Frederick II of Denmark
Frederick II was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1559 until his death in 1588.
A member of the House of Oldenburg, Frederick began his personal rule of Denmark-Norway at the age of 24. He inherited capable and strong realms, formed in large by his father after the civil war known as the Count's Feud, after which Denmark-Norway saw a period of economic recovery and of a great increase in the centralised authority of the Crown.
Frederick was, especially in his youth and unlike his father, belligerent and adversarial, aroused by honor and national pride, and so he began his reign auspiciously with a campaign under the aged Johan Rantzau, which reconquered Dithmarschen. However, after miscalculating the cost of the Northern Seven Years' War, he pursued a more prudent foreign policy. The remainder of Frederick II's reign was a period of tranquillity, in which king and nobles prospered. Frederick spent more time hunting and feasting with his councillors, and focused on architecture and science. During his reign, many building projects were begun, including additions to the royal castles of Kronborg at Elsinore and Frederikborg Castle at Hillerød.
Frederick has to a great extent been overshadowed by his popular, long-reigning son Christian IV, and often been portrayed with skepticism and resentment, resulting in the prevailing portrait of Frederick as a man and as king: an unlettered, inebriated, brutish sot. This portrayal is, however, inequitable and inaccurate, and recent studies reappraise and acknowledge him as highly intelligent; he craved the company of learned men, and in the correspondence and legislation he dictated to his secretaries he showed himself to be quick-witted and articulate. Frederick was also open and loyal, and had a knack for establishing close personal bonds with fellow princes and with those who served him.
In 1572, Frederick married his cousin Sophie of Mecklenburg. Their relationship is regarded as one of the happiest royal marriages in Renaissance Europe. In the first ten years after the wedding, they had seven children, and are described as inseparable and harmonious.
Frederick was committed to becoming the mightiest king in the North, and for several years he fought exhausting wars against his archrival Erik XIV of Sweden, after which the battles changed character. It became a competition to see who could trace their family history the furthest, and who could construct the most formidable castles. In the 1570s he constructed Kronborg, a large Renaissance castle that became widely recognized abroad, and its dance hall was the largest in Northern Europe at the time. He enjoyed entertaining guests and throwing elaborate festivities, which were well known throughout Europe. During the same period, the Danish-Norwegian fleet was developed into one of Europe's largest and most modern. As part of his efforts to strengthen the kingdoms, he provided much support for science and culture.
Early years and education
Frederick was born on 1 July 1534 at Haderslevhus Castle, the son of Duke Christian of Schleswig and Holstein and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, the daughter of Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. His mother was the sister of Catherine, the first wife of the Swedish king Gustav Vasa, and the mother of Eric XIV, his future rival.File:Koebenhavn1536.gif|left|thumb|323x323px|The Siege of Copenhagen 1535-1536 during the Count's Feud, a period of Danish instability that would shape Frederick's childhood.
At the time of Frederick's birth, a civil war of Denmark was coming to an end. The previous king, Frederick I, died on 10 April the year before, but the Danish Council of the Realm, which traditionally ruled the kingdom with the king, had not chosen a successor, and now Denmark had, for more than a year, functioned as an Aristocratic Republic. The father of the newborn Frederik, Christian, although eldest son of the late king, was not automatically King of Denmark, as the kingship in Denmark was not hereditary, but elective. Noblemen of the Council of the Realm could choose to pick another member of the royal family as king if they so decided.
Frederick I and his son Christian were staunch Protestants and adherents to the Lutheran cause, however, in the Council of the Realm, which consisted of many Catholic bishops as well as a number of powerful noblemen from the old nobility, there were a majority to support the established Catholic Church. After a period of interregnum and after subsequent risings in favour of the former King Christian II, a period known as the Count's Feud, Christian III finally became victorious, and was proclaimed King of a new Protestant Denmark.
