June 9, 1640: Birth of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

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Archduke of Austria, Bohemia and Croatia, Holy Roman Emperor, House of Habsburg, King of Hungary, Leopold I, Peace of Westphalia, Philip IV of Spain, Thirty Years War, War of the Spanish Succession

Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Felician; June 9, 1640 – May 5, 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Archduchess Margaret of Austria, prior to her Imperial marriage she was considered a possible wife for Charles, Prince of Wales; the event, later known in history as the “Spanish Match.”

Born on June 9, 1640 in Vienna, Leopold received the traditional program of education in the liberal arts, history, literature, natural science and astronomy. He was particularly interested in music, as his father emperor Ferdinand III had been. From an early age Leopold showed an inclination toward learning. He became fluent in Latin, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. In addition to German, Italian would be the most favored language at his court.

Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 after the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia (1633 – 1654).

Elected in 1658, Leopold I ruled the Holy Roman Empire until his death in 1705, becoming the longest-ruling Habsburg emperor (46 years and 9 months). He was both a composer and considerable patron of music.

Leopold’s reign is known for conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the Great Turkish War (1683-1699) and rivalry with Louis XIV, a contemporary and first cousin (on the maternal side; fourth cousin on the paternal side), in the west. After more than a decade of warfare, Leopold emerged victorious in the east thanks to the military talents of Prince Eugene of Savoy. By the Treaty of Karlowitz, Leopold recovered almost all of the Kingdom of Hungary, which had fallen under Turkish power in the years after the 1526 Battle of Mohács.

Leopold fought three wars against France: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years’ War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. In this last, Leopold sought to give his younger son Charles the entire Spanish inheritance, disregarding the will of the late Carlos II. Leopold started a war that soon engulfed much of Europe.

The early years of the war went fairly well for Austria, with victories at Schellenberg and Blenheim, but the war would drag on until 1714, nine years after Leopold’s death, which barely had an effect on the warring nations. When peace returned with the Treaty of Rastatt, Austria could not be said to have emerged as triumphant as it had from the war against the Turks.

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 (8 years after the birth of Emperor Leopold) had been a political defeat for the Habsburgs. It ended the idea that Europe was a single Christian empire; governed spiritually by the Pope and temporally by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Moreover, the treaty was devoted to parceling out land and influence to the “winners”, the anti-Habsburg alliance led by France and Sweden. However, the Habsburgs did gain some benefits out of the wars; the Protestant aristocracy in Habsburg territories had been decimated, and the ties between Vienna and the Habsburg domains in Bohemia and elsewhere were greatly strengthened.

These changes would allow Leopold to initiate necessary political and institutional reforms during his reign to develop somewhat of an absolutist state along French lines. The most important consequences of the war was in retrospect to weaken the Habsburgs as Holy Roman Emperors but strengthen them in their own hereditary lands, such as Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia.

In 1692, the Duke Ernst August of Hanover was raised to the rank of an Imperial Elector, becoming the ninth member of the electoral college. In 1700, Leopold, greatly in need of help for the impending war with France, granted the title of King in Prussia to the Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg. The net result of these and similar changes was to continue to weaken the authority of the emperor over the members of the Empire and to compel him to rely more and more upon his position as ruler of the Austrian Archduchy and of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia.

In 1666, Leopard married his first cousin and niece Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain (1651–1673), daughter and first child of King Felipe IV of Spain born from his second marriage with his niece Infanta Mariana of Austria.

His second wife was Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria, the first child and eldest daughter of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol, by his wife and first-cousin Anna de’ Medici. On her father’s side, her grandparents were Leopold V, Archduke of Further Austria and his wife Claudia de’ Medici (after which she received her first name); on her mother’s side, her grandparents were Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his wife Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria.

His third wife was Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg. She was the oldest of 17 children born from Philipp Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and Duke of Jülich-Berg and his second wife, Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. On her father’s side her grandparents were Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and his first wife, Magdalene of Bavaria. On her mother’s side, her grandparents were Georg II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Sophia Eleonore of Saxony.

June 6, 1654: Abdication of Queen Christina of Sweden. Part I

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Abdication, Holy Roman Empire, House of Hohenzollern, House of Vasa, House of Wittelsbach, King Gustaf II Adolph of Sweden, Maria Eleonora of Prussia, Queen Christina of Sweden, Thirty Years War

Christina (December 18, 1626 – April 19, 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustaf II Adolph upon his death at the Battle of Lützen in 1632, but began ruling the Swedish Empire when she reached the age of eighteen in 1644.

Christina was born in the royal castle Tre Kronor. Her parents were the Swedish king Gustaf II Adolph and his German wife, Maria Eleonorana of the House of Hohenzollern and a daughter of Johann Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, and Anna, Duchess of Prussia, daughter of Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of Prussia.

In 1620, Maria Eleonora married Gustaf II Adolph with her mother’s consent, but against the will of her brother Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg.

They had already had three children: two daughters (a stillborn princess in 1621, then the first Princess Christina, who was born in 1623 and died the following year) and a stilborn son in May 1625.

Excited expectations surrounded Maria Eleonora’s fourth pregnancy in 1626. When the baby was born, it was first thought to be a boy as it was “hairy” and screamed “with a strong, hoarse voice.”

She later wrote in her autobiography that, “Deep embarrassment spread among the women when they discovered their mistake.” The king, though, was very happy, stating, “She’ll be clever, she has made fools of us all!” From most accounts, Gustaf II Adolph appears to have been closely attached to his daughter, and she appears to have admired him greatly.

