Dorothea of Brandenburg
Encyclopedia
Dorothea of Brandenburg (Germany, 1430/1431 – Denmark, November 10, 1495) was the consort
of Christopher of Bavaria
and Christian I of Denmark
. She was queen of Denmark (1445–1448 and 1449–1481), Norway (1445–1448 and 1450–1481) and Sweden (1447–1448 and 1457–1464) two times each. She also served as regent in Denmark during the absences of her spouse.
, and Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg (1405–1465). She had two sisters: Barbara
(1423–1481), who became the Marchioness of Mantua, and Elisabeth (14??-1451), who married Joachim I Mlodszy, Duke of Pomerania (14??-1451).
On 12 September 1445, Dorothea married Christopher of Bavaria
, the King of Denmark
from 1440 to 1448, Sweden
from 1441 to 1448 and Norway
from 1442 to 1448. The wedding was held in Copenhagen
. She was crowned queen of the three kingdoms on 14 September 1445.
After Christopher's death, Dorothea married the next elected king of Denmark, King Christian I
, on 28 October 1449. In 1457, she became queen of Sweden for the second time, and was crowned in Uppsala
Cathedral.
, and King Casimir IV Jagiellon
, but when Christian of Oldenburg was chosen as the new king of Denmark, it was agreed that he should marry her instead.
As a widow, Dorothea's many fiefs were considered a problem. At her second wedding, she renounced her existing fiefs in Denmark and Norway, which were replaced with Kalundborg
and Samsø
in Denmark and Romerike
in Norway. Her claim over her territories in Sweden, however, was something she would not give up. For the rest of her life, she fought to regain control over them. In 1451, war erupted between the countries over her inheritance. She gained control over Närke
and Värmland
in 1457, but lost them in 1464. In this affair, she requested the assistance of the pope
s from 1455, and she succeeded in having the Swedish regent
Sten Sture the Elder
excommunicated. This disrupted separate political negotiations with Sweden for many years, and her son, John, King of Denmark, who became king of Sweden in 1497, had the excommunication rescinded as soon as she died in 1495. She also fought with her uncle, Frederick II, Elector of Brandeburg, over the inheritance left after her father, John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
, died in 1464.
Dorothea served as regent
during the absence of her spouse. She was granted the slotsloven, which meant she had the right to command all the castles in Denmark. She was a powerful political figure due to her strong economic position, both with regard to her husband and her son. She even acquired fiefs from her husband when she lent him money he could not pay back. In 1460, her spouse acquired Holstein and Schleswig, but only on the condition that he could pay his creditors: Dorothea paid the fee demanded of Christian, and made it possible for him to make these territories a part of Denmark. She acquired a large economic influence in Holstein and Schleswig, and by 1470 she was the de facto ruler of those lands. In 1479, she acquired Holstein and in 1480 Schleswig from her husband as a security for a loan he was unable to pay back, and at the time of his death, she ruled the duchies as her own territories. Her eldest son John opposed her grant of Schleswig-Holstein to her younger son Frederick. The dispute was not solved until 1487, when she divided Schleswig-Holstein between her sons.
In 1475 and 1488, Dorothea visited the reigning popes (Sixtus IV
and Innocent VIII
) in Rome
and her sister Barbara in Mantua
. In 1488, she also met Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III
in Innsbrück
. She was described as cold, practical and frugal. As a widow, she stayed mainly at Kalundborg castle. She died on 25 November 1495, and is interred next to her second husband in Roskilde Cathedral
.
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Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of Christopher of Bavaria
Christopher of Bavaria
Christopher of Bavaria or Christopher the Bavarian; as king named Christopher ; Danish and Norwegian: Christoffer af/av Bayern; Swedish Kristofer av Bayern was union king of Denmark , Sweden and Norway .-Biography:He was probably born at Neumarkt in...
and Christian I of Denmark
Christian I of Denmark
Christian I was a Danish monarch, king of Denmark , Norway and Sweden , under the Kalmar Union. In Sweden his short tenure as monarch was preceded by regents, Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and Erik Axelsson Tott and succeeded by regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa...
. She was queen of Denmark (1445–1448 and 1449–1481), Norway (1445–1448 and 1450–1481) and Sweden (1447–1448 and 1457–1464) two times each. She also served as regent in Denmark during the absences of her spouse.
Family
Dorothea was born in 1430 or 1431 to John, Margrave of Brandenburg-KulmbachJohn, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
John, nicknamed the Alchemist was a Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and served as the peace-loving Margrave of Brandenburg after the abdication of his father, Frederick I, the first member of the House of Hohenzollern to rule Brandenburg.-Biography:John was the eldest son of Frederick I,...
, and Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg (1405–1465). She had two sisters: Barbara
Barbara of Brandenburg (1423-1481)
Barbara of Brandenburg was a Marchioness consort of Mantua, married in 1433 to Ludovico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua....
(1423–1481), who became the Marchioness of Mantua, and Elisabeth (14??-1451), who married Joachim I Mlodszy, Duke of Pomerania (14??-1451).
On 12 September 1445, Dorothea married Christopher of Bavaria
Christopher of Bavaria
Christopher of Bavaria or Christopher the Bavarian; as king named Christopher ; Danish and Norwegian: Christoffer af/av Bayern; Swedish Kristofer av Bayern was union king of Denmark , Sweden and Norway .-Biography:He was probably born at Neumarkt in...
, the King of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
from 1440 to 1448, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
from 1441 to 1448 and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
from 1442 to 1448. The wedding was held in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. She was crowned queen of the three kingdoms on 14 September 1445.
After Christopher's death, Dorothea married the next elected king of Denmark, King Christian I
Christian I of Denmark
Christian I was a Danish monarch, king of Denmark , Norway and Sweden , under the Kalmar Union. In Sweden his short tenure as monarch was preceded by regents, Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and Erik Axelsson Tott and succeeded by regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa...
, on 28 October 1449. In 1457, she became queen of Sweden for the second time, and was crowned in Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
Cathedral.
Biography
Dorothea was given control over fiefs in all three Nordic kingdoms with a value of 45,000 Rhine guilders, as well as an additional collection of fiefs valued at 15,000 guilders in Oberpfalz. When she was widowed in 1448, there were marriage negotiations with Albert VI, Archduke of AustriaAlbert VI, Archduke of Austria
Albert VI , also known as the Prodigal, from the House of Habsburg was, with his elder brother Emperor Frederick III, an Archduke of Inner Austria from 1424 and of Austria from 1457 until his death...
, and King Casimir IV Jagiellon
Casimir IV Jagiellon
Casimir IV KG of the House of Jagiellon was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440, and King of Poland from 1447, until his death.Casimir was the second son of King Władysław II Jagiełło , and the younger brother of Władysław III of Varna....
, but when Christian of Oldenburg was chosen as the new king of Denmark, it was agreed that he should marry her instead.
As a widow, Dorothea's many fiefs were considered a problem. At her second wedding, she renounced her existing fiefs in Denmark and Norway, which were replaced with