CHRISTCHURCH

christchurch, a city near the east coast of south island, new zealand, to the north of banks peninsula, in selwyn county, the capital of the provincial district of canterbury and the seat of a bishop. pop. (1906) 49,928; including suburbs, 67,878. it stands upon the great canterbury plain, which here is a dead level, though the monotony of the site has been much relieved by extensive plantations of english and australian trees. a background is supplied by the distant mountains to the west, and by the nearer hills to the south. the small river avon winds through the city, pleasantly bordered by terraces and gardens. the wide streets cross one another for the most part at right angles. the predominance of stone and brick as building materials, the dominating cathedral spire, and the well-planted parks, avenues and private gardens, recall the aspect of an english residential town. christchurch is mainly dependent on the rich agricultural district which surrounds it, the plain being mainly devoted to cereals and grazing. wool is extensively worked, and meat is frozen for export. railways connect with culverden to the north and with dunedin and the south coast, with many branches through the agricultural districts; also with lyttelton, the port of christchurch, 8 m. s.e. there are tramways in the city, and to new brighton, a seaside suburb, and other residential quarters. the principal public buildings are the government buildings and the museum, with its fine collection of remains of the extinct bird, moa. the cathedral is the best in new zealand, built from designs of sir g. gilbert scott in early english style, with a tower and spire 240 ft. high. among educational foundations are canterbury college (for classics, science, engineering, &c), christ's college (mainly theological) and grammar school, and a school of art. there is a roman catholic pro-cathedral attached to a convent of the sacred heart. a large extent of open ground, to the west of the town, finely planted, and traversed by the river, comprises hagley park, recreation grounds, the government domain and the grounds of the acclimatization society, with fish-ponds and a small zoological garden. the foundation of christchurch is connected with the so-called "canterbury pilgrims," who settled in this district in 1850. lyttelton was the original settlement, but christchurch came into existence in 1851, and is thus the latest of the settlements of the colony. it became a municipality in 1862. in 1903 several populous suburban boroughs were amalgamated with the city. christian ii. (1481-1559), king of denmark, norway and sweden, son of john (hans) and christina of saxony, was born at nyborg castle in 1481, and succeeded his father as king of denmark and norway in 1513. as viceroy of norway (1506-1512) he had already displayed a singular capacity for ruling under exceptionally difficult circumstances. patriotism, insight, courage, statesmanship, energy,--these great qualities were indisputably his; but unfortunately they were vitiated by obstinacy, suspicion and a sulky craftiness, beneath which simmered a very volcano of revengeful cruelty. another peculiarity, more fatal to him in that aristocratic age than any other, was his fondness for the common people, which was increased by his passion for a pretty dutch girl, named dyveke, who became his mistress in 1507 or 1509. christian's succession to the throne was confirmed at the _herredag_, or assembly of notables from the three northern kingdoms, which met at copenhagen in 1513. the nobles and clergy of all three kingdoms regarded with grave misgivings a ruler who had already shown in norway that he was not afraid of enforcing his authority to the uttermost. the _rigsraads_ of denmark and norway insisted, in the _haandfaestning_ or charter extorted from the king, that the crowns of both kingdoms were elective and not hereditary, providing explicitly against any transgression of the charter by the king, and expressly reserving to themselves a free choice of christian's successor after his death. but the swedish delegates could not be prevailed upon to accept christian as king at all. "we have," they said, "the choice between peace at home and strife here, or peace here and civil war at home, and we prefer the former." a decision as to the swedish succession was therefore postponed. on the 12th of august 1515 christian married isabella of burgundy, the grand-daughter of the emperor maximilian. but he would not give up his liaison with dyveke, and it was only the death of the unfortunate girl in 1517, under suspicious circumstances, that prevented serious complications with the emperor charles v. christian revenged himself by executing the magnate torben oxe, who, on very creditable evidence, was supposed