The Crown of Sweden was hereditary in the House of Vasa, but from King Carl IX’s time onward (reigned 1604–11), it excluded Vasa princes descended from a deposed brother (Eric XIV of Sweden) and a deposed nephew (Sigismund III of Poland). Gusta II Adolph’s legitimate younger brothers had died years earlier.

The one legitimate female left, his half-sister Catharine, came to be excluded in 1615 when she married a non-Lutheran. So Christina became the undisputed heir presumptive. From Christina’s birth, King Gustaf II Adolph recognized her eligibility even as a female heir, and although called “queen”, the official title she held as of her coronation by the Riksdag in February 1633 was king.

Before Gustaf II Adolph left for the Holy Roman Empire to defend Protestantism in the Thirty Years’ War, he secured his daughter’s right to inherit the throne, in case he never returned, and gave orders to Axel Gustafsson Banér, his marshal, that Christina should receive an education of the type normally only afforded to boys.

Christina was educated as a royal male would have been. The theologian Johannes Matthiae Gothus became her tutor; he gave her lessons in religion, philosophy, Greek and Latin. Chancellor Oxenstierna taught her politics and discussed Tacitus with her. Oxenstierna wrote proudly of the 14-year-old girl that, “She is not at all like a female” and that she had “a bright intelligence”. Christina seemed happy to study ten hours a day. Besides Swedish she learned at least seven other languages: German, Dutch, Danish, French, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew.

Already at the age of nine Christina was impressed by the Catholic religion and the merits of celibacy. She read a biography on the virgin queen Elizabeth I of England with interest. Christina understood that it was expected of her to provide an heir to the Swedish throne.

Her first cousin Carl Gustaf of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg was infatuated with her, and they became secretly engaged before he left in 1642 to serve in the Swedish army in the Holy Roman Empire for three years.

Carl Gustaf was the son of the Johann Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg of the Bavarian Wittelsbach family and Catherine of Sweden. Catherine of Sweden was the daughter of King Cark IX of Sweden and his first spouse Maria of the Palatinate-Simmern (also a member of the Wittelsbach family).

Christina revealed in her autobiography that she felt “an insurmountable distaste for marriage” and “for all the things that females talked about and did.” She once stated, “It takes more courage to marry than to go to war.

On February 26, 1649, Christina announced that she had decided not to marry and instead wanted her first cousin Carl to be heir to the throne. While the nobility objected to this, the three other estates – clergy, burghers, and peasants – accepted it. The coronation took place on October 22, 1650.

April 12, 1577: Birth of Christian IV, King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein

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Absolute Monarchy, Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, Hans of Denmark, Hereditary Monarchy, King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, Thirty Years War

Christian IV (April 12, 1577 – February 28, 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1588 to 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs, and of all Scandinavian monarchies. Christian IV was a member of the House of Oldenburg.

Christian was born at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark on April 12, 1577 as the third child and eldest son of King Frederik II of Denmark–Norway and Sofie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the daughter of Duke Ulrich III of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Princess Elizabeth of Denmark (a daughter of Frederik I and Sophie of Pomerania). Through her father, a grandson of Elizabeth of Denmark, she descended from King Hans of Denmark.

Christian IV was descended, through his mother’s side, from king Hans of Denmark, and was thus the first descendant of King Hans to assume the crown since the deposition of King Christian II.

At the time, Denmark was still an elective monarchy, so in spite of being the eldest son, Christian was not automatically heir to the throne. But Norway was an hereditary monarchy, and electing someone else would result in the end of the union of the crowns. However, in 1580, at the age of 3, his father had him elected Prince-Elect and successor to the throne of Denmark.

At the death of his father on April 4, 1588, Christian was 11 years old. He succeeded to the throne, as Christian IV but as he was still under-age a regency council was set up to serve as the trustees of the royal power while Christian was still growing up. His mother Queen Dowager Sophie, 30 years old, had wished to play a role in the government, but was denied by the Council.

Christian IV began his personal rule of Denmark in 1596 at the age of 19. He is remembered as one of the most popular, ambitious, and proactive Danish kings, having initiated many reforms and projects.

Christian met Anne Catherine of Brandenburg on his journey in Germany in 1595 and desired to marry her.

Anne Catherine parents were Joachim Friedrich Margrave of Brandenburg and his first wife Catherine of Brandenburg-Küstrin. In 1596, Anne Catherine and her parents were present at his coronation, and the next year, the marriage was arranged.

On November 30, 1597, Christian IV married Anne Catherine of Brandenburg. They had six children, among them Christian, the Prince-Elect, who died a year before his father, and Frederik III who introduced hereditary and absolute monarchy in Denmark. Her son, Ulrik, was murdered in 1633. Their two daughters, Sophia and Elisabeth, and the elder son, Frederik, died at a very young age.

Christian IV had obtained for his kingdom a level of stability and wealth that was virtually unmatched elsewhere in Europe. Denmark was funded by tolls on the Øresund and also by extensive war-reparations from Sweden.

Christian IV spent more time in the kingdom of Norway than any other Oldenburg monarch and no Oldenburg king made such a lasting impression on the Norwegian people. He visited the country a number of times and founded four cities.

Denmark’s intervention in the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) was aided by France and by Charles I of England, who agreed to help subsidise the war partly because Christian was the uncle of both the Stuart king and his sister Elizabeth of Bohemia through their mother, Anne of Denmark. Some 13,700 Scottish soldiers were to be sent as allies to help Christian IV under the command of General Robert Maxwell, 1st Earl of Nithsdale.

