row slit far above the observer's head the stars might be seen in broad daylight. When King Frederick died, Tycho Brahe's relations, who belonged to the oldest nobility, and had long resented his devotion to scientific research as a disgrace to their rank, used all their influence with the regents to bring him under suspicion of treason and heresy; and at length, to escape being shut up for life as a traitor or a madman, he was forced to seek safety abroad. At the earnest invitation of the Emperor Rudolph II. of Germany, he sent in 1598 for all his instruments from Denmark, and settled at Prague, where he died in 1601, while engaged with his friend Kepler in composing from his numerous observations at Uranienborg those astronomical tables, which are known as the Rudolphine. To Tycho Brahe, as the first man who since the days of the ancient astronomers, Ptolemy and Hipparchus, had been able to detect the errors of the old systems, and construct more correct instruments, modern astronomy owes a large share of the important results which were secured to it by the subsequent labours of Kepler and Newton.

The memory of Frederick II. of Denmark and his highlygifted queen Sophia possesses a special interest to Englishmen, since as the parents of Anne, wife of James I. of England and VI. of Scotland, they rank among the direct ancestors of our Queen.

PART II.

THE GREATEST OF THE OLDENBURG PRINCES.

Christian IV., 1588-1648.-When Frederick II. died, in the year 1588, his son and successor, Christian IV., was not more than eleven years of age. According to the will of the late king, his queen Sophia of Mecklenburg was to act as regent for her son till he attained the age of eighteen, but the Council of State refused to confirm the regency, and appointed four members of their own body to conduct the affairs of the government, and to have charge of the person of the young king. Still further to promote their own interests, they decreed that Christian's minority should continue till his twentieth year,

and they drew up a number of strict rules of conduct which were to be observed by the young prince in his intercourse with his guardians. These were, however, able men, under whose care King Christian grew up to be an accomplished and even learned ruler. He early showed great capacity for mathematics and mechanics, and pains were taken by the chancellor, Niels Kaas, to provide him with competent teachers in these and other branches of learning; while his love for the sea was gratified by another of his guardians, the Chief Admiral, Peder Munk, who caused a beautiful little frigate to be built expressly for him, and launched upon the lake by his palace of Skanderborg, where expert sailors taught him how to manage his toy man-of-war, and shipbuilders instructed him in all the details of their craft. This kind of training strengthened his natural taste for a seaman's life, and one of the first things he did after he became his own master was to explore all the fjords of the Norwegian coast as far as Lapland, where he witnessed the striking sight of the sun continuing above the horizon for nearly all the twenty-four hours of a midsummer's day.

This king paid a visit to England in 1606 to see his sister Anne, who had married James I.; and we are told that he took his young nephews, the princes Henry, Charles and James, for a cruise with him in the Channel, on board his own ship, the Trefoldighed or Trinity, for which he had himself. given the model. There was much feasting and merry-making during this visit, and when he left, the courtiers of James I. expressed their astonishment at the quantity of beer and wine that the royal guest could take. They were, however, even more astonished at the learning of this northern king, who spoke many languages with equal facility, could fence and fight, ride and drive, and swim and leap with the best of them, and who seemed to know something of every subject, asked questions about everything he saw, was well acquainted with the science of his times, and knew all that was needed to plan the building of a ship, a church, or a palace. Christian very possibly inherited some of his talent and love of knowledge from his mother, Sophia of Mecklenburg, who was said to have been the most learned queen of her age, and who, when the nobles and Council of State would not let her act as regent

for her son, retired to a quiet place in the country, where she spent her time in the study of chemistry, astronomy, and other sciences.