to have been dyveke's murderer, despite the strenuous opposition of oxe's fellow-peers; and henceforth the king lost no opportunity of depressing the nobility and raising plebeians to power. his chief counsellor was dyveke's mother sigbrit, a born administrator and a commercial genius of the first order. christian first appointed her controller of the sound tolls, and ultimately committed to her the whole charge of the finances. a _bourgeoise_ herself, it was sigbrit's constant policy to elevate and extend the influence of the middle classes. she soon became the soul of a middle-class inner council, which competed with _rigsraad_ itself. the patricians naturally resented their supersession and nearly every unpopular measure was attributed to the influence of "the foul-mouthed dutch sorceress who hath bewitched the king." meanwhile christian was preparing for the inevitable war with sweden, where the patriotic party, headed by the freely elected governor sten sture the younger, stood face to face with the philo-danish party under archbishop gustavus trolle. christian, who had already taken measures to isolate sweden politically, hastened to the relief of the archbishop, who was beleagured in his fortress of stake, but was defeated by sture and his peasant levies at vedla and forced to return to denmark. a second attempt to subdue sweden in 1518 was also frustrated by sture's victory at brankyrka. a third attempt made in 1520 with a large army of french, german and scottish mercenaries proved successful. sture was mortally wounded at the battle of borgerund, on the 19th of january, and the danish army, unopposed, was approaching upsala, where the members of the swedish _riksrad_ had already assembled. the senators consented to render homage to christian on condition that he gave a full indemnity for the past and a guarantee that sweden should be ruled according to swedish laws and custom; and a convention to this effect was confirmed by the king and the danish _rigsraad_ on the 31st of march. but sture's widow, dame christina gyllenstjerna, still held out stoutly at stockholm, and the peasantry of central sweden, stimulated by her patriotism, flew to arms, defeated the danish invaders at balundsas (march 19th), and were only with the utmost difficulty finally defeated at the bloody battle of upsala (good friday, april 6th). in may the danish fleet arrived, and stockholm was invested by land and sea; but dame christina resisted valiantly for four months longer, and took care, when she surrendered on the 7th of september, to exact beforehand an amnesty of the most explicit and absolute character. on the 1st of november the representatives of the nation swore fealty to christian as hereditary king of sweden, though the law of the land distinctly provided that the swedish crown should be elective. on the 4th of november he was anointed by gustavus trolle in stockholm cathedral, and took the usual oath to rule the realm through native-born swedes alone, according to prescription. the next three days were given up to banqueting, but on the 7th of november "an entertainment of another sort began." on the evening of that day christian summoned his captains to a private conference at the palace, the result of which was quickly apparent, for at dusk a band of danish soldiers, with lanterns and torches, broke into the great hall and carried off several carefully selected persons. by 10 o'clock the same evening the remainder of the king's guests were safely under lock and key. all these persons had previously been marked down on archbishop trolle's proscription list. on the following day a council, presided over by trolle, solemnly pronounced judgment of death on the proscribed, as manifest heretics. at 12 o'clock that night the patriotic bishops of skara and strangnas were led out into the great square and beheaded. fourteen noblemen, three burgomasters, fourteen town-councillors and about twenty common citizens of stockholm were then drowned or decapitated. the executions continued throughout the following day; in all, about eighty-two people are said to have been thus murdered. moreover, christian revenged himself upon the dead as well as upon the living, for sten sture's body was dug up and burnt, as well as the body of his little child. dame christina and many other noble swedish ladies were sent prisoners to denmark. it has well been said that the manner of this atrocious deed (the "stockholm massacre" as it is generally called) was even more detestable than the deed itself. christian suppressed his political opponents under the pretence of defending an ecclesiastical system which in his heart he despised. even when it became necessary to make excuses for his crime, we see the same double-mindedness. thus, while in a proclamation