Christian II of Denmark

Christian II (1481 – 1559) was a Danish monarch and King of Denmark, Norway (1513 – 1523) and Sweden (1520 – 1521), under the Kalmar Union. Christian was born the son of King John of Denmark ("Kong Hans") and Christina of Saxony, at Nyborg Castle in 1481 and succeeded his father as king and regent in Denmark and Norway, where he later was to be succeeded by his uncle king Frederick I of Denmark. In Sweden he was as a result of his conquest of Sweden and his involvement in the Stockholm Bloodbath to be remembered as Christian the Tyrant.

The Stockholm Bloodbath

On November 4, he was anointed by Gustavus Trolle in Stockholm Cathedral, and took the usual oath to rule the Realm through native-born Swedes alone, according to prescription. The next three days were given up to banqueting, but on November 7 "an entertainment of another sort began." On the evening of that day Christian summoned his captains to a private conference at the palace, the result of which was quickly apparent, for at dusk a band of Danish soldiers, with lanterns and torches, broke into the great hall and carried off several carefully selected persons.

Related Topics:
November 4 - Stockholm Cathedral - Realm - November 7

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By 10 o'clock the same evening the remainder of the king's guests were safely under lock and key. All these persons had previously been marked down on Archbishop Trolle's proscription list. On the following day a council, presided over by Trolle, solemnly pronounced judgment of death on the proscribed, as manifest heretics.

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At 12 o'clock that night the patriotic bishops of Skara and Strängnäs were led out into the great square and beheaded. Fourteen noblemen, three burgomasters, fourteen town councillors and about twenty common citizens of Stockholm were then drowned or decapitated. The executions continued throughout the following day; in all, about eighty-two people are said to have been thus murdered.

Related Topics:
Skara - Strängnäs

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Moreover, Christian revenged himself upon the dead as well as upon the living, for Sten Sture's body was dug up and burnt, as well as the body of his little child. Dame Christina and many other noble Swedish ladies were sent as prisoners to Denmark. It has well been said that the manner of this atrocious deed, the Stockholm Bloodbath as it is generally referred to, was even more detestable than the deed itself. The massacre and deeds in the Old Town of Stockholm is perhaps the primary reason why Christian is remembered in Sweden, as Christian the Tyrant.

Related Topics:
Sten Sture - Stockholm Bloodbath - Old Town of Stockholm

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Christian suppressed his political opponents under the pretense of defending an ecclesiastical system which in his heart he despised. Even when it became necessary to make excuses for his crime, we see the same double-standard. Thus, while in a proclamation to the Swedish people he represented the massacre as a measure necessary to avoid a papal interdict, in his apology to the Pope for the decapitation of the innocent bishops he described it as an unauthorized act of vengeance on the part of his own people.

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