513. As
viceroy of Norway (1506-1512) he had already displayed a singular
capacity for ruling under exceptionally difficult circumstances.
Patriotism, insight, courage, statesmanship, energy,--these great
qualities were indisputably his; but unfortunately they were vitiated by
obstinacy, suspicion and a sulky craftiness, beneath which simmered a
very volcano of revengeful cruelty. Another peculiarity, more fatal to
him in that aristocratic age than any other, was his fondness for the
common people, which was increased by his passion for a pretty Dutch
girl, named Dyveke, who became his mistress in 1507 or 1509.

Christian's succession to the throne was confirmed at the _Herredag_, or
assembly of notables from the three northern kingdoms, which met at
Copenhagen in 1513. The nobles and clergy of all three kingdoms regarded
with grave misgivings a ruler who had already shown in Norway that he
was not afraid of enforcing his authority to the uttermost. The
_Rigsraads_ of Denmark and Norway insisted, in the _haandfaestning_ or
charter extorted from the king, that the crowns of both kingdoms were
elective and not hereditary, providing explicitly against any
transgression of the charter by the king, and expressly reserving to
themselves a free choice of Christian's successor after his death. But
the Swedish delegates could not be prevailed upon to accept Christian as
king at all. "We have," they said, "the choice between peace at home and
strife here, or peace here and civil war at home, and we prefer the
former." A decision as to the Swedish succession was therefore
postponed. On the 12th of August 1515 Christian married Isabella of
Burgundy, the grand-daughter of the emperor Maximilian. But he would not
give up his liaison with Dyveke, and it was only the death of the
unfortunate girl in 1517, under suspicious circumstances, that prevented
serious complications with the emperor Charles V. Christian revenged
himself by executing the magnate Torben Oxe, who, on very creditable
evidence, was supposed to have been Dyveke's murderer, despite the
strenuous opposition of Oxe's fellow-peers; and henceforth the king lost
no opportunity of depressing the nobility and raising plebeians to
power. His chief counsellor was Dyveke's mother Sigbrit, a born
administrator and a commercial genius of the first order. Christian
first appointed her controller of the Sound tolls, and ultimately
committed to her the whole charge of the finances. A