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Chap. XXV.
HISTORIC PORTRAIT GALLERY".
379
We will now turn to the family of Christian IV.,
twenty-two in number they are said to have been.
First on our list comes heavy Prince Christian, his
son and heir, who died childless and before his father,
a victim to inebriety, the besetting vice of the age;
this portrait is a copy after one by Carl van Mander, the
original of which hangs in the Valdemerian Slot, in the
island of Thorseng. Christian, who was elected heir to
the throne and crowned during his father’s lifetime,
was a great favourite with the king, and never yet was
prince so often painted. I was looking over a series of
engravings of this besotted prince, first by P. Visscher,
later by Haelwech, and found them as good as a ‘ Rake’s
Progress,’ marking from year to year the progress of
vice telling upon his countenance: first he appears a
handsome lightsome boy; gradually he swells out,
bloated from the effects of drink; and later, before
his death, pale and drawn, like a victim to delirium
tremens. Then comes Frederic III., by Abraham
Wuchter; his brother Ulrik, youngest son of the first
batch, who died at the age of twenty-two, killed by a
shot in Slesvig, an interesting youth, by Strobel, a
German artist of some celebrity. At the period of the
second marriage of Christian IV., I find by his
correspondence that the children of Queen Anne were
kept separate from Christina Munk and her offspring,
and Christian appears to have transferred his
affections to his second family, sufficient to cause jealousy
between them. Prince Christian, the heir apparent,
seems to have never been friendly towards his
mother-in-law, and to have spoken disparagingly of her to
the servants, counselling them to disobey her,—“Do
what you will you will get no thanks.” As long
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