Denmark’s involvement in the Thirty Years’ War, devastated much of Germany, undermined the Danish economy, and cost Denmark some of its conquered territories. He rebuilt and renamed the Norwegian capital Oslo as Christiania after himself, a name used until 1925.

His personal obsession with witchcraft led to the public execution of some of his subjects during the Burning Times. He was responsible for several witch burnings, including 21 people in Iceland, and most notably the conviction and execution of Maren Spliid, who was victim of a witch hunt at Ribe and was burned at the Gallows Hill near Ribe on November 9, 1641.

On February 21, 1648, at his earnest request, he was carried in a litter from Frederiksborg to his beloved Copenhagen, where he died a week later. He was buried in Roskilde Cathedral. The chapel of Christian IV had been completed 6 years before the King died.

February 16, 1620: Birth of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg

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Duke of Prussia, Edict of Nantes, Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William, House of Hohenzollern, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, The Great Elector, Thirty Years War

Friedrich Wilhelm (February 16, 1620 – April 29, 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as “the Great Elector” because of his military and political achievements.

Friedrich Wilhelm was a staunch pillar of the Calvinist faith, associated with the rising commercial class. He saw the importance of trade and promoted it vigorously. His shrewd domestic reforms gave Prussia a strong position in the post-Westphalian political order of north-central Europe, setting Prussia up for elevation from duchy to kingdom, achieved under his son and successor.

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was born in Berlin to Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, and Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Elizabeth Charlotte was the daughter of Friedrich IV, Elector Palatine, and Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau. Her brother Friedrich V became famous as the Elector-Palatine and “Winter King” of Bohemia. He was married to Princess Elizabeth (Stuart) of England and they were the grand parents of George I, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover. The descendants of both Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg and George I of Great Britain would intermarry in the next several generations.

Friedrich Wilhelm’s inheritance consisted of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Duchy of Cleves, the County of Mark, and the Duchy of Prussia.

Foreign diplomacy

Following the Thirty Years’ War that devastated much of the Holy Roman Empire, Friedrich Wilhelm focused on rebuilding his war-ravaged territories. Brandenburg-Prussia benefited from his policy of religious tolerance and he used French subsidies to build up an army that took part in the 1655 to 1660 Second Northern War.

This ended with the treaties of Labiau, Wehlau, Bromberg and Oliva; they removed Swedish control of the Duchy of Prussia, which meant he held it direct from the Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1672, Friedrich Wilhelm joined the Franco-Dutch War as an ally of the Dutch Republic, led by his nephew Willem III of Orange but made peace with France in the June 1673 Treaty of Vossem. Although he rejoined the anti-French alliance in 1674, this left him diplomatically isolated; despite conquering much of Swedish Pomerania during the Scanian War, he was obliged to return most of it to Sweden in the 1679 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Friedrich Wilhelm was a military commander of wide renown, and his standing army would later become the model for the Prussian Army. He is notable for his joint victory with Swedish forces at the Battle of Warsaw, which, according to Hajo Holborn, marked “the beginning of Prussian military history”, but the Swedes turned on him at the behest of King Louis XIV and invaded Brandenburg.

After marching 250 kilometres in 15 days back to Brandenburg, he caught the Swedes by surprise and managed to defeat them on the field at the Battle of Fehrbellin, destroying the myth of Swedish military invincibility. He later destroyed another Swedish army that invaded the Duchy of Prussia during the Great Sleigh Drive in 1678.

Luise Henriette of Nassau, Electress of Brandenburg

Friedrich Wilhelm is noted for his use of broad directives and delegation of decision-making to his commanders, which would later become the basis for the German doctrine of Auftragstaktik, and for using rapid mobility to defeat his foes.

Domestic policies

Friedrich Wilhelm raised an army of 45,000 soldiers by 1678, through the General War Commissariat presided over by Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal. He was an advocate of mercantilism, monopolies, subsidies, tariffs, and internal improvements.

Following Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Friedrich Wilhelm encouraged skilled French and Walloon Huguenots to emigrate to Brandenburg-Prussia with the Edict of Potsdam, bolstering the country’s technical and industrial base.

On Blumenthal’s advice he agreed to exempt the nobility from taxes and in return they agreed to dissolve the Estates-General. He also simplified travel in Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia by connecting riverways with canals, a system that was expanded by later Prussian architects, such as Georg Steenke; the system is still in use today.

Legacy

In his half-century reign, 1640–1688, the Great Elector transformed the small remote state of Prussia into a great power by augmenting and integrating the Hohenzollern family possessions in northern Germany and Prussia. When he became elector (ruler) of Brandenburg in 1640, the country was in ruins from the Thirty Years War; it had lost half its population from war, disease and emigration.

The capital Berlin had only 6,000 people left when the wars ended in 1648. He united the multiple separate domains that his family had acquired primarily by marriage over the decades, and built the powerful unified state of Prussia out of them. His success in rebuilding the lands and his astute military and diplomatic leadership propelled him into the ranks of the prominent rulers in an era of “absolutism”.

Historians compare him to his contemporaries such as Louis XIV of France (1643–1715), Peter I the Great of Russia (1682–1725) and Carl XI of Sweden (1660–1697).

On December 7, 1646 in The Hague, Friedrich Wilhelm entered into a marriage, proposed by Blumenthal as a partial solution to the Jülich-Berg question, with Luise Henriette of Nassau (1627–1667), daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and his 1st cousin once removed through Willem the Silent.

On June 13, 1668 in Gröningen, Friedrich Wilhelm married Sophie Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, daughter of Philipp, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Lauenburg.

