e siege of Stralsund. Thus the
possession of a superior sea-power enabled Denmark to tide over her
worst difficulties, and in May 1629 Christian was able to conclude peace
with the emperor at Luebeck, without any diminution of territory.

Christian IV. was now a broken man. His energy was temporarily paralysed
by accumulated misfortunes. Not only his political hopes, but his
domestic happiness had suffered shipwreck. In the course of 1628 he
discovered a scandalous intrigue of his wife, Christina Munk, with one
of his German officers; and when he put her away she endeavoured to
cover up her own disgrace by conniving at an intrigue between Vibeke
Kruse, one of her discharged maids, and the king. In January 1630 the
rupture became final, and Christina retired to her estates in Jutland.
Meanwhile Christian openly acknowledged Vibeke as his mistress, and she
bore him a numerous family. Vibeke's children were of course the natural
enemies of the children of Christina Munk, and the hatred of the two
families was not without influence on the future history of Denmark.
Between 1629 and 1643, however, Christian gained both in popularity and
influence. During that period he obtained once more the control of the
foreign policy of Denmark as well as of the Sound tolls, and towards the
end of it he hoped to increase his power still further with the
assistance of his sons-in-law, Korfits Ulfeld and Hannibal Sehested, who
now came prominently forward.

Even at the lowest ebb of his fortunes Christian had never lost hope of
retrieving them, and between 1629 and 1643 the European situation
presented infinite possibilities to politicians with a taste for
adventure. Unfortunately, with all his gifts, Christian was no
statesman, and was incapable of a consistent policy. He would neither
conciliate Sweden, henceforth his most dangerous enemy, nor guard
himself against her by a definite system of counter-alliances. By
mediating in favour of the emperor, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus
in 1632, he tried to minimize the influence of Sweden in Germany, and
did glean some minor advantages. But his whole Scandinavian policy was
so irritating and vexatious that Swedish statesmen made up their minds
that a war with Denmark was only a question of time; and in the spring
of 1643 it seemed to them that the time had come. They were now able,
thanks to their conquests in the Thirty Years' War, to attack Denmark
from the south as well as the east;