.
On the other hand he tried to support the cities and their merchants as far as the limits of nobility and Hanseatic cities allowed. During his reign Copenhagen was made permanently the capital of Denmark (municipal charter of 1443).
He carried on an ineffective policy of war and negotiations against his exiled uncle on Gotland which did little to help the dissatisfaction within both Sweden and the Hanseatic League. The Kalmar Union Treaty was changed so that the aristocracy had most of the policy-making powers, and the king lost many of the powers monarchs had acquired since Viking times. The results of this policy of balance were still not reached when he suddenly died as the last descendant of Valdemar IV of Denmark.
Christopher died suddenly at Helsingborg in 1448. On October 28, 1449, Dorothea remarried Christian I. King Christopher was buried in Roskilde Cathedral. In 1654 his Wittelsbach family returned to power in Sweden.
[edit] References
- Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, vol. 7, Copenhagen 1980.
- Politikens Danmarkshistorie, vol. 4 by Erik Kjersgaard, Copenhagen 1962.
- Politikens bog om Danske Monarker by Benito Scocozza, Copenhagen 1998
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Christopher of Bavaria
Cadet branch of the House of Wittelsbach
Born: February 26, 1416 Died: January 6, 1448 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Eric of Pomerania |
King of Denmark 1440-1448 |
Succeeded by Christian I |
| King of Norway 1442-1448 |
Succeeded by Karl I |
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| Preceded by Karl Knutsson as Regent of Sweden |
King of Sweden 1440-1448 |
Succeeded by Bengt Jönsson (Oxenstierna) & Nils Jönsson (Oxenstierna) as Regents of Sweden |
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