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was succeeded by his son, Friedrich, by his first wife Luise Henriette of Nassau.

Friedrich III , Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function he upgaded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia (Friedrich I, 1701–1713).

February 15, 1637: Accession of Holy Emperor Ferdinand III

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Archduke of Austria, Charles I of England, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King of Hungary and Croatia, Thirty Years War

Ferdinand III (Ferdinand Ernest; July 13, 1608 – April 2, 1657) was Archduke of Austria from 1621, King of Hungary from 1625, King of Croatia and Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 until his death in 1657.

Ferdinand was born in Graz as third son of Holy Emperor Ferdinand II and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria, she was the fourth child and second (but eldest surviving) daughter of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria and Renata of Lorraine.

Ferdinand was baptised as Ferdinand Ernst. He grew up in Carinthia with loving care from his parents and he developed great affection for his siblings and his father, with whom he always found a consensus in future disagreements. At his father’s court he received religious and scholarly training from Jesuits.

Ferdinand III was elected King of the Romans at the Diet of Regensburg on December 22, 1636. Upon the death of his father on February 15, 1637, Ferdinand became Emperor. His political adviser Trauttmansdorff advanced to the position of Prime Minister of Austria and Chief diplomat, but was replaced by Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar in 1647 as his health had begun to deteriorate.

When Ferdinand ascended the throne it was the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years’ War and introduced lenient policies to depart from old ideas of divine rights under his father, as he had wished to end the war quickly.

As the numerous battles had not resulted in sufficient military containment of the Protestant enemies and confronted with decaying Imperial power Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects in order to open the long road towards the much delayed peace treaty. Although his authority among the Imperial Princes was weakened after the war, in the Kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary and the Archduchy Austria, however, Ferdinand’s position as sovereign was uncontested.

Further, Ferdinand III’s sovereign power in the Austrian hereditary lands, as well his royal power in Hungary and Bohemia was significantly greater than that of his predecessor before 1618. Princely power was strengthened, while the influence of the estates was massively reduced. The church reform towards the Counter-reformation continued.

Emperor Ferdinand III was the first Habsburg monarch to be recognized as a musical composer.

Emperor Ferdinand III first married the Spanish Infanta, his cousin Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria and thus the paternal granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. They were first cousins as male-line grandchildren of Charles II, Archduke of Austria, and Maria Anna of Bavaria.

Prior to her Imperial marriage Infanta Maria Anna of Spain was considered a possible wife for Charles, Prince of Wales; the event, later known in history as the “Spanish Match”, provoked a domestic and political crisis in the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.

Although in the middle of the war, this elaborate wedding was celebrated over a period of fourteen months. The marriage produced six children, including his successors, Ferdinand IV, King of Hungary and Emperor Leopold I.

His loving and intelligent wife and her brother, the Spanish Cardinal Infant Ferdinand, had great influence on Ferdinand and formed the most important link between the Habsburg courts in Madrid, Brussels and Vienna in the difficult period of the war for Habsburg following the death of Wallenstein

The Empress Maria Anna of Spain had died giving birth to her last child on May 13, 1646. Emperor Ferdinand III remarried to another first cousin, Maria Leopoldine of Austria (1632-1649) on July 2, 1648. The wedding ceremony, held in Linz, was notably splendid. This marriage however lasted little more than a year, ending with Maria Leopoldine’s own premature death in childbirth.

Ferdinand III’s last marriage was to Eleonora Magdalena Gonzaga of Mantua-Nevers on April 30, 1651, Ferdinand III married Eleonora Gonzaga. She was a daughter of Charles IV Gonzaga, Duke of Rethel.

Empress Eleonora was very pious and donated, among other things, for the Ursuline monastery in Vienna and the Order of the Starry Cross for noble women. She was also well educated and interested in art. She also composed music and wrote poetry and together with Ferdinand was the centre of the Italian academy.

Emperor Ferdinand also brought about the royal election of his son, Ferdinand IV, King of Hungary as King of the Romans who, however died in 1654.

Because his second son Leopold was still too young to be elected as King of the Romans, Ferdinand delayed the opening as well as the conclusion of the Deputationstag following the Reichstag to gain time until the next election. After all, Leopold was crowned King of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1656, Ferdinand sent an army into Italy to assist Spain in her struggle with France.

Emperor Ferdinand III died on April 2, 1657, and rests in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna. His interior organs were separately buried in the Ducal Crypt.

October 8, 1656: Death of Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony

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Gustaf II Adolphus of Sweden, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, John George I of Saxony, Peace of Westphalia, Protestant and Catholic, The Winter King, Thirty Years War

Johann Georg I (5 March 1585 – 8 October 1656) was Elector of Saxony from 1611 to 1656.

Born in Dresden, Johann Georg belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin. He was the second son of the Elector Christian I of Saxony and Sophie of Brandenburg, daughter of the Elector Johann Georg of Brandenburg (1525–1598) by his second marriage with Sabina of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1548–1575), daughter of Margrave George of Brandenburg-Ansbach from his second marriage to Hedwig of Münsterberg-Oels (1508–1531).

Johann Georg succeeded to the electorate on June 23, 1611 on the death of his elder brother, Christian II. The geographical position of the Electorate of Saxony rather than her high standing among the German Protestants gave her ruler much importance during the Thirty Years’ War.

