Dorothea of Brandenburg

Dorothea of Brandenburg
Contemporary portrait of Queen Dorothea Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød
Queen consort of Denmark
Tenure	26 September 1445 – 5 January 1448 28 October 1449 – 21 May 1481
Coronation	28 October 1449 Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen
Queen consort of Norway
Tenure	26 September 1445 – 5 January 1448 13 May 1450 – 21 May 1481
Coronation	2 August 1450 Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim
Queen consort of Sweden
Tenure	26 September 1445 – 5 January 1448 23 June 1457 – 23 June 1464
Coronation	29 June 1457 Uppsala Cathedral
Born	c. 1430/1431 Brandenburg
Died	10 November 1495 Kalundborg, Denmark
Burial	Roskilde Cathedral
Spouse	Christopher III, King of Denmark Christian I, King of Denmark
Issue among others...	John, King of Denmark Margaret, Queen of Scots Frederick I, King of Denmark
House	House of Hohenzollern
Father	John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
Mother	Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Dorothea of Brandenburg (1430/1431 – 10 November 1495) was the wife of Christopher of Bavaria and Christian I of Denmark. She was Queen of Denmark (1445–1448 and 1449–1481), Norway (1445–1448 and 1450–1481), and Sweden (1447–1448 and 1457–1464) two times each. She also served as regent in Denmark during the absences of her spouse.

Family

Dorothea was born in 1430 or 1431 to John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, and Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg (1405–1465). She had two sisters: Barbara (1423–1481), who became Marchioness of Mantua, and Elisabeth (14??-1451), who became Duchess of Pomerania.

On 12 September 1445, Dorothea married Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark from 1440 to 1448, Sweden from 1441 to 1448 and Norway from 1442 to 1448. The wedding was held in Copenhagen. She was crowned queen of the three kingdoms on 14 September 1445.

After Christopher's death, Dorothea married the next elected king of Denmark, King Christian I, on 28 October 1449. In 1457, she became queen of Sweden for the second time, and was crowned in Uppsala Cathedral.

Life

Dorothea was given control over fiefs in all three Nordic kingdoms with a value of 45,000 Rhine guilders, as well as an additional collection of fiefs valued at 15,000 guilders in Oberpfalz. When she was widowed in 1448, there were marriage negotiations with Albert VI, Archduke of Austria, and King Casimir IV Jagiellon, but when Christian of Oldenburg was chosen as the new king of Denmark, it was agreed that he should marry her instead.

As a widow, Dorothea's many fiefs were considered a problem. At her second wedding, she renounced her existing fiefs in Denmark and Norway, which were replaced with Kalundborg and Samsø in Denmark and Romerike in Norway. Her claim over her territories in Sweden, however, was something she would not give up. For the rest of her life, she fought to regain control over them. In 1451, war erupted between the countries over her inheritance. She gained control over Närke and Värmland in 1457, but lost them in 1464. In this affair, she requested the assistance of the popes from 1455, and she succeeded in having the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Elder excommunicated. This disrupted separate political negotiations with Sweden for many years, and her son, John, King of Denmark, who became king of Sweden in 1497, had the excommunication rescinded as soon as she died in 1495. She also fought with her uncle, Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg, over the inheritance left after her father, John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, died in 1464.

Dorothea served as regent during the absence of her spouse. She was granted the slotsloven, which meant she had the right to command all the castles in Denmark. She was a powerful political figure due to her strong economic position, both with regard to her husband and her son. She even acquired fiefs from her husband when she lent him money he could not pay back. In 1460, her spouse acquired Holstein and Schleswig, but only on the condition that he could pay his creditors: Dorothea paid the fee demanded of Christian, and made it possible for him to make these territories a part of Denmark. She acquired a large economic influence in Holstein and Schleswig, and by 1470 she was the de facto ruler of those lands. In 1479, she acquired Holstein and in 1480 Schleswig from her husband as a security for a loan he was unable to pay back, and at the time of his death, she ruled the duchies as her own territories. Her eldest son John opposed her grant of Schleswig-Holstein to her younger son Frederick. The dispute was not solved until 1487, when she divided Schleswig-Holstein between her sons.

In 1475 and 1488, Dorothea visited the reigning popes (Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII) in Rome and her sister Barbara in Mantua. In 1488, she also met Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III in Innsbrück. She was described as cold, practical and frugal. As a widow, she stayed mainly at Kalundborg castle. She died on 25 November 1495, and is interred next to her second husband in Roskilde Cathedral.

Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Olaf	1450	1451
Canute	1451	1455
John	2 February 1455	20 February 1513	King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Had issue.
Margaret	23 June 1456	14 July 1486	Married King James III of Scotland in 1469. Had issue.
Frederick I	7 October 1471	10 April 1533	King of Denmark and Norway. Had issue.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Dorothea of Brandenburg

16. John II, Burgrave of Nuremberg               8. Frederick V, Burgrave of Nuremberg                       17. Elisabeth of Henneberg               4. Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg                             18. Frederick II, Margrave of Meissen               9. Elisabeth of Meissen                       19. Mathilde of Bavaria               2. John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach                                   20. Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria               10. Frederick, Duke of Bavaria                       21. Elisabeth of Sicily               5. Elisabeth of Bavaria                             22. Bernabò Visconti               11. Maddalena Visconti                       23. Beatrice Regina della Scala               1. Dorothea of Brandenburg                                         24. Rudolf I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg               12. Wenceslas I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg                       25. Agnes of Lindau-Ruppin               6. Rudolf III, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg                             26. Francesco I da Carrara               13. Cecilia di Carrara                       3. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg                                   28. Wenceslaus I of Legnica               14. Rupert I of Legnica                       29. Anna of Cieszyn               7. Barbara of Legnica                             30. Henry V of Iron               15. Hedwig of Sagan                       31. Anna of Mazovia

See also

• List of Danish consorts
• List of Swedish consorts
• List of Norwegian consorts

References

Bibliography

• Åke Ohlmarks: Alla Sveriges drottningar (All the queens of Sweden) (Swedish)
• Herman Lindvist: Historien om alla Sveriges drottningar (History of all the queens of Sweden) (Swedish) (2006)
• http://www.kvinfo.dk/side/597/bio/498/origin/170/ (in Danish)

Further reading

• Anne J. Duggan: Queens and queenship in medieval Europe

External links

• Dorothea of Brandenburg at Find a Grave