to the swedish people he represented the massacre as a measure necessary to avoid a papal interdict, in his apology to the pope for the decapitation of the innocent bishops he described it as an unauthorized act of vengeance on the part of his own people. it was with his brain teeming with great designs that christian ii. returned to his native kingdom. that the welfare of his dominions was dear to him there can be no doubt. inhuman as he could be in his wrath, in principle he was as much a humanist as any of his most enlightened contemporaries. but he would do things his own way; and deeply distrusting the danish nobles with whom he shared his powers, he sought helpers from among the wealthy and practical middle classes of flanders. in june 1521 he paid a sudden visit to the low countries, and remained there for some months. he visited most of the large cities, took into his service many flemish artisans, and made the personal acquaintance of quentin matsys and albrecht durer, the latter of whom painted his portrait. christian also entertained erasmus, with whom he discussed the reformation, and let fall the characteristic expression: "mild measures are of no use; the remedies that give the whole body a good shaking are the best and surest." never had king christian seemed so powerful as on his return to denmark on the 5th of september 1521, and with the confidence of strength he at once proceeded recklessly to inaugurate the most sweeping reforms. soon after his return he issued his great _landelove_, or code of laws. for the most part this is founded on dutch models, and testifies in a high degree to the king's progressive aims. provision was made for the better education of the lower, and the restriction of the political influence of the higher clergy; there were stern prohibitions against wreckers and "the evil and unchristian practice of selling peasants as if they were brute beasts"; the old trade gilds were retained, but the rules of admittance thereto made easier, and trade combinations of the richer burghers, to the detriment of the smaller tradesmen, were sternly forbidden. unfortunately these reforms, excellent in themselves, suggested the standpoint not of an elected ruler, but of a monarch by right divine. some of them were even in direct contravention of the charter; and the old scandinavian spirit of independence was deeply wounded by the preference given to the dutch. sweden too was now in open revolt; and both norway and denmark were taxed to the uttermost to raise an army for the subjection of the sister kingdom. foreign complications were now superadded to these domestic troubles. with the laudable object of releasing danish trade from the grinding yoke of the hansa, and making copenhagen the great emporium of the north, christian had arbitrarily raised the sound tolls and seized a number of dutch ships which presumed to evade the tax. thus his relations with the netherlands were strained, while with lubeck and her allies he was openly at war. finally jutland rose against him, renounced its allegiance and offered the danish crown to duke frederick of holstein (january 20th, 1523). so overwhelming did christian's difficulties appear that he took ship to seek help abroad, and on may 1st landed at veere in zealand. eight years later (october 24th, 1531) he attempted to recover his kingdoms, but a tempest scattered his fleet off the norwegian coast, and on the 1st of july 1532, by the convention of oslo, he surrendered to his rival, king frederick, and for the next 27 years was kept in solitary confinement, first in the blue tower at copenhagen and afterwards at the castle of kabendborg. he died in january 1559. see k.p. arnoldson, _nordens enhet och kristian ii._ (stockholm, 1899); paul frederik barfod, _danmarks historie fra 1319 til 1536_ (copenhagen, 1885); _danmarks riges historie_, vol. 3 (copenhagen, 1897-1905); robert nisbet bain, _scandinavia_, chap 2 (cambridge, 1905). (r. n. b.) christian iii. (1503-1559), king of denmark and norway, was the son of frederick i. of denmark and his first consort, anne of brandenburg. his earliest teacher, wolfgang von utenhof, who came straight from wittenberg, and the lutheran holsteiner johann rantzau, who became his tutor, were both able and zealous reformers. in 1521 christian travelled in germany, and was present at the diet of worms, where luther's behaviour profoundly impressed him. on his return he found that his father had been elected king of denmark in the place of christian ii., and the young prince's first public service was the reduction of copenhagen, which stood firm for the fugitive christian ii. he made no secret of his lutheran views, and his outspokenness brought him into collision, not only with the catholic _rigsraad_, but also with his