At the beginning of his reign, however, the new elector took up a somewhat detached position. His personal allegiance to Lutheranism was sound, but he liked neither the growing strength of Brandenburg nor the increasing prestige of the Palatinate; the adherence of the other branches of the Saxon ruling house to Protestantism seemed to him to suggest that the head of the Electorate of Saxony should throw his weight into the other scale, and he was prepared to favour the advances of the Habsburgs and the Roman Catholic party.

Thus Johann Georg was easily induced to vote for the election of Ferdinand, Archduke of Styria, as Emperor Ferdinand II in August of 1619, an action which nullified the anticipated opposition of the Protestant electors.

The new emperor secured the help of Johann Georg for the impending campaign in Bohemia by promising that he should be undisturbed in his possession of certain ecclesiastical lands. Carrying out his share of the bargain by occupying Silesia and Lusatia, where he displayed much clemency, the Saxon elector had thus some part in driving Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, (the Winter King of Bohemia) from Bohemia and in crushing Protestantism in that country, the crown of which he himself had previously refused.

Gradually, however, he was made uneasy by the obvious trend of the imperial policy towards the annihilation of Protestantism, and by a dread lest the ecclesiastical lands should be taken from him; and the issue of the edict of restitution in March 1629 put the capstone to his fears. Still, although clamouring vainly for the exemption of the electorate from the area covered by the edict, Johann Georg took no decisive measures to break his alliance with the emperor.

He did, indeed, in February 1631 call a meeting of Protestant princes at Leipzig, but in spite of the appeals of the preacher Matthias Hoe von Hohenegg (1580–1645) he contented himself with a formal protest.

Meanwhile, Gustaf II Adolphus of Sweden had landed in Germany, aiming to relieve Magdeburg. Gustaf II attempted to conclude an alliance with Johann Georg to allow him to cross the Elbe at Wittenberg, but Johann Georg remained hesitant to join the Protestant cause and the discussions went nowhere. Hoping that an alliance would be concluded eventually, Gustaf II avoided any military action.

Tilly, commander of the main imperial force, was also concerned about the possibility of an alliance, no matter how unlikely it was at the time. In order to preempt any such move, he invaded Saxony and started to ravage the countryside. This had the effect of driving Johann Georg into the alliance he had hoped to preempt, which was concluded in September 1631.

The Saxon troops were present at the battle of Breitenfeld, but were routed by the imperials, the Elector himself seeking safety in flight. Nevertheless, he soon took the offensive. Marching into Bohemia the Saxons occupied Prague, but Johann Georg soon began to negotiate for peace and consequently his soldiers offered little resistance to Wallenstein, who drove them back into Saxony.

However, for the present the efforts of Gustaf II Adolphus prevented the elector from deserting him, but the position was changed by the death of the king at Lützen in 1632, and the refusal of Saxony to join the Protestant league under Swedish leadership.

Still letting his troops fight in a desultory fashion against the imperials, Johann Georg again negotiated for peace, and in May 1635 he concluded the important treaty of Prague with Ferdinand II. His reward was Lusatia and certain other additions of territory; the retention by his son August of the archbishopric of Magdeburg; and some concessions with regard to the edict of restitution.

Almost at once he declared war upon the Swedes, but in October 1636 he was beaten at Wittstock; and Saxony, ravaged impartially by both sides, was soon in a deplorable condition. At length in September 1645 the elector was compelled to agree to a truce with the Swedes, who, however, retained Leipzig; and as far as Saxony was concerned this ended the Thirty Years’ War. After the Peace of Westphalia, which with regard to Saxony did little more than confirm the treaty of Prague, Johann Georg died on October 8, 1656.

Assessment

Although not without political acumen, Johann Georg was not a great ruler; his character appears to have been harsh and unlovely, and he was addicted to drink and other diversions such as hunting. Wallenstein held him in contempt saying on more than one occasion “have you seen how he lives “.

Family and children

Johann Georg I was married twice. In addition to his successor Johann Georg II, he left three sons, August (1614–1680), Christian (died 1691) and Maurice (died 1681).

In Dresden on September 16, 1604 Johann Georg married firstly Sibylle Elisabeth of Württemberg (1584 – 1606) the third of fifteen children of Friedrich I, Duke of Württemberg and Sibylla of Anhalt.

She died in the birth of their only child:

Stillborn son (Dresden, January 20, 1606).

In Torgau on July 19, 1607 Johann Georg married secondly Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia (1586 –1659) the daughter of Albert Friedrich, Duke of Prussia, and Marie Eleonore of Cleves. She is a 6th times great grandmother to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

They had ten children:

Stillborn son (Dresden, 18 July 1608)

Sophie Eleonore (Dresden, 23 November 1609 – Darmstadt, 2 June 1671), married on 1 April 1627 Landgrave Georg II of Hesse-Darmstadt

Marie Elisabeth (Dresden, 22 November 1610 – Husum, 24 October 1684), married on 21 February 1630 Duke Friedrich III of Holstein-Gottorp

Christian Albert (Dresden, 4 March 1612 – Dresden, 9 August 1612)

Johann Georg II (Dresden, 31 May 1613 – Freiberg, 22 August 1680), successor of his father as Elector of Saxony

August (Dresden, 13 August 1614 – Halle, 4 August 1680), inherited Weissenfels as Duke.

Christian I (Dresden, 27 October 1615 – Merseburg, 18 October 1691), inherited Merseburg as Duke

Magdalene Sibylle (Dresden, 23 December 1617 – Schloss Altenburg, 6 January 1668), married firstly on 5 October 1634 to Crown Prince Christian, eldest son and heir of King Christian IV of Denmark; and secondly, on 11 October 1652, to Duke Friedrich Wilhelm II of Saxe-Altenburg

Maurice (Dresden, 28 March 1619 – Moritzburg, 4 December 1681), inherited Zeitz as Duke

Heinrich (Dresden, 27 June 1622 – Dresden, 15 August 1622).

