, 1638
Military and economic reforms . Christian took an interest in many and varied matters, including a series of domestic reforms and improving Danish national armaments. New fortresses were constructed under the direction of
Dutch engineers. The
Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy, which in 1596 had consisted of but twenty-two vessels, in 1610 rose to sixty, some of them built after Christian's own designs. The formation of a national army proved more difficult. Christian had to depend mainly upon hired
mercenary troops as was common practice in the times—well before the establishment of standing armies—augmented by native
peasant levies recruited for the most part from the peasantry on the crown domains. The royal party went to
Upnor Castle and had dinner aboard the
Elizabeth Jonas. At Gravesend, when the royal party was on his ship the
Admiral, Christian IV provided a firework display built on a small ship or lighter, which brought tears to eyes of King James, although the effect was somewhat spoiled because the show was held in daylight. After an exchange of gifts Christian sailed home, escorted by
Robert Mansell with the
Vanguard and the
Moon. Christian IV visited England again in August 1614, coming incognito to surprise his sister at
Denmark House, accompanied only by
Andrew Sinclair and a page. Christian IV was recognised by the queen's dancing master
Thomas Cardell and a French servant. He had sailed with only three ships and captured some pirates during the voyage. More ships with his Danish courtiers arrived on 5 August. The diplomatic purpose of the visit was kept secret. The Venetian ambassador
Antonio Foscarini heard that Anne of Denmark had written to him about a dispute with King James. Foscarini described Christian as, "above the average in height, dressed in the French fashion. His nature is warlike".
Exploration and colonies navigations is shown in blue, while Ove Gjedde's is shown in red Despite Christian's many efforts, the new economic projects did not return a profit. He looked abroad for new income.
Christian IV's Expeditions to Greenland involved a series of voyages in the years 1605–1607 to Greenland and to Arctic waterways in order to locate the lost
Eastern Norse Settlement and to assert Danish sovereignty over Greenland. The expeditions were unsuccessful, partly due to leaders lacking experience with the difficult Arctic ice and weather conditions. The pilot on all three trips was English explorer
James Hall. An expedition to North America was commissioned in 1619. The expedition was captained by
Dano-Norwegian navigator and explorer,
Jens Munk. The ships, searching for the
Northwest Passage, arrived in
Hudson Bay landing at the mouth of
Churchill River, settling at what is now
Churchill, Manitoba. However, it was a disastrous voyage, with cold, famine, and
scurvy killing most of the crew. In 1618, Christian appointed Admiral
Ove Gjedde to lead an expedition and establish a Danish colony in
Ceylon. The expedition set sail in 1618, taking two years to reach Ceylon and losing more than half their crew on the way. Upon arriving in May 1620, the establishment of a
colony in Ceylon failed, but instead the
Nayak of Tanjore (now Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu) turned out to be interested in trading opportunities and a treaty was negotiated granting the Danes the village of
Tranquebar (or Tarangamabadi) on India's south coast and the right to construct a "stone house" (
Fort Dansborg) and levy taxes. The treaty was signed on 20 November 1620, establishing
Denmark's first colony in India. Christian also assigned the privilege establishing the
Danish East India Company.
Kalmar War In 1611, he first put his newly organised army to use. Despite the reluctance of
Rigsrådet, Christian initiated a war with Sweden for the supremacy of the
Baltic Sea. Denmark was funded by tolls on the
Øresund and also by extensive war-reparations from Sweden. Denmark's intervention in the Thirty Years' War was aided by France and by Charles I of England, who agreed to help subsidise the war partly because Christian was the uncle of both the Stuart king and his sister
Elizabeth of Bohemia through their mother,
Anne of Denmark. Some 13,700 Scottish soldiers were to be sent as allies to help Christian IV under the command of General
Robert Maxwell, 1st Earl of Nithsdale. Moreover, some 6000 English troops under Sir
Charles Morgan also eventually arrived to bolster the defence of Denmark though it took longer for these to arrive than Christian hoped, not least due to the ongoing British campaigns against France and Spain. Thus Christian, as war-leader of the Lower Saxon Circle, entered the war with an army of only 20,000 mercenaries, some of his allies from Britain and a national army 15,000 strong, leading them as Duke of Holstein rather than as King of Denmark. Despite the growing power of Roman Catholics in North Germany, and the threat to the Danish holdings in the
Schleswig-Holstein duchies, Christian for a time stayed his hand. The urgent solicitations of other powers, and his fear that Gustavus Adolphus should supplant him as the champion of the Protestant cause, finally led him to enter the war on 9 May 1625. He had at his disposal from 19,000 to 25,000 people, and at first gained some successes but on 27 August 1626 he was routed by
Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly in the
Battle of Lutter. In the summer of 1627 both Tilly and
Albrecht von Wallenstein occupied the duchies and the whole peninsula of
Jutland. His Scandinavian policy was so irritating and vexatious that Swedish statesmen advocated for a war with Denmark, to keep Christian from interfering in the peace negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor, and in May 1643, Christian faced another war against Sweden.
Securing the Northern Lands under the Danish-Norwegian Crown During the fourteenth century the Swedish kings tried to push the areas of their control towards the north, and contemporary maps depicted the now Norwegian coastal areas of
Troms and
Finnmark as a part of Sweden. The possibly boldest move of any Danish-Norwegian regent was to make a voyage to the Northern Lands to secure these lands under the
Danish-Norwegian crown.
Last years and death After the Torstenson War,
Rigsrådet took on an increasing role, under the leadership of
Corfitz Ulfeldt and
Hannibal Sehested. On 21 February 1648, at his earnest request, he was carried in a litter from
Frederiksborg to his beloved
Copenhagen, where he died a week later. ==Cultural king==