Scandinavian Monarch. King of the Kalmar Union which also was called Dacia. Of the Wittelsbach Dynasty, he was born at Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, the son of Duke John of the Palatinate-Neumarkt and Catherine Vratislava, a Pomeranian princess (Greif Dynasty), who was an adopted daughter of Margaret the Great, founder of the union. He was chosen by the Danish nobility of the union, which consisted of the three united Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, as the successor to his maternal uncle, King Eric the Pomeranian, when Eric was deposed in 1439 after a lengthy reign full of controversy. Christopher was then accepted as King of Sweden in 1441, through the mediation of the future Carl II, and in Norway in 1442. In 1445 he married Dorothy of Brandenburg, but the couple had no children in their marriage of 3 years. Under his rule, Copenhagen was chartered as the capital of Denmark, a decline in royal power was experienced, and an increase in the political authority of the Danish and Swedish state councils. In the latter nation Christopher's carefully coded 'Law of the Land' remained a basis for Swedish jurisprudence for hundreds of years, but he was also called the 'Bark King' there because of crops so poor that sawdust was added to bread dough. He was also engaged in defending his crown against his uncle, ensconced in exile on the big Baltic island of Gothland and practicing piracy to sustain himself as he continued to attempt to regain the throne. High hopes for the future of the Kalmar Union were dashed when Christopher died unexpectedly of an infected boil at Elsinburg in Scania, present day Sweden. He was Christopher III of Denmark, called Kristoffer in Sweden.
Scandinavian Monarch. King of the Kalmar Union which also was called Dacia. Of the Wittelsbach Dynasty, he was born at Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, the son of Duke John of the Palatinate-Neumarkt and Catherine Vratislava, a Pomeranian princess (Greif Dynasty), who was an adopted daughter of Margaret the Great, founder of the union. He was chosen by the Danish nobility of the union, which consisted of the three united Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, as the successor to his maternal uncle, King Eric the Pomeranian, when Eric was deposed in 1439 after a lengthy reign full of controversy. Christopher was then accepted as King of Sweden in 1441, through the mediation of the future Carl II, and in Norway in 1442. In 1445 he married Dorothy of Brandenburg, but the couple had no children in their marriage of 3 years. Under his rule, Copenhagen was chartered as the capital of Denmark, a decline in royal power was experienced, and an increase in the political authority of the Danish and Swedish state councils. In the latter nation Christopher's carefully coded 'Law of the Land' remained a basis for Swedish jurisprudence for hundreds of years, but he was also called the 'Bark King' there because of crops so poor that sawdust was added to bread dough. He was also engaged in defending his crown against his uncle, ensconced in exile on the big Baltic island of Gothland and practicing piracy to sustain himself as he continued to attempt to regain the throne. High hopes for the future of the Kalmar Union were dashed when Christopher died unexpectedly of an infected boil at Elsinburg in Scania, present day Sweden. He was Christopher III of Denmark, called Kristoffer in Sweden.
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