August 26, 1596: Birth of Friedrich V, King of Bohemia.

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Elizabeth Stuart, Frederick V of Bohemia, Frederick V of the Rhine, House of Habsburg, House of Wittelsbach, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), Thirty Years War

Friedrich V. (August 26, 1596 – November 29, 1632) was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet “the Winter King”.

Friedrich V was born at the Jagdschloss Deinschwang (a hunting lodge) near Amberg in the Upper Palatinate. He was the son of Friedrich IV and of Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau, the daughter of Willem I the Silent Prince of Orange and Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier. An intellectual, a mystic, and a Calvinist, he succeeded his father as Prince-Elector of the Rhenish Palatinate in 1610. He was responsible for the construction of the famous Hortus Palatinus gardens in Heidelberg.

Friedrich IV’s marriage policy had been designed to solidify the Palatinate’s position within the Reformed camp in Europe. Two of Frederick V’s sisters were married to leading Protestant princes: his sister Luise Juliane to his one-time guardian Johann II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, and his sister Elizabeth Charlotte to Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg. Friedrich IV had hoped that his daughter Katharina would marry the future King Gustaf II Adolph of Sweden, although this never came to pass.

In keeping with his father’s policy, Friedrich V sought a marriage to Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I-VI of England and Scotland. James had initially considered marrying Elizabeth to Louis XIII of France, but these plans were rejected by his advisors. Friedrich’s advisors in the Palatinate were worried that if Elizabeth were married to a Catholic prince, this would upset the confessional balance of Europe, and they were thus resolved that she should marry Friedrich V.

Hans Meinhard von Schönberg, who had served as Friedrich V’s Hofmeister since his return to Heidelberg, was sent to London to court the princess in spring 1612. After intense negotiations, a marriage contract was signed on May 26, 1612, over the objection of her mother, Queen Anne.

Friedrich V travelled to London to collect his bride, landing on English soil on October 16, 1612. Friedrich and Elizabeth, who had previously corresponded in French, now met each other for the first time, and got on well together. They were formally engaged in January 1613 and married on February 14, 1613 at the royal chapel at the Palace of Whitehall.

In 1618 the largely Protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against their Catholic King Ferdinand, triggering the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. Friedrich was asked to assume the crown of Bohemia. He accepted the offer and was crowned on 4 November 1619, as Friedrich I. The estates chose Friedrich since he was the leader of the Protestant Union, a military alliance founded by his father, and hoped for the support of Friedrich’s father-in-law, James I- VI of England and Scotland.

However, James opposed the takeover of Bohemia from the Habsburgs and Friedrich’s allies in the Protestant Union failed to support him militarily by signing the Treaty of Ulm (1620). His brief reign as King of Bohemia ended with his defeat at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620 – a year and four days after his coronation.

After the battle, the Imperial forces invaded Friedrich’s Palatine lands and he had to flee to his uncle Prince Maurice, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic in 1622. An Imperial edict formally deprived him of the Palatinate in 1623. He lived the rest of his life in exile with his wife and family, mostly at The Hague, and died in Mainz in 1632.

His eldest surviving son Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine, returned to power in 1648 with the end of the war. Another son was Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the most colourful figures of his time. His daughter Princess Sophia was eventually named heiress presumptive to the British throne, and is the founder of the Hanoverian line of kings.

Intermarriage between the Schwerin and Strelitz lines of the House of Mecklenburg. Part I.

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Adolf-Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Christian IV of Denmark, Duke of Mecklenburg, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Johann VII of Mecklenburg, Johann-Albert II of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Thirty Years War

From the Emperor’s Desk: In response to the post on the Birth of Adolph-Friedrich V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, I was asked if the Schwerin and Strelitz line of the House of Mecklenburg intermarried. So starting with today’s post I will examine this question in a short series. Today we begin with some back ground information.

Like many German territories, Mecklenburg was sometimes partitioned and re-partitioned among different members of the ruling dynasty. In 1621 Mecklenburg was divided into the two duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Güstrow.

Prior to the Duchy being divided in 1621 Mecklenburg was ruled by Johann VII of Mecklenburg (March 7, 1558 – March 22, 1592) (sometimes called Johann V, that will take another post to explain). Johann VII was the son of Johann-Albert I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Schwerin (1525–1576), and his wife Duchess Anna Sophia of Prussia (1527–1591). Johann was eighteen years old when his father died and he succeeded as the Duke of Mecklenburg. A regency council was appointed that ruled in his name for the next nine years.

The regency handed over the actual rule of his territories to him in 1585. He immediately faced problems that he was ill-equipped to deal with, including massive debt and his uncle Christopher’s demands for territorial concessions. After an especially harsh argument with his uncle, he committed suicide.

Johann VII, Duke of Mecklenburg.

On February 17, 1588 Johann married Sophia (1569 – 1634), a daughter of Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and his wife Christine of Hesse. They had three children:
* Adolf Frederick I (1588 – 1658). Through Adolf-Friedrich I would spring both the Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz lines of the family.
* Johann-Albert II (1590 – 1636). From Johann-Albert II came the short lived Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow line.
* Anna Sophia (1591 – 1648)

Johann-Albert II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow

After the suicide of Duke Johann VII, Adolf-Friedrich I and his brother Johann-Albert II reigned jointly under the guardianship of Duke Ulrich III of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Charles I of Mecklenburg (their father’s uncles). The two brothers took over governance of Mecklenburg-Schwerin beginning on April 16, 1608, after the death of Duke Ulrich III and after the death of Duke Charles I on July 22, 1610 they also governed in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Güstrow.

