CHRISTIAN

CHRISTIAN, the name of several kings of Denmark, of whom the first began to reign in 1448 and the last in 1863, and the following deserve notice: CHRISTIAN II. (1481-1559), conquered Sweden, but proving a tyrant, was driven from the throne by Gustavus Vasa in 1522, upon which his own subjects deposed him, an act which he resented by force of arms, in which he was defeated in 1531, his person seized, and imprisoned for life; characterised by Carlyle as a "rash, unwise, explosive man". CHRISTIAN IV. (1577-1648), king from 1588 to 1648; took part on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War, and was defeated by Tilly; he was a good ruler, and was much beloved by his subjects; was rather unsteady in his habits, it is said. CHRISTIAN IX., king from 1863; son of Duke William of Sleswick-Holstein, father of the Princess of Wales,
George I., king of Greece, and the dowager Empress of Russia; b. 1818.