cautious and temporizing father. at his own court at schleswig he did his best to introduce the reformation, despite the opposition of the bishops. both as stadtholder of the duchies in 1526, and as viceroy of norway in 1529, he displayed considerable administrative ability, though here too his religious intolerance greatly provoked the catholic party. there was even some talk of passing him over in the succession to the throne, in favour of his half-brother hans, who had been brought up in the old religion. on his father's death christian was proclaimed king at the local diet of viborg, and took an active part in the "grevens fejde" or "count's war." the triumph of so fanatical a reformer as christian brought about the fall of catholicism, but the catholics were still so strong in the council of state that christian was forced to have recourse to a _coup d'etat_, which he successfully accomplished by means of his german mercenaries (12th of august 1536), an absolutely inexcusable act of violence loudly blamed by luther himself, and accompanied by the wholesale spoliation of the church. christian's finances were certainly readjusted thereby, but the ultimate gainers by the confiscation were the nobles, and both education and morality suffered grievously in consequence. the circumstances under which christian iii. ascended the throne naturally exposed denmark to the danger of foreign domination. it was with the help of the gentry of the duchies that christian had conquered denmark. german and holstein noblemen had led his armies and directed his diplomacy. naturally, a mutual confidence between a king who had conquered his kingdom and a people who had stood in arms against him was not attainable immediately, and the first six years of christian iii.'s reign were marked by a contest between the danish _rigsraad_ and the german counsellors, both of whom sought to rule "the pious king" exclusively. though the danish party won a signal victory at the outset, by obtaining the insertion in the charter of provisions stipulating that only native-born danes should fill the highest dignities of the state, the king's german counsellors continued paramount during the earlier years of his reign. the ultimate triumph of the danish party dates from 1539, the dangers threatening christian iii. from the emperor charles v. and other kinsmen of the imprisoned christian ii. convincing him of the absolute necessity of removing the last trace of discontent in the land by leaning exclusively on danish magnates and soldiers. the complete identification of the danish king with the danish people was accomplished at the _herredag_ of copenhagen, 1542, when the nobility of denmark voted christian a twentieth part of all their property to pay off his heavy debt to the holsteiners and germans. the pivot of the foreign policy of christian iii. was his alliance with the german evangelical princes, as a counterpoise to the persistent hostility of charles v., who was determined to support the hereditary claims of his nieces, the daughters of christian ii., to the scandinavian kingdoms. war was actually declared against charles v. in 1542, and, though the german protestant princes proved faithless allies, the closing of the sound against dutch shipping proved such an effective weapon in king christian's hand that the netherlands compelled charles v. to make peace with denmark at the diet of spires, the 23rd of may 1544. the foreign policy of christian's later days was regulated by the peace of spires. he carefully avoided all foreign complications; refused to participate in the schmalkaldic war of 1546; mediated between the emperor and saxony after the fall of maurice of saxony at the battle of sievershausen in 1553, and contributed essentially to the conclusion of peace. king christian iii. died on new year's day 1559. though not perhaps a great, he was, in the fullest sense of the word, a good ruler. a strong sense of duty, genuine piety, and a cautious but by no means pusillanimous common-sense coloured every action of his patient, laborious and eventful life. but the work he left behind him is the best proof of his statesmanship. he found denmark in ruins; he left her stronger and wealthier than she had ever been before. see _danmarks riges historie_, vol. 3 (copenhagen, 1897-1901); huitfeld, _king christian iii.'s historie_ (copenhagen, 1595); bain, _scandinavia_, cap. iv. v. (cambridge, 1905). (r. n. b.) christian iv. (1577-1648), king of denmark and norway, the son of frederick ii., king of denmark, and sophia of mecklenburg, was born at fredriksborg castle in 1577, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father (4th of april 1588), attaining his majority on the 17th of august 1596. on the 27th of november 1597 he married anne catherine, a