for the troubles and burdens which his useless wars brought upon his subjects. He might have proved a very good king to the Danes if he had been content with the one crown which they had given him, but he would not rest till he had added to it the crowns of Sweden and Norway. As neither the Swedes nor the Norwegians wished to have him for their king, and were anxious to annul the Act of Union, which Queen Margaret had forced them to make with Denmark, Christian did not effect his purpose very easily; and for twenty years of his reign the lives and property of his subjects were wasted in unprofitable struggles. During this time public affairs in Denmark were neglected, and the unhappy Danes were nearly ruined by the heavy taxes, loans and gifts demanded of them to carry on war, or to defray the cost of the many journeys, which Christian made to Germany and to Rome for the purpose of seeking help from the Emperor or Pope. Christian's sudden change of fortune might perhaps at first have served as an excuse for his ignorance of the use and value of money, but to the end of his life he continued to waste and want, meriting the nickname of "Stringless Purse," given to him by the Danes, who said that "silver slipped through King Christian's fingers like grain through a sieve."

Christian crowned in Norway.-In Norway the Council of State agreed as early as the year 1450 to accept Christian as their king, and to renew the Act of Union with Denmark. This they did not do from any love to the Danish king, but because the Norwegians, who were a peace-loving people, had hoped in this manner to secure for their country the quiet which they so much prized. They, however, quickly found out their mistake, for as soon as Christian had been crowned at Trondhjem, the people were ordered to arm themselves for a general attack of the Swedish frontiers. The Norwegians did not venture to disobey their new king's orders altogether, but they performed their duties so carelessly, that the Swedes had very little to fear from them, and, therefore, although Christian sometimes brought great armies into Sweden, and called upon the men of Norway to join their ranks, he was never able to get a secure footing in the country. The Marshal Karl Knudsson was indeed more than once driven out of Sweden

by Christian's troops, but he as often regained his power, and was at length crowned king in the year 1464. On the death of Karl, the Danish king made another attempt in 1471 to gain the Swedish crown for himself, but (as we have seen in the last chapter) his army was so thoroughly beaten by the Swedes in a battle, fought at Brunkebjerg, near Stockholm, that he lost all further desire of invading Sweden, and never again turned his arms against that kingdom.

Christian's want of money often led him to do things unworthy of a king; and his neighbours and allies soon found that there was scarcely any favour he would not grant to those who could pay well for what they wanted of him. Thus the Hanse-traders were allowed, in return for a large sum of money, to keep the trade of the Baltic in their own hands, and to drive off Danish vessels as if they had no right to carry foreign goods into their own native ports, and in this manner the Germans were made rich at the expense of the Danes. Besides getting money by these and many other unjust means, King Christian had the bad habit of spending on his own pleasures what had been granted to him for other purposes, while he never scrupled to call upon his people to pay extra taxes, whenever he was more than usually in want of money.

Union of Slesvig and Holstein.-The old royal line of Slesvig-Holstein died out in 1459 with the Count-Duke Adolf, whose numerous kinsmen at once began to dispute among themselves in regard to the manner in which his heritage should be disposed of. King Christian sent troops into Slesvig, and claimed the right of taking the duchy on the ground that as his mother's brother, Count Adolf, had died without leaving any children or direct heirs in the male line, the fief had lapsed, or fallen back to the crown, by which it had been granted in former times. These claims were not disputed, and Christian had thus the good fortune of recovering without bloodshed a province, whose possession had for many ages been made a subject of dispute between the kings of Denmark and the dukes who had held it. But instead of resting satisfied with what he had thus easily obtained, he wanted also to make himself master of Holstein.

That province was, however, a fief of the German empire,

and as Christian could not hope to secure it unless he could induce the nobles and knights of Holstein to propose to the Emperor that he should receive the investiture, he resolved to buy their favour at any price. They were not slow to avail themselves of this opportunity to increase their own power, and accordingly they took care to make themselves almost independent of their future ruler before they would promise him their support. The terms to which he agreed were that in return for the title of Count of Holstein the nobles and knights of the province and their heirs after them should be free from paying taxes to the Danish crown, and should not be called upon to give to the kings of Denmark any aid in money or men unless with their own entire free-will. Besides granting these and other privileges, Christian promised for himself and all his successors that the provinces of Holstein and Slesvig should remain for ever united; and that on his death the electors should be held free to choose a successor from among any one of his heirs, and were not to be bound to take the next king of Denmark to be Count-Duke of the united provinces.

