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Frederik 3. · King of Denmark · Norway 1648-70
King Frederik 3. |
Frederik 3. was born in 1609 and died in 1670. He was the second-oldest son of King Christian 4. and Queen Anna Kathrine.
When Christian 4.s oldest son, Prince Christian died in 1647, it was Frederik 3. who took over his place in the line of succession after his father. At his coronation in 1648 he had to sign a strict coronation charter which considerably increased the power of the privy council. A charter he conscientiously obeyed.
In 1643, the 35 year old Frederik married the 15 year old Sophie Amalie of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. In the duration of their marriage they succeeded in having 8 children, of which 5 were girls.
In the first years after the coronation, Frederik 3. led a withdrawn life and left the leadership of both Denmark and Norway to the privy council and the civil servants.
Unlike Christian 4., Frederik 3. was a reserved and thoughtful person who was very interested in theology and the sciences of the time.
When the controversy between the head of the court Corfitz Ulfeldt and Hannibal Sehested, and the rest of the privy council broke out, Frederik 3. took the side of the privy council and thus contributed in bringing down two of the nobility's most talented men. The King probably also had his personal reasons. He was not fond of his brother-in-law Ulfelt, and Sophie Amalie was furthermore not the best of friends with Ulfeldt's wife Leonora Christine.
Corfitz Ulfeldt was later sentenced to death in absentia for treason and the wife Leonora Christine, the favourite daughter of Christian 4., was jailed in Blåtårn (The blue tower) for 22 years as an accomplice to Ulfeldt's plans for a coup.
Queen Sophie Amalie, dressed as a peasant maid |
The King boarded the fleet and crossed the Baltic Sea to prevent the Swedish King, Karl 10. Gustav from returning from a raid to Poland to Sweden by the sea route.
Frederik 3. also won a smaller victory in Halland in the fall – but in the summer of 1657 it began to go wrong. Karl Gustav led a Swedish army of 6000 horsemen and 2500 foot soldiers up through the duchies and Jutland. After a two month siege the Swedes occupied the newly founded fortress Frederiksodde and took, among others, the highest commanding officer of the Danish army Anders Bille as prisoner.
The Danish fleet had up to now prevented the Swedish army from crossing Lillebælt (the sound between Funen and Jutland), but this year the winter was so cold, that three months later the Swedes succeded in walking over the ice to Funen, for just a few days later to continue over the ice in Storebælt between the islands of Langeland and Lolland.
The war ended with the total collapse of the Danish defence and the regrettable Roskilde peace accord in February 1659. The conditions were both harsh and humiliating. Denmark had to give up Scania, Halland, Blekinge, and Bornholm - land that traditionally belonged to Denmark. Furthermore we lost Trondheim and Bohus Len in Norway.
The Danish negotiators even had to suffer the shame of having Corfitz Ulfeldt, who had fled to Sweden, sitting in as a Swedish representative at the negotiations.
The Roskilde peace accord quickly proved itself to be nothing more than a cease fire. Already in August the Swedish King, Karl 10. Gustav, set foot on Zealand and moved forwards towards Copenhagen. This became an important event for Frederik 3. When the people surrounding the king encouraged him to leave the city and bring himself to safety, he answered with the famous words: I will die in my nest.
During the Swedish siege he actively participated in the defense of Copenhagen which gave him the popularity that later was to have such great political consequences.
Copenhagen survived the storming by the Swedes, in a large part due the women of the city, who participated actively in the defense of the embankments.
The power of the privy council disappeared, and a newly formed war council consisting of the King and officers, took over the military and political decisions. When the war ended in May 1660 the disagreement between the different social classes was so big that an assembly of the estates of the realm in the fall agreed to the Danish Act of Succession.
Already the day after, Frederik 3. was given back his coronation charter and achieved absolute power by the introduction of the absolute monarchy in Denmark. In the following years Frederik 3. let cabinet secretary Peder Griffenfeld prepare Kongeloven (the Royal Law which formalized the Danish Act of Succession). It established the Kings unlimited power, the only limitation being that he was not allowed to change the Royal Law, divide the kingdom, and he had to belong to the Lutheran Church.
The passing of the Royal Law in 1665 additionally enforced the sovereignty of the King, and with the introduction of the absolute monarchy the power of the nobility was completely destroyed and old privileges were withdrawn. The nobility had to pay taxes and lost with the introduction of the Danish Act of Succession, their right to chose the country's king. The citizens did not obtain any immediate power by the introduction of the absolute monarchy, but just the fact that the nobility lost their privileges was seen as a great victory.
Frederik 3. was 60 years old when he died of pneumonia in February 1670. Shortly before this he wrote about his own life: I was comparable to a rocket, which in the instant it is lighted rises into the air with a wonderful and clear skin; but when I was at the highest point and glittering like a thousand stars, a bang was heard, and I immediately disappeared from the audiences' view, fell to earth and turned into dust and ashes.
Frederik 3. was buried in Roskilde Cathedral and was succeeded by his son Christian 5.