daughter of joachim frederick, margrave of brandenburg. the queen died fourteen years later, after bearing christian six children. four years after her death the king privately wedded a handsome young gentlewoman, christina munk, by whom he had twelve children,--a connexion which was to be disastrous to denmark. the young king's court was one of the most joyous and magnificent in europe; yet he found time for work of the most various description, including a series of domestic reforms (see denmark: _history_). he also did very much for the national armaments. new fortresses were constructed under the direction of dutch engineers. the danish navy, which in 1596 consisted of but twenty-two vessels, in 1610 rose to sixty, some of them being built after christian's own designs. the formation of a national army was more difficult. christian had to depend mainly upon hired troops, supported by native levies recruited for the most part from the peasantry on the crown domains. his first experiment with his newly organized army was successful. in the war with sweden, generally known as the "kalmar war," because its chief operation was the capture by the danes of kalmar, the eastern fortress of sweden, christian compelled gustavus adolphus to give way on all essential points (treaty of knared, 20th of january 1613). he now turned his attention to germany. his object was twofold: first, to obtain the control of the great german rivers the elbe and the weser, as a means of securing his dominion of the northern seas; and secondly, to acquire the secularized german bishoprics of bremen and werden as appanages for his younger sons. he skilfully took advantage of the alarm of the german protestants after the battle of white hill in 1620, to secure the coadjutorship to the see of bremen for his son frederick (september 1621), a step followed in november by a similar arrangement as to werden; while hamburg by the compact of steinburg (july 1621) was induced to acknowledge the danish overlordship of holstein. the growing ascendancy of the catholics in north germany in and after 1623 almost induced christian, for purely political reasons, to intervene directly in the thirty years' war. for a time, however, he stayed his hand, but the urgent solicitations of the western powers, and, above all, his fear lest gustavus adolphus should supplant him as the champion of the protestant cause, finally led him to plunge into war against the combined forces of the emperor and the league, without any adequate guarantees of co-operation from abroad. on the 9th of may 1625 christian quitted denmark for the front. he had at his disposal from 19,000 to 25,000 men, and at first gained some successes; but on the 27th of august 1626 he was utterly routed by tilly at lutter-am-barenberge, and in the summer of 1627 both tilly and wallenstein, ravaging and burning, occupied the duchies and the whole peninsula of jutland. in his extremity christian now formed an alliance with sweden (1st of january 1628), whereby gustavus adolphus pledged himself to assist denmark with a fleet in case of need, and shortly afterwards a swedo-danish army and fleet compelled wallenstein to raise the siege of stralsund. thus the possession of a superior sea-power enabled denmark to tide over her worst difficulties, and in may 1629 christian was able to conclude peace with the emperor at lubeck, without any diminution of territory. christian iv. was now a broken man. his energy was temporarily paralysed by accumulated misfortunes. not only his political hopes, but his domestic happiness had suffered shipwreck. in the course of 1628 he discovered a scandalous intrigue of his wife, christina munk, with one of his german officers; and when he put her away she endeavoured to cover up her own disgrace by conniving at an intrigue between vibeke kruse, one of her discharged maids, and the king. in january 1630 the rupture became final, and christina retired to her estates in jutland. meanwhile christian openly acknowledged vibeke as his mistress, and she bore him a numerous family. vibeke's children were of course the natural enemies of the children of christina munk, and the hatred of the two families was not without influence on the future history of denmark. between 1629 and 1643, however, christian gained both in popularity and influence. during that period he obtained once more the control of the foreign policy of denmark as well as of the sound tolls, and towards the end of it he hoped to increase his power still further with the assistance of his sons-in-law, korfits ulfeld and hannibal sehested, who now came prominently forward. even at the lowest ebb of his fortunes christian had never lost hope of retrieving them, and between 1629 and 1643 the european situation presented infinite