Frederick II of Denmark

Frederick II
Portrait by Hans Knieper or Melchior Lorck, 1581
King of Denmark and Norway (more...)
Reign	1 January 1559 – 4 April 1588
Coronation	20 August 1559 Copenhagen Cathedral
Predecessor	Christian III
Successor	Christian IV
Born	1 July 1534 Haderslevhus Castle, Haderslev, Denmark
Died	4 April 1588 (aged 53) Antvorskov Castle, Antvorskov, Denmark
Burial	Roskilde Cathedral
Spouse	Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow
Issue	Christian IV of Denmark Anne, Queen of England and Scotland Elizabeth, Duchess of Brunswick Augusta, Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp Hedwig, Electress of Saxony John, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein
House	Oldenburg
Father	Christian III of Denmark
Mother	Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg
Religion	Lutheranism

Frederick II (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588) was King of Denmark and Norway and duke of Schleswig from 1559 until his death.^[1]

King of Denmark

Frederik II's coronation

Frederick II was the son of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. Frederick II stands as the typical renaissance ruler of Denmark. Unlike his father, he was strongly affected by military ideals. Already as a young man he made friendship with German war princes. He had desired to marry his mistress, Anne of Hardenberg, but was finally persuaded not to. Shortly after his succession he won his first victory by the conquest of Dithmarschen in the summer of 1559.

From his predecessor, he inherited the Livonian War, where he installed his younger brother Magnus of Holstein, whom he considered troublesome, in the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek. Else, he largely tried to avoid conflict in Livonia and consolidated amicable relations to Ivan IV of Russia in the 1562 Treaty of Mozhaysk. The dominating conflict of his rule was the Scandinavian Seven Years' War from 1563 to 1570, in which he tried in vain to conquer Sweden, which was ruled by his cousin, the insane King Eric XIV. It 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 the king led his army personally on the battlefield but without much result and the conflict damaged his relationship to his noble councillors. However, internal unrest in Sweden and the taking over of Danish administration by the able Steward of the Realm Peder Oxe stabilised the situation. After Erik's successor John III of Sweden refused to accept a peace favoring Denmark in the Treaties of Roskilde (1568), the war dragged on until it was ended by a status quo peace in the Treaty of Stettin (1570) that let Denmark save face but also showed the limits of Danish military power.

After the war Frederick kept the peace without giving up his attempt of trying to expand his prestige as a naval ruler. His foreign politics were marked by a moral support of the Protestant powers – in his time as a bachelor he wooed Queen Elizabeth I of England, an initiative which made him Knight of the Garter – but at the same time by a strict neutrality. Councillors of experience like Peder Oxe, Niels Kaas, Arild Huitfeldt and Christoffer Valkendorff took care of the domestic administration.^[2]

As a person Frederick was described as hot-headed, vain, courageous and ambitious. He was a lover of hunting, wine, women and feasts and at his death it was a common opinion that he had drunk himself to death. He rebuilt Kronborg castle in Elsinore between 1574 and 1585. In 1567^[3] he 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.

This was a period of affluence and growth in Danish history. Frederick was also a major patron and close personal friend of the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe (whose step-father Jørgen Thygesen Brahe had rescued Frederick from drowning, catching pneumonia and dying as a result).^[4] On 4 April 1588 he died and was succeeded by his eldest son Christian IV. He was interred in Roskilde Cathedral.^[5]

Family and children

On 20 July 1572 he was married to Sophia of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, a descendant of King John of Denmark, and also his own first half-cousin, through their grandfather, Frederick I, King of Denmark and Norway. They had eight children:

1. Elizabeth (25 August 1573 – 19 June 1626), married in 1590 to Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
2. Anne (12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619), married on 23 November 1589 to James VI and I
3. Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648)
4. Ulrik (30 December 1578 – 27 March 1624 in Rühn), last Bishop of the old Schleswig see (1602–1624), and as Ulrich II Administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin (1603–1624), married Lady Catherine Hahn-Hinrichshagen
5. John August (1579–1579), died in infancy
6. Augusta (8 April 1580 – 5 February 1639), married on 30 August 1596 to Duke Johann Adolf of Holstein-Gottorp
7. Hedwig (5 August 1581 – 26 November 1641), married on 12 September 1602 to Christian II, Elector of Saxony
8. John, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein (9 July 1583 – 28 October 1602)

Ancestry

Ancestors of Frederick II of Denmark

16. Theodoric, Count of Oldenburg               8. Christian I of Denmark                       17. Helvig of Schauenburg               4. Frederick I of Denmark                             18. John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach               9. Dorothea of Brandenburg                       19. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg               2. Christian III of Denmark                                   20. Albrecht III, Elector of Brandenburg               10. John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg                       21. Margaret of Baden               5. Anna of Brandenburg                             22. William III of Saxony and Thuringia, Duke of Luxembourg               11. Margaret of Thuringia                       23. Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg               1. Frederick II of Denmark                                         24. Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg               12. John V, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg                       25. Adelheid of Pomerania               6. Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg                             26. Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg               13. Dorothea of Brandenburg                       27. Katharina of Saxony               3. Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg                                   28. William IV, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg               14. Henry IV, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg                       29. Elisabeth of Stolberg-Wernigerode               7. Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel                             30. Eric II, Duke of Pomerania               15. Catherine of Pomerania-Wolgast                       31. Sophia of Pomerania-Stargard

References

1. Frederik 2 (Dansk Konge)
2. Frederik 2 (Danish Kings and their History)
3. Fredrikstad museum
4. Pierre Gassendi, "Tycho Brahe, the man and his work" (original in latin), 1654. This book was translated to swedish and commented by Wilhelm Norlind, 1951
5. Frederik II (1559–1588) (Familien Sørensens Hjemmeside – og Rejseholdet)

External links

• The Royal Lineage at the website of the Danish Monarchy
• Frederik II at the website of the Royal Danish Collection
•  Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Frederick II. of Denmark and Norway". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.).