War with Sweden.-It would have been well for Denmark if her king had devoted his great talents to the duties of governing his kingdom quietly, and had kept at peace with his neighbours. But Christian's reign was seldom free from war with Sweden or Germany, and hence his subjects were never left for any length of time to benefit by his excellent laws, and the able measures which he took to promote the industry and welfare of his kingdom. The first outbreak of war between Denmark and Sweden was due to the determination with which the Swedish king, Charles IX., tried to shut out the Danes from all share in the trade with Courland and Livonia, and to exact tribute from the Lapps, whom Christian IV. claimed as his own subjects on the ground that Lapland belonged to Norway. The Swedes were anxious for peace, and offered to negotiate, but Christian, who would listen to no explanations, entered Sweden in 1611 at the head of 16,000 men, and after several small but fierce encounters, in which young Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden gained his first experience of war, he made himself master of Calmar through the treachery of the commandant. The Danes carried on the war with great cruelty in Vestgotland, whilst the Swedes, under their young king Gustavus, who soon after the taking of Calmar succeeded his father at the age of seventeen, laid waste the Danish territories in Skaania. In this campaign both kings were often in great peril. Christian's life was only saved by the devotion of one of his officers, Kristen Barnekov, who gave him his own horse, and then turned to receive the enemy's attack while the king escaped; at another time when young Gustavus fell through the ice on Lake Vide in Skaania, he would have been drowned or captured by the advancing Danes, if a Swedish knight had not rescued him at the risk of his own life. Both kingdoms suffered severely in this war, and both showed an equal readiness to enter into a treaty of peace, which was concluded in 1613, when Sweden gave up her claims on Norwegian Lapland for six years, after which time that district and the port of

On one occasion

Alfsborg, if not redeemed by the Swedes for one million silver dollars, were to be united for ever with Denmark. The Danes had confidently looked forward to their possession of these districts, as they did not believe it possible for the Swedes to collect so large a sum in the time, but to their disappointment the money was paid and the lands redeemed.

Christian's great merits.-Christian's merits as a ruler were great. To him Denmark owed the establishment of trading companies in Iceland, Greenland, America, and the East Indies; the opening of the first line of post-roads from Copenhagen to the various sea-ports; the erection of numerous bridges, fortifications and other means of national defence; the enlistment of the first standing Danish army; the careful organization of the fleet and navy, and the foundation of several military and naval colleges. He encouraged home trade by bringing skilled artificers from abroad to teach the Danish workmen, aided master tradesmen in building manufactories and workshops, and employed men skilled in science to superintend the royal silver and copper mines in Norway, and give advice to the inspectors of the crown lands, woods, and lakes. His love of display and taste for building tended greatly to improve and embellish his capital; and the splendid castles of Fredericksborg and Rosenborg near Copenhagen, together with the Round Tower, the Royal Exchange, and one or two churches which have escaped the effects of the numerous great fires and bombardments, from which the Danish capital has suffered in the last two hundred years, still attest the artistic skill and creative genius of this king, who in most cases himself drew the models and plans of the buildings which he erected.

Christian IV. applied himself with great diligence and sagacity to the task of revising the laws of Denmark and Norway, and making alterations in them suited to the changed condition of society; and here, as in the measures which he took to improve the higher schools, he showed a strong leaning towards principles of equality. The effect of all the changes which he brought about in the laws was to subject the nobles to the same legal control as the classes below them, while the extension which he gave to university teaching in

He

his kingdoms was designed to benefit poorer students. also showed his wish to improve the younger members of the nobility by founding in 1623, an academy at Sorö, near Copenhagen, which was intended solely to give them instruction suited to their rank before they left their own country to travel abroad for the sake of amusement. His constant endeavour to lessen the power of the nobles over their serfs, and check their encroachments on the rights of the crown, made him unpopular with the higher classes, and in return they thwarted him in every possible way, and took vengeance for his disregard of their prerogatives by withholding the money supplies which he required to carry on operations against the Imperialists in the Thirty Years' War. This war, which began in 1618, and gradually embroiled all the princes of Northern Europe before its close in 1648, had spread to the Baltic lands early in the year 1625, and then it was that the Protestant princes of North Germany appealed to Christian IV. for help against the Imperialist generals, Wallenstein and Tilly, who, after laying waste every Protestant district of Southern Germany, had thrown their armies into Pomerania. Christian IV. brought a large number of troops into Germany, and for three years he did good service in the cause of the Protestants in Pomerania, the Mark-lands, and Brunswick; but while he was fighting abroad, his enemies were carrying the war behind his back into his own country, and slaying and plundering wherever they appeared. In Holstein and Slesvig, the duke Frederick III. had opened those provinces to Wallenstein, and given up to him all his fortresses, in defiance of the king, whose vassal he was. This act roused Christian's anger, and was the cause of strengthening the feelings of ill-will which they had long felt towards each other, and which the Holstein princes showed by taking part against Denmark on every possible occasion.