Division of Mecklenburg and Thirty Years’ War

In 1621 the Duchy of Mecklenburg was formally divided between the two brothers, with Adolf-Friedrich I ruling in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Johann-Albert II ruling in Mecklenburg-Güstrow.

Adolf-Friedrich I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

During the Thirty Years’ War, Albrecht von Wallenstein ousted both of the dukes after they secretly sided with King Christian IV of Denmark against Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Wallenstein ruled the duchies from 1627 until 1631, when the dukes were restored by the Swedes under King Gustaf II Adolph. In 1634 Adolf-Friedrich I succeeded Ulrik of Denmark as last Administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin before its secularisation.

Duke Adolf-Friedrich I died on February 27, 1658 (aged 69) and his eldest son, Christian-Ludwig I, (December 1, 1623 in Schwerin – June 21, 1692 in The Hague) became the reigning Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Christian-Ludwig I’s mother was Anna-Maria (1601–1634), the daughter of Count Enno III of East Frisia.

The next post will examine the descendants of Duke Adolf-Friedrich I and the Mecklenburg-Schwerin family line.

The post after that will focus on Johann-Albert II of Mecklenburg-Güstrow which lead to further division of the Duchy.

July 13, 1608: Birth of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria-Leopoldine of Austria, Eleonora Gonzaga, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Empire, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Margaret-Theresa of Austria, Thirty Years War

Ferdinand III (July 13, 1608 – April 2, 1657), was born in Graz, the eldest son of Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria, the fourth child and second (but eldest surviving) daughter of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria and Renata of Lorraine. He was baptised as Ferdinand-Ernst. He grew up in Carinthia with loving care from his parents and he developed great affection for his siblings and his father, with whom he always found a consensus in future disagreements. At his father’s court he received religious and scholarly training from Jesuits.

Ferdinand became Archduke of Austria in 1621. On December 8, 1625 he was crowned King of Hungary, on November 27, 1627 King of Bohemia. His father was unable to secure him the election as Roman king at the Regensburg diet of 1630. After he had unsuccessfully applied for the supreme command of the imperial army and participation in campaigns of Wallenstein, he joined Wallenstein’s opponents at the imperial court in Vienna and had been involved in the arrangements on his second deposition in the beginning of 1634.

Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (Father)

Maria-Anna of Bavaria (Mother)

Ferdinand was finally elected King of the Romans at the Diet of Regensburg on December 22, 1636. Upon the death of his father on February 15, 1637, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III..

By the time Ferdinand became emperor, vast sections of the imperial territories had been absolutely devastated by two decades of war. The population was completely exhausted and massively diminished, countless people were impoverished, disabled, sick, homeless, many had lost their families and had abandoned all moral standards. Ferdinand did not endeavour to continue the war. But the momentum of the war, the political circumstances and his reluctance to act prevented a quick end to the war. Any hope to make early peace with France and Sweden did not materialize.

Ferdinand ascended the throne at the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years’ War and introduced lenient policies to depart from old ideas of divine rights under his father, as he had wished to end the war quickly. As the numerous battles had not resulted in sufficient military containment of the Protestant enemies and confronted with decaying imperial power Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects in order to open the long road towards the much delayed peace treaty. Although his authority among the princes would weaken after the war, in Bohemia, Hungary and the Austrias, however, Ferdinand’s position as sovereign was uncontested.

Ferdinand was the first Habsburg monarch to be recognized as a musical composer.

Infanta Maria-Anna of Spain

On February 20, 1631, Ferdinand III married his first wife, Infanta Maria-Anna of Spain (1606–1646). She was the youngest daughter of Felipe III of Spain and Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria-Anna of Bavaria, the daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria and Anna of Austria, and thus the paternal granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. Her elder brother was the Archduke Ferdinand, who succeeded as Emperor in 1619.

Maria-Anna of Bavaria

They were first cousins, as Maria-Anna’s mother was a sister of Ferdinand’s father. They were parents to six children: among them were

* Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans (September 8, 1633 – July 9, 1654)
* Maria Anna “Mariana”, Archduchess of Austria (December 22, 1634 – May 16, 1696). At the age of 14, she was married to her maternal uncle Philip IV of Spain. Their daughter Margaret Theresa of Spain married Mariana’s brother Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
* Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (June 9, 1640 – May 5, 1705)

On July 2, 1648 in Linz, Ferdinand III married his second wife, Archduchess Maria-Leopoldine of Austria (1632–1649). She was a daughter of Leopold V, Archduke of Austria, and Claudia de’ Medici. They were first cousins as male-line grandchildren of Charles II, Archduke of Austria, and Maria Anna of Bavaria. They had a single son:

Archduchess Maria-Leopoldine of Austria

* Charles Josef, Archduke of Austria (August 7, 1649 – January 27, 1664). He was Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from 1662 to his death.

On April 27, 1651, Ferdinand III married Eleonora Gonzaga. She was a daughter of Charles IV Gonzaga, Duke of Rethel and his wife and cousin Maria Gonzaga (heiress to the Duchy of Montferrat).

Eleonora Gonzaga

Emperor Ferdinand III died on April 2, 1657 and rests in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna. His interior organs were separately buried in the Ducal Crypt.

