Christian IV of Denmark (1577-1648), standing three-quarter length holding a baton, in gold-embroidered green jacket with lace cuffs and wide lawn collar and trousers, dark hair with long pony tail tied in a red ribbon, grey pointed beard and moustache, wearing an enamelled urn on a long gold chain around his neck; crown and sword beside him on a red covered table, draped red curtain with gold tassel background

Christian IV, son of Frederick II, was King of Denmark and Norway from 1588 and one of the best-remembered monarchs of Scandanavia. He was a man of action and strengthened the Danish navy and army and rebuilt Oslo after it had burnt down in 1624 and renamed it Christiania. He invaded Sweden in 1611 but failed to capture Stockholm and subsequently made peace in 1613 with the Treaty of Knäed. In 1625, during the Thirty Years War, he joined the Protestant Union to help his niece Elizabeth of Bohemia but was defeated in 1626 by Count of Tilly at Lutter am Barenberge, near Hamelin. In 1628, he formed a defensive Baltic alliance with Gustav II Adolphus of Sweden against Wallenstein but in a second war with Queen Christina of Sweden, he lost the Norwegian provinces of Jamtland and Harjedalen. His son Frederick III succeeded him.