possibilities to politicians with a taste for adventure. unfortunately, with all his gifts, christian was no statesman, and was incapable of a consistent policy. he would neither conciliate sweden, henceforth his most dangerous enemy, nor guard himself against her by a definite system of counter-alliances. by mediating in favour of the emperor, after the death of gustavus adolphus in 1632, he tried to minimize the influence of sweden in germany, and did glean some minor advantages. but his whole scandinavian policy was so irritating and vexatious that swedish statesmen made up their minds that a war with denmark was only a question of time; and in the spring of 1643 it seemed to them that the time had come. they were now able, thanks to their conquests in the thirty years' war, to attack denmark from the south as well as the east; the dutch alliance promised to secure them at sea, and an attack upon denmark would prevent her from utilizing the impending peace negotiations to the prejudice of sweden. in may the swedish _riksrad_ decided upon war; on the 12th of december the swedish marshal lennart torstensson, advancing from bohemia, crossed the northern frontier of denmark; by the end of january 1644 the whole peninsula of jutland was in his possession. this totally unexpected attack, conducted from first to last with consummate ability and lightning-like rapidity, had a paralysing effect upon denmark. fortunately, in the midst of almost universal helplessness and confusion, christian iv. knew his duty and had the courage to do it. in his sixty-sixth year he once more displayed something of the magnificent energy of his triumphant youth. night and day he laboured to levy armies and equip fleets. fortunately too for him, the swedish government delayed hostilities in scania till february 1644, so that the danes were able to make adequate defensive preparations and save the important fortress of malmo. torstensson, too, was unable to cross from jutland to funen for want of a fleet, and the dutch auxiliary fleet which came to his assistance was defeated between the islands of sylt and ronno on the west coast of schleswig by the danish admirals. another attempt to transport torstensson and his army to the danish islands by a large swedish fleet was frustrated by christian iv. in person on the 1st of july 1644. on that day the two fleets encountered off kolberge heath, s.e. of kiel bay, and christian displayed a heroism which endeared him ever after to the danish nation and made his name famous in song and story. as he stood on the quarter-deck of the "trinity" a cannon close by was exploded by a swedish bullet, and splinters of wood and metal wounded the king in thirteen places, blinding one eye and flinging him to the deck. but he was instantly on his feet again, cried with a loud voice that it was well with him, and set every one an example of duty by remaining on deck till the fight was over. darkness at last separated the contending fleets; and though the battle was a drawn one, the danish fleet showed its superiority by blockading the swedish ships in kiel bay. but the swedish fleet escaped, and the annihilation of the danish fleet by the combined navies of sweden and holland, after an obstinate fight between fehmarn and laaland at the end of september, exhausted the military resources of denmark and compelled christian to accept the mediation of france and the united provinces; and peace was finally signed at bromsebro on the 8th of february 1645. the last years of the king were still further embittered by sordid differences with his sons-in-law, especially with the most ambitious of them, korfits ulfeld. on the 21st of february 1648, at his earnest request, he was carried in a litter from fredriksborg to his beloved copenhagen, where he died a week later. christian iv. was a good linguist, speaking, besides his native tongue, german, latin, french and italian. naturally cheerful and hospitable, he delighted in lively society; but he was also passionate, irritable and sensual. he had courage, a vivid sense of duty, an indefatigable love of work, and all the inquisitive zeal and inventive energy of a born reformer. yet, though of the stuff of which great princes are made, he never attained to greatness. his own pleasure, whether it took the form of love or ambition, was always his first consideration. in the heyday of his youth his high spirits and passion for adventure enabled him to surmount every obstacle with _elan_. but in the decline of life he reaped the bitter fruits of his lack of self-control, and sank into the grave a weary and broken-hearted old man. see _life_ (dan.), by h.c. bering lusberg and a.l. larsen (copenhagen, 1890-1891); _letters_ (dan.), ed. carl frederik bricka and julius albert fridericia (copenhagen, 