April 12, 1577: Birth of King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway.

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Absolute Monarchy, Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, Christian IV of Denmark, coronation, Crown of Christian IV of Denmark, Elector of Hanover, Hereditary Monarchy, James VI-I of Scotland and England, King Frederik II of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig, King of Denmark, King of Norway, Prince Christian of Denmark, Regalia, Thirty Years War

Christian IV (April 12, 1577 – February 28, 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 to 1648. His 59-year reign is the longest of Danish monarchs, and of Scandinavian monarchies.

Christian was born at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark on April 12, 1577 as the third child and eldest son of King Frederik II of Denmark–Norway and Sofie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was descended, through his mother’s side, from king Hans of Denmark, and was thus the first descendant of King Hans to assume the crown since the deposition of King Christian II.

Christian IV, King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig

At the time, Denmark was still an elective monarchy, so in spite of being the eldest son Christian was not automatically heir to the throne. However, in 1580, at the age of 3, his father had him elected Prince-Elect and successor to the throne.

At the death of his father on April 4, 1588, Christian was 11 years old. He succeeded to the throne, but as he was still under-age a regency council was set up to serve as the trustees of the royal power while Christian was still growing up. It was led by chancellor Niels Kaas and consisted of the Rigsraadet council members Peder Munk (1534–1623), Jørgen Ottesen Rosenkrantz (1523–1596) and Christopher Walkendorf. His mother Queen Dowager Sofie, 30 years old, had wished to play a role in the government, but was denied by the Council. At the death of Niels Kaas in 1594, Jørgen Rosenkrantz took over leadership of the regency council.

In 1595, the Council of the Realm decided that Christian would soon be old enough to assume personal control of the reins of government. On August 17, 1596, at the age of 19, Christian signed his haandfæstning (lit. “Handbinding” viz. curtailment of the monarch’s power, a Danish parallel to the Magna Carta), which was an identical copy of his father’s from 1559.

Twelve days later, on August 29, 1596, Christian IV was crowned at the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen by the Bishop of Zealand, Peder Jensen Vinstrup (1549–1614). He was crowned with a new Danish Crown Regalia which had been made for him by Dirich Fyring (1580–1603), assisted by the Nuremberg goldsmith Corvinius Saur.

Crown of Christian IV

Marriage

On November 30, 1597, he married Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, a daughter of Joachim Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, and his first wife Catherine of Brandenburg-Küstrin. Christian met her on his journey in Germany in 1595 and he decided to marry her. In 1596, Anne Catherine and her parents were present at his coronation, and the next year, the marriage was arranged.

The wedding took place in the castle of Haderslevhus in South Jutland the year after the coronation of Christian IV. She was crowned queen in 1598. She was given Beate Huitfeldt as the head of her ladies-in-waiting. She had six children, among them Christian, the Prince-Elect, who died a year before his father, and Frederik III who introduced absolute monarchy in Denmark. Her son, Ulrik, was murdered in 1633. Their two daughters, Sophia and Elisabeth, and the elder son, Frederik, died at a very young age.

Anne Catherine of Brandenburg

Anne Catherine was the only queen of Christian IV, but not much is known about her. She does not seem to have had much political influence. She often accompanied the King on his travels. In her time, she was praised for her modesty and deep religious feelings. There is no mention as to whether the marriage was happy or not, but her spouse took mistresses at the end of their marriage, notably with Kirsten Madsdatter.

King Christian IV is remembered as one of the most popular, ambitious, and proactive Danish kings, having initiated many reforms and projects. Christian IV obtained for his kingdom a level of stability and wealth that was virtually unmatched elsewhere in Europe. He engaged Denmark in numerous wars, most notably the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), which devastated much of Germany, undermined the Danish economy, and cost Denmark some of its conquered territories.

Christian IV spent more time in Norway than any other Oldenberg monarch and no Oldenburg king made such a lasting impression on the Norwegian people. He visited the country a number of times and founded four cities. He rebuilt and renamed the Norwegian capital Oslo as Christiania after himself, a name used until 1925.

Christian was reckoned a typical renaissance king, and excelled in hiring in musicians and artists from all over Europe. Many English musicians were employed by him at several times, among them William Brade, John Bull and John Dowland. Dowland accompanied the king on his tours, and as he was employed in 1603, rumour has it he was in Norway as well. Christian was an agile dancer, and his court was reckoned the second most “musical” court in Europe, only ranking behind that of Elizabeth I of England. Christian maintained good contact with his sister Anne, who was married to James VI of Scotland. His other sister, Elizabeth, was married to Heinrich Julius; the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and artists and musicians travelled freely between the courts.

Christian IV at the Battle of Colberger Heide.

Christian IV spoke Danish, 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. His own pleasure, whether it took the form of love or ambition, was always his first consideration. His capacity for drink was proverbial: when he visited England in 1606, even the notoriously hard-drinking English Court were astonished by his alcohol consumption.

The last years of Christian’s life were embittered by sordid differences with his sons-in-law, especially with Corfitz Ulfeldt.

His personal obsession with witchcraft led to the public execution of some of his subjects during the Burning Times. He was responsible for several witch burnings, most notably the conviction and execution of Maren Spliid, who was victim of a witch hunt at Ribe and was burned at the Gallows Hill near Ribe on 9 November 1641.

On February 21, 1648, at his earnest request, he was carried in a litter from Frederiksborg to his beloved Copenhagen, where he died a week later. He was buried in Roskilde Cathedral. The chapel of Christian IV had been completed 6 years before the King died.