The Danes were indignant when they heard the terms on which the king had gained the empty title of ruler of Holstein, and their vexation was increased on finding that they were to be made answerable for his rash promises of paying off in money all other claims on his uncle's heritage. Amongst others Count Otto of Schaumburg, who was a kinsman of the late Count-Duke Adolf, had demanded 40,000 florins before he would give up his pretensions to the Holstein lands, while the king's three brothers had each required the same amount with one-third of the Oldenburg and Delmenhorst patrimony of their family. The Danes after much grumbling and delay paid the required sums of money to their king, who, as usual, spent them on his own pleasures, and left the poor Jutlanders to be pillaged by Count Otto's troops, and to buy off future attacks by heavy fines.

Christian loses the Shetlands and Orkneys.-King Christian's bad habits of thus misapplying the money entrusted to him by his people had in one instance a very important influence upon territories now forming part of the British empire. It happened that when his daughter Margaret at the early age of fifteen was

married, in the year 1469, to the almost equally young king, James III. of Scotland, her dowry was fixed at 60,000 florins. The Danes, who were much pleased with the marriage, gave King Christian the money, of which James III. received only 2,000 florins. When the advisers of the young Scottish king demanded the remainder of the dowry, King Christian, to save himself from further trouble, gave them the Shetland and Orkney Isles to be held in pawn till he should be able to redeem them by paying 58,000 florins. But as the time never came when the Danish king was master of so large a sum of money these old Norwegian provinces were lost to Norway, and have since formed a part of Scotland.

The same misuse of money continued to the end of his reign to bring Christian into discredit with all classes of his subjects; and he gave special offence to the clergy by his conduct in regard to the University of Copenhagen, which was not opened till 1479, although he had five years earlier taken the money which they had supplied for the purpose, and obtained the necessary charter from the Pope, Sixtus IV. When at length Christian caused the university to be opened, he could only endow three chairs, and therefore all students who wished to learn anything more than divinity, law, and physic, were still forced to go abroad and seek instruction in some foreign school of learning. Hence the University of Copenhagen did not prove of much use to the Danes at that time, and it was not till the Reformation that its teachers could obtain any help from the State, or that students could receive proper instruction within its walls.

King Christian and his queen Dorothea never took the trouble to learn Danish, or to follow the habits of the country over which they ruled, and during the reign of this founder of the German house of Oldenburg, the higher classes in Denmark began to adopt the manners and customs of Germany, and almost gave up the use of their own tongue.

PART II.

CROWN BARTERED FOR FAVOURS.

Hans,-1481-1513.-On the death of King Christian I., in 1481, the nobles and knights of Slesvig and Holstein used their rights of election in regard to the succession, by declaring that they were not prepared to receive his eldest son and heir, Hans, as Count-Duke of their united provinces; and they showed such a marked leaning in favour of the second brother, Prince Frederick, that Hans had to submit to hard terms before he could secure their votes. The Danish nobles treated the young prince nearly as badly, and although the common people in Denmark were anxious to give him the crown immediately on his father's death, he was not allowed to ascend the throne till he had signed a very hard compact, by which the higher classes assured to themselves all the privileges they cared to possess. As soon as Hans had been crowned king of Denmark, he began, like his father, to try to obtain the other Scandinavian thrones; and although, as in Christian's case, the Norwegians were anxious to have nothing more to do with Danish rulers, they had no native princes of their own, and therefore for want of knowing what else to do, they agreed to receive Hans as their king. This king was a great favourite with his Danish subjects on account of his preference for the customs of the country, and for his use of the Danish language, which he spoke like a true-born Dane; while his parents and his brother, Prince Frederick, openly boasted of their German descent, and never concealed their contempt for the Danish people.

Frederick's ambition.-Although King Hans loved peace, the disturbed state of his dominions when he came to the throne, and the ambition of his brother, drew him into many wars during his long reign. The Queen-mother had always shown great partiality for her younger son, Prince Frederick, and not content with securing for him, on the death of Christian, a promise from the nobles and prelates of Slesvig and Holstein that he should be proclaimed joint ruler with his brother, King