1878); _danmarks riges historie_, vol. 4 (copenhagen, 1897-1905); robert nisbet bain, _scandinavia_, cap. vii. (cambridge, 1905). (r. n. b.) christian v. (1646-1699), king of denmark and norway, the son of frederick iii. of denmark and sophia amelia of brunswick-luneburg, was born on the 15th of april 1646 at flensberg, and ascended the throne on the 9th of february 1670. he was a weak despot with an exaggerated opinion of his dignity and his prerogatives. almost his first act on ascending the throne was publicly to insult his consort, the amiable charlotte amelia of hesse-cassel, by introducing into court, as his officially recognized mistress, amelia moth, a girl of sixteen, the daughter of his former tutor, whom he made countess of samso. his personal courage and extreme affability made him highly popular among the lower orders, but he showed himself quite incapable of taking advantage permanently of the revival of the national energy, and the extraordinary overflow of native middle-class talent, which were the immediate consequences of the revolution of 1660. under the guidance of his great chancellor griffenfeldt, denmark seemed for a brief period to have a chance of regaining her former position as a great power. but in sacrificing griffenfeldt to the clamour of his adversaries, christian did serious injury to the monarchy. he frittered away the resources of the kingdom in the unremunerative swedish war of 1675-79, and did nothing for internal progress in the twenty years of peace which followed. he died in a hunting accident on the 25th of august 1699. see peter edvard holm, _danmarks indre historie under enevaelden_ (copenhagen, 1881-1886); adolf ditleva jorgensen, _peter griffenfeldt_ (copenhagen, 1893); robert nisbet bain, _scandinavia_ cap. x., xi. (cambridge, 1905). christian vii. (1749-1808), king of denmark and norway, was the son of frederick v., king of denmark, and his first consort louisa, daughter of george ii. of great britain. he became king on his father's death on the 14th of january 1766. all the earlier accounts agree that he had a winning personality and considerable talent, but he was badly educated, systematically terrorized by a brutal governor and hopelessly debauched by corrupt pages, and grew up a semi-idiot. after his marriage in 1766 with caroline matilda (1751-1775), daughter of frederick, prince of wales, he abandoned himself to the worst excesses. he ultimately sank into a condition of mental stupor, and became the obedient slave of the upstart struensee (q.v.). after the fall of struensee (the warrant for whose arrest he signed with indifference), for the last six-and-twenty years of his reign, he was only nominally king. he died on the 13th of march 1808. in 1772 the king's marriage with caroline matilda, who had been seized and had confessed to criminal familiarity with struensee, was dissolved, and the queen, retaining her title, passed her remaining days at celle, where she died on the 11th of may 1775. see e.s.f. reverdil, _struensee et la cour de copenhague, 1760-1772_ (paris, 1858); _danmarks riges historie_, vol. v. (copenhagen, 1897-1905); and for caroline matilda, sir f.c.l. wraxall, _life and times of queen caroline matilda_ (1864), and w.h. wilkins, _a queen of tears_ (1904). christian viii. (1786-1848), king of denmark and norway, the eldest son of the crown prince frederick and sophia frederica of mecklenburg-schwerin, was born on the 18th of september 1786 at christiansborg castle. he inherited the talents of his highly gifted mother, and his amiability and handsome features made him very popular in copenhagen. his unfortunate first marriage with his cousin charlotte frederica of mecklenburg-schwerin was dissolved in 1810. in may 1813 he was sent as stadtholder to norway to promote the loyalty of the northmen to the dynasty, which had been very rudely shaken by the disastrous results of frederick vi.'s adhesion to the falling fortunes of napoleon. he did all he could personally to strengthen the bonds between the norwegians and the royal house of denmark, and though his endeavours were opposed by the so-called swedish party, which desired a dynastic union with sweden, he placed himself at the head of the norwegian party of independence, and was elected regent of norway by an assembly of notables on the 16th of february 1814. this election was confirmed by a _storthing_ held at eidsvold on the 10th of april, and on the 17th of may christian was elected king of norway, despite the protests of the swedish party. christian next attempted to interest the great powers in his cause, but without success. on being summoned by the commissioners of the allied powers at copenhagen to bring about a union between norway and sweden in accordance with the terms of the treaty of