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it was obliged to quit the country. In 1536 Christian III. had
promised the Danes to convert Norway into a Danish province,
and he now abolished the council of state and otherwise partially
kept his word. The doctrines of the Reformation permeated the
country very slowly, but the dissolution of the monasteries and
confiscation of church property were prosecuted with great zeal.
The Norwegian towns now began to prosper and the trade of the
country to improve, while the tyranny of the Hanse merchants at
Rergen was checked by Christopher Valkeiulorff (1536). In 1559
Christian was succeeded by his son Frederick II., in whose reign
occurred the calamitous seven years’ war wdth Sweden (1563-70),
which sowed the seeds of national hatred between the countries,
and caused the destruction of Oslo, Sarpsborg, and Hamar, the
devastation of several agricultural districts, and the military
occupation of others. At the same time the country was terribly
oppressed by Frederick’s officials, and he himself visited it once
only. The sole benefit conferred by him on Norway was the
foundation of Fredrikstad near the ruined town of Sarpsborg.
His son Christian IV. (1588-1648), on the other hand, visited
Norway very frequently and was indefatigable in his reforms. He
refused to grant fiefs in future to nobles who were not natives of
Norway (1596), and he promulgated a Norwegian code (1604),
which was a revised edition of the laws of 1*274 translated into
Danish. He also published an ecclesiastical code (1607), and took
energetic measures to exclude Jesuits from the country. At the
same time the army was improved, trade was favoured, the
silver-mines at Kongsberg (1624) and the copper-mines of Reros (1645)
were established, the towns of Christiania (1624) and
Christian-sand (1641) founded anew, and the Hanse factory at Bergen strictly
controlled. All these benefits were outweighed by the disasters of
the Kalmar War with Sweden (1611-13). during which the
peasantry gained their famous victory over the Scottish auxiliaries
under Col. Ramsay at Kringelen (p. 123). and particularly those
of the Thirty Years’War in which Christian participated
(16251629). A second war with Sweden (1643-45) terminated with the
severance of Jemtland and Herjedalen from Norway.
New disasters befell Norway in the reign of his son
Frederick II. (1648-70). The result of the participation of Denmark
and Norway in the Swedish-Polish war -was that Norway finally
lost Båhus-Län, Idre, and Särna. During this war Halden earned
for itself the new name of Fredrikshald by the bravery of its
defenders. These misfortunes, however, led to a rupture with the
existing system of government. On ascending the throne
Frederick had signed a pledge which placed him in the power of the
nobility, but during the wars the incompetency of the council of
state, and the energy of the king and citizens in defending
Copenhagen, had greatly raised him in the public estimation. At a diet
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