Denmark: Denmark and Norway

Denmark and Norway

In 1448, Christian I became king and established on the Danish throne the house of Oldenburg, from which the present ruling family (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) is descended. He also united (1460) Schleswig and Holstein with the Danish crown. The Reformation (early 16th cent.) gradually gained adherents in Denmark, and during the reign of Christian III (1534–59) Lutheranism became the established religion. In the late 16th and early 17th cent., Denmark had a brilliant court, with a brisk intellectual and cultural life; the astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) was a major figure, and the Danish Renaissance style of architecture (strongly influenced by that of the Low Countries) was developed.

The division of power in Denmark between the king and the nobles seriously handicapped the country's attempt to gain supremacy in the Baltic region. Denmark was involved in numerous wars with Sweden and other neighbors; the participation of Christian IV (reigned 1588–1648) in the Thirty Years War (1618–48) and the wars of Frederick III (reigned 1648–70) with Sweden caused Denmark to lose its hegemony in the north to Sweden. The Danish-Swedish Treaty of Copenhagen (1660) confirmed most of the Danish losses imposed by the Treaty of Roskilde (1658).

The wars weakened the nobility by reducing its numbers and strengthened the monarchy by increasing the power and importance of the royal army. Frederick III and Christian V (reigned 1670–99), aided by their minister Count Griffenfeld, were able to make the kingdom an absolute monarchy with the support of the peasants and townspeople. Denmark maintained an imperial status by continuing to rule over Iceland and by establishing (late 17th cent.) the Danish West Indies (see Virgin Islands). In the Northern War (1720–21) against Charles XII of Sweden, Frederick IV (reigned 1699–1730) gained some financial awards and the union of ducal Schleswig with royal Schleswig.

The later 18th cent. was marked by important social reforms carried out by the ministers Johann Hartwig Ernst Bernstorff, Andreas Peter Bernstorff, and Johann Friedrich Struensee. Serfdom was abolished (1788), and peasant proprietorship was encouraged. In the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Denmark, having sided with Napoleon I, was twice attacked by England (see Copenhagen, battle of; Copenhagen). By the Treaty of Kiel (1814), Denmark lost Norway to Sweden and Helgoland to England, but retained possession of Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, and Iceland.

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