kiel, and then return to denmark, he replied that, as a constitutional king, he could do nothing without the consent of the _storthing_, to the convocation of which a suspension of hostilities on the part of sweden was the condition precedent. sweden refusing christian's conditions, a short campaign ensued, in which christian was easily worsted by the superior skill and forces of the swedish crown prince (bernadotte). the brief war was finally concluded by the convention of moss on the 14th of august 1814 (see norway: _history_). henceforth christian's suspected democratic principles made him _persona ingratissima_ at all the reactionary european courts, his own court included, and he and his second wife, caroline amelia of augustenburg, whom he married in 1815, lived in comparative retirement as the leaders of the literary and scientific society of copenhagen. it was not till 1831 that old king frederick gave him a seat in the council of state. on the 13th of december 1839 he ascended the danish throne as christian viii. the liberal party had high hopes of "the giver of constitutions," but he disappointed his admirers by steadily rejecting every liberal project. administrative reform was the only reform he would promise. he died of blood-poisoning on the 20th of january 1848. see just matthias thiele, _christian den ottende_ (copenhagen, 1848); yngvar nielsen, _bidrag til norges historie_ (christiania, 1882-1886). christian ix. (1818-1906), king of denmark, was a younger son of william, duke of schleswig-holstein-sonderburg-glucksburg (d. 1831), a direct descendant of the danish king christian iii. by his wife louise, a daughter of charles, prince of hesse-cassel (d. 1836), and grand-daughter of king frederick v. born at gottorp on the 8th of april 1818, christian entered the army, and alone among the members of his family served with the danish troops in schleswig during the insurrection of 1848; but he was a personage of little importance until about 1852, ten years after his marriage with louise (1817-1898), daughter of william, prince of hesse-cassel (d. 1867), and cousin of king frederick vii. at this time it became imperative that satisfactory provision should be made for the succession to the danish throne. the reigning king, frederick vii., was childless, and the representatives of the great powers met in london and settled the crown on prince christian and his wife (may 1852), an arrangement which became part of the law of denmark in 1853. the "protocol king," as christian was sometimes called, ascended the throne on frederick's death in november 1863, and was at once faced by formidable difficulties. reluctantly he assented to the policy which led to war with the combined power of austria and prussia, and to the separation of the duchies of schleswig, holstein and lauenburg from denmark (see schleswig-holstein question). within the narrowed limits of his kingdom christian's difficulties were more protracted and hardly less serious. during almost the whole of his reign the danes were engaged in a political struggle between the "right" and the "left," the party of order and the party of progress, the former being supported in general by the _landsting_, and the latter by the _folketing_. the king's sympathies lay with the more conservative section of his subjects, and for many years he was successful in preventing the radicals from coming into office. the march of events, however, was too strong for him, and in 1901 he assented in a dignified manner to the formation of a "cabinet of the left" (see denmark: _history_). in spite of these political disturbances christian's popularity with his people grew steadily, and was enhanced by the patriarchal and unique position which in his later years he occupied in europe. with his wife, often called "the aunt of all europe," he was related to nearly all the european sovereigns. his eldest son frederick had married a daughter of charles xv. of sweden; his second son george had been king of the hellenes since 1863; and his youngest son waldemar (b. 1858) was married to marie d'orleans, daughter of robert, duc de chartres. of his three daughters, alexandra married edward vii. of great britain; dagmar (marie), the tsar alexander iii.; and thyra, ernest augustus, duke of cumberland. one of his grandsons, charles, became king of norway as haakon vii. in 1905, and another, constantine, crown prince of greece, married a sister of the german emperor william ii. christian was also the ruler of iceland, where he was received with great enthusiasm when he visited the island in 1874. he died at copenhagen on the 29th of january 1906, and was buried at roskilde. see barfod, _kong kristian ix.'s regerings-dagbog_ (copenhagen, 1876); and _hans majestet kong kristian ix._ (copenhagen, 1888).