eptember, exhausted the
military resources of Denmark and compelled Christian to accept the
mediation of France and the United Provinces; and peace was finally
signed at Broemsebro on the 8th of February 1645.

The last years of the king were still further embittered by sordid
differences with his sons-in-law, especially with the most ambitious of
them, Korfits Ulfeld. On the 21st of February 1648, at his earnest
request, he was carried in a litter from Fredriksborg to his beloved
Copenhagen, where he died a week later. Christian IV. was a good
linguist, speaking, besides his native tongue, German, Latin, French and
Italian. Naturally cheerful and hospitable, he delighted in lively
society; but he was also passionate, irritable and sensual. He had
courage, a vivid sense of duty, an indefatigable love of work, and all
the inquisitive zeal and inventive energy of a born reformer. Yet,
though of the stuff of which great princes are made, he never attained
to greatness. His own pleasure, whether it took the form of love or
ambition, was always his first consideration. In the heyday of his youth
his high spirits and passion for adventure enabled him to surmount every
obstacle with _elan_. But in the decline of life he reaped the bitter
fruits of his lack of self-control, and sank into the grave a weary and
broken-hearted old man.

See _Life_ (Dan.), by H.C. Bering Luesberg and A.L. Larsen (Copenhagen,
1890-1891); _Letters_ (Dan.), ed. Carl Frederik Bricka and Julius
Albert Fridericia (Copenhagen, 1878); _Danmarks Riges Historie_, vol.
4 (Copenhagen, 1897-1905); Robert Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_, cap.
vii. (Cambridge, 1905). (R. N. B.)

CHRISTIAN V. (1646-1699), king of Denmark and Norway, the son of
Frederick III. of Denmark and Sophia Amelia of Brunswick-Lueneburg, was
born on the 15th of April 1646 at Flensberg, and ascended the throne on
the 9th of February 1670. He was a weak despot with an exaggerated
opinion of his dignity and his prerogatives. Almost his first act on
ascending the throne was publicly to insult his consort, the amiable
Charlotte Amelia of Hesse-Cassel, by introducing into court, as his
officially recognized mistress, Amelia Moth, a girl of sixteen, the
daughter of his former tutor, whom he made countess of Samsoe. His
personal courage and extreme affability made him highly popular among
the lower orders, but he showed himself quite incapable of taking
advantage permanently of the