Proclaimed heir apparent
After King Christian III's victory in the Count's Feud, royal power had now returned to Denmark, and in such a way that the king could set his own terms. In his haandfæstning, a document which all former Danish Kings must sign, and which regulates the relationship between king and nobility, he reduced the nobility's power, and established that the first son of the king should always be seen as heir apparent, and succeed his father automatically.On 30 October 1536 Christian convened the estates of the realm to Copenhagen, where they formally proclaimed Frederick heir apparent and successor to the throne, granting him the title "Prince of Denmark". In 1542, the Prince travelled around Denmark and was hailed by the people. In the Midsummer of 1548 Christian III and his son Frederick, in a fleet of 7 ships and together with 30 Danish nobles, sailed for Oslo, where Frederick was hailed as heir apparent to the Throne of the Kingdom of Norway. The royal reception included Danish nobles holding fiefs in Norway, received by Prince Frederik on his ship. The entire Norwegian nobility had been summoned to Oslo.
Upbringing
While Christian III secured control of Denmark and Norway, his and Dorothea's children grew up in the bosom of the family. In addition to Anna, who was born in 1532, and Frederik from 1534, the group of siblings consisted of Magnus, born 1540, and John, who was born in 1545 and called John the Younger, to distinguish him from Christian III's half-brother, John the Elder. Youngest was a girl who was born in 1546 and named after her mother.It was the usual pedagogical view of the time that parents were so inclined to spoil their own children that the upbringing of the children should be delegated to other members of the family, typically the child's maternal grandparents. But Queen Dorothea didn't want to send the children away when in infancy. Moreover, her own mother was suspected of nurturing Catholic sympathies, and in the religious era, a Lutheran Danish king could not in good conscience expose his child to Catholic influences. Another contributing factor has probably been the royal couple's concern by leaving the children too much out of sight in the tense political situation that prevailed in the first ten years of Frederik's life.
Education
Frederik's education, although profound and thorough, was focused on the ecclesiastical and Lutheran doctrine, Frederick mainly learning instructions in theology. While a princely educational program, which included learning the art of stewardship, diplomacy and war, was proposed and planned by the Danish Chancellor, it was not executed in full as the Danish Chancellor's relationship with Christian III deteriorated before the education could begin.Life at the court of Christian III and Dorothea was imbued with a fervent Lutheran Christianity with which all their children naturally grew up. In March 1538 Chancellor Wolfgang von Utenhof proposed an educational program for the young Prince Frederick. He was to have a Danish court steward, but he also had to work with and be inspected daily by a chamberlain, who was to be a reliable and sobering man from the Holstein nobility. The prince had to learn Latin, German, Danish, French and other languages, and when he got older he had to learn fencing and other chivalry exercises. He was to have 10–15 young men for company both in his studies and in his chivalrous exercises.
To which extent this educational program was followed is not known. In 1541, Frederick aged 7, he began his schooling. Frederick was appointed Hans Svenning, a reputed Danish humanist and professor of rhetoric at University of Copenhagen, as teacher.
Dyslexia
and Dorothea had probably been expecting a lot from Frederick's schooling. The son was obviously bright and had a good memory. So much bigger has the disappointment, and the amazement, been when the teaching started. Frederick learned to write beautiful and clear letters, but when it came to reading and spelling, the royal student was "a disaster".For Hans Svaning, this deranged spelling of Frederick's could only be seen as sloppy and laziness, given that the royal boy otherwise seemed smart enough. Time and time again, Frederick has been punished, probably not only by the teacher, but also by his strict mother, who would gladly step in if Svaning's teaching was not sufficient.
Because of Frederick's heavy dyslexia, he was perceived by his contemporaries as unlettered and illiterate. Both Frederick's father and mother looked with skepticism at the heir to the throne, and they kept him under the watchful eye of knowledgeable men as far as possible to prevent him from publicly speaking out. Neither did his father entrust Frederik with any administrative duties.
Malmøhus
It was only at the age of 20 in 1554 that Frederik was allowed to hold his own court at Malmö Castle in Scania, but under the supervision of the middle-aged lensman Ejler Hardenberg, who was appointed the prince's court master. At the same time, political training began, which was put in the hands of the two driven noblemen Eiler Rønnow and Erik Rosenkrantz. The years in Scania, must have felt like a liberation for Frederick. He had finally escaped from the royal court with its tightly regulated existences and pious daily lives. Just outside the moats around Malmö Castle was the lively trading town of Malmö, which offered a young man all-out experiences.While spending many of his youth years in Scania, he became known as the "Prince of Scania" . It is not known whether this title was ever officially decreed to him.