History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by S. A. Dunham

Many of Christopher’s disaffected subjects had been silent through fear: now that he was vanquished, he was assailed by one universal complaint. The nobles demanded their fiefs, the creditors their money, the people a removal of taxation; and all bitterly complained of his breach of faith, though that breach was the unavoidable result of his position. Revolt became general; and when the states met he was solemnly deposed, the reason assigned for this measure being “the intolerable abuse which he had made of his authority.” When Christopher received this intelligence, he was in Zealand with his son; at the same time he learned that count Gerard was advancing. To repel the invader Eric marched with the disposable troops; but he was defeated, betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and consigned to a dungeon. With the loss of that son, his colleague on the throne, he lost all hope of present resistance; and with two younger sons he precipitately left the kingdom. At Rostock he procured aid from Henry of Mecklenburg and some Vandalic princes, and returned to struggle for his rights. He reduced a fortress, but this success did not render the states more favourable; they persisted in their resolution to elect another sovereign. Besieged and taken by Gerard, he was allowed to retire into Germany. He made another attempt, with equal want of success, was again taken, and again set free, on the condition of his retiring to Rostock.

|1326 to 1328.|

The states assembled at Nyburg to elect a king made choice of Valdemar, duke of Sleswic, still a minor,—the chief cause, no doubt, of his election, since there must be a regency, and the most powerful might hope to participate in the public spoils. Gerard was the head of the regency: half a dozen other nobles were joined with him, and all were eager to derive the utmost advantage from a tenure of dignity which must evidently be brief. Gerard obtained the duchy of Sleswic, in perpetuity. Count John of Holstein was invested with the islands of Laland, Falster, and Femeren. Canute Porse, who by Christopher had been created duke of North Halland, and who yet had been one of the first to desert that unfortunate king, was confirmed in the fief in addition to South Halland: it was no longer to be revocable, but descend to his posterity. The archbishop of Lunden obtained Bornholm; another noble had Colding and Rypen; a third, Langeland and Arroe; in short, the whole country was parcelled out into petty principalities, which, though feudally subject to the crown, would be virtually so many sovereignties. These measures could not fail to displease all who had any love for their country: a dozen tyrants were more tyrannical, more rapacious than one; and pity began to be felt for the absent Christopher. That prince was not inactive in his retirement at Rostock. By the most lavish promises he obtained succours of men and money from some of his allies; and many of his own nobles, among whom were the primate and the bishops, engaged to join him as soon as he landed in Denmark. He did land, and was joined by the bishops of Aarhus and Rypen, by many nobles, and enabled to obtain some advantages over the regents. But he had not learned wisdom by adversity. One of his allies, count John of Holstein, he converted into a deadly enemy; and he offended the church by arresting the bishop of Borglum. The prelate escaped by corrupting his guard, and hastened to Rome to add the pope to the other enemies of Christopher. The kingdom was immediately placed under an interdict.

|1329 to 1331.|

In this emergency, Christopher endeavoured to prevent his expulsion from the realm by resorting to the same means of bribery that he had before adopted. To pacify count John, he ceded to him Zealand and part of Scania, in addition to Laland and Falster, which he still held. By grants equally prodigal, and equally ruinous to the state, he endeavoured to secure the aid of other nobles. So well did he succeed, that Gerard, abandoned by many supporters, sued for peace. The articles were signed at Rypen in 1330. Valdemar was sent back to Sleswic; but the reversion to the duchy was secured to Gerard in the event of Valdemar’s dying without heirs male. As this was merely a future and contingent advantage, Fionia was placed in his hands until Sleswic should become his by inheritance; and for that island he was to become the vassal of the Danish crown. Nor was this all: he was to hold the whole of Jutland by way of pledge until reimbursed for the expenses of the war, which he estimated at forty thousand marks.

|1331 to 1332.|

This tranquillity was of short duration. The two counts, Gerard and John, quarrelled; and Christopher, instead of remaining neuter, espoused the cause of the latter. He was defeated by Gerard; and the greater part of Jutland withdrew from him to swell the cause of the victor. His only resource was now to throw himself on the generosity of the other, who professed his willingness to make peace in return for one hundred thousand marks; and until that sum (immense for those days) were paid, he was to hold Jutland. The two counts also treated with each other, John surrendering to Gerard one half of the debt on Fionia; and they agreed to guarantee each other in the acquisitions which they had made, that is, in the dismemberment of the realm. At the same time Scania escaped for a season from the sceptre of the Danish kings. That province had passed into the hands of John, count of Holstein, through the inability of the crown to discharge the loans which had been borrowed on it. Holstein collectors therefore overran it to collect the revenues claimed by the representative of the creditors. They were even more unpopular than those of the king had been; and the natives not unfrequently arose to massacre them. Three hundred were at one time put to death in the cathedral of Lund. To escape chastisement the inhabitants looked, not to Christopher, who was helpless as an infant, and whom they distrusted, but to Magnus king of Sweden. Him they proposed to recognise as their sovereign, on the condition of his defending them against the counts of Holstein. It is almost needless to add that Magnus joyfully availed himself of the opportunity of obtaining a province which was geographically within the limits of his kingdom, and which had always been an object of desire to his predecessors. He received the homage of the whole country, and sent forces to defend it. Instead of drawing the sword to recover it, John sold his interest in it, and all claim to its government or revenues, for thirty-four thousand marks—a sum which Magnus readily paid him. The latter had now a double right to the province—that of voluntary submission, and that of purchase.

|1332, 1333.|

In the last year of Christopher’s life, two of his nobles, in the view of obtaining the favour of the Holstein family, entered into a plot for his assassination. They set fire to his house, seized him as he was escaping, and bore him to a fortress in the isle of Laland, which belonged to count John. That nobleman, however, no longer feared a prince who had fallen into universal contempt, and whose cause was hopeless. He therefore ordered him to be released. The following year Christopher died a natural death, after the most disastrous reign in the annals of the kingdom.—By his wife Euphemia, daughter of Bogislas, duke of Pomerania, he had three sons and three daughters. Eric, the eldest, preceded him to the tomb; Otho ultimately became a knight of the Teutonic order; Valdemar, after a short interregnum, succeeded him. Of his daughters two died in youth; but the eldest, Margaret, was married to Ludovic of Brandenburg, son of the emperor Ludovic of Bavaria.

INTERREGNUM.