Ancestral Trails 2016 » Christian III of DENMARK (1503-1559)

Personal data Christian III of DENMARK 


Household of Christian III of DENMARK

He is married to Dorothea von SAXE-LAUENBURG.

They got married on October 29, 1525 at Schloss Lauenburg, Lauenburg, Herzogtum Lauenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, he was 22 years old.


Child(ren):

  1. Dorothea of DENMARK  1546-1617 
  2. Anne of DENMARK  1532-1585 
  3. Magnus of DENMARK  1540-1583


Notes about Christian III of DENMARK

Christian III (12 August 1503 - 1 January 1559) reigned as king of Denmark from 1534 until his death and Norway from 1537 until his death. During his reign, Christian established Lutheranism as the state religion within his realms as part of the Protestant Reformation.

Christian was the eldest son of future king Frederick I and Anna of Brandenburg. He was born at Gottorf Castle which Frederick I had made a primary residence. In 1514, when he was just ten years old, Christian's mother died. Four years later, his father remarried to Sophie of Pomerania (1498-1568). In 1523, Frederick I was elected king of Denmark in the place of his nephew, Christian II. The young prince Christian's first public service after his father became king was gaining the submission of Copenhagen, which stood firm for the fugitive Christian II. As stadtholder of the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig in 1526, and as viceroy of Norway in 1529, Christian III displayed considerable administrative ability.

After his father's death, in 1533, Christian was proclaimed king at an assembly in Rye, a town in eastern Jutland, in 1534. The Danish State Council (rigsraad), dominated by Roman Catholic bishops and nobles, refused to accept Duke Christian as king and turned to Count Christopher of Oldenburg in order to restore Christian II to the Danish throne. Christian II had supported both the Roman Catholics and Protestant Reformers at various times. In opposition to King Christian III, Count Christopher was proclaimed regent at the Ringsted Assembly (landsting), and at the Skåne Assembly ( landsting) on St Liber's Hill at Lund Cathedral. This resulted in a two-year civil war, known as the Count's Feud (Grevens Fejde, 1534-36), between Protestant and Catholic forces.

The foreign policy of Christian's later days was regulated by peace following the Treaty of Speyer (1544). 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. In 1549 he began the building of Landskrona Citadel. In February, 1555 he interceded successfully on the behalf of the English Bible translator Miles Coverdale, who had been imprisoned for two and a half years by Queen Mary I of England. Coverdale was released and allowed to leave England.

King Christian III died on New Year's Day 1559 at Koldinghus and was interred in Roskilde Cathedral.

Christian married Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg on 29 October 1525 at Lauenburg Castle. They were the parents of five children;

Anna of Denmark (1532-1585). Consort to Augustus, Elector of Saxony.
Frederick II (1534-1588).
Magnus, King of Livonia (1540-1583).
Johann II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plon (John the Younger; 1545-1622).
Dorothea of Denmark (1546-1617). Consort to William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and mother to George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
SOURCE: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_III_of_Denmark#Later_reign

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Timeline Christian III of DENMARK

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Ancestors (and descendant) of Christian III of DENMARK


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Historical events

Birthday August 12, 1503

  • Graaf Filips II de Schone (Oostenrijks Huis) was from 1494 till 1506 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Graafschap Holland)
  • In the year 1503: Source: Wikipedia
    • February 13 » Challenge of Barletta: Tournament between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.
    • April 28 » The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as one of the first European battles in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder.
    • May 10 » Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.
    • August 8 » King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland.
    • November 1 » Pope Julius II is elected.
    • December 29 » The Battle of Garigliano (1503) was fought between a Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and a French army commanded by Ludovico II, Marquess of Saluzzo.

Day of marriage October 29, 1525

  • Graaf Karel II (Oostenrijks Huis) was from 1515 till 1555 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Graafschap Holland)
  • In the year 1525: Source: Wikipedia
    • January 21 » The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
    • February 24 » A Spanish-Austrian army defeats a French army at the Battle of Pavia.
    • February 28 » Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés.
    • May 15 » Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.
    • June 13 » Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.

Day of death January 1, 1559

  • Graaf Filips III (Oostenrijks Huis) was from 1555 till 1581 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Graafschap Holland)
  • In the year 1559: Source: Wikipedia
    • January 15 » Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
    • April 3 » The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
    • May 2 » John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation.
    • June 30 » King Henry II of France is mortally wounded in a jousting match against Gabriel, comte de Montgomery.
    • August 22 » Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy.
    • December 25 » Pope Pius IV is elected.


Same birth/death day

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia


About the surname DENMARK

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The Ancestral Trails 2016 publication was prepared by .contact the author
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin:
Patti Lee Salter, "Ancestral Trails 2016", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/ancestral-trails-2016/I66892.php : accessed August 8, 2025), "Christian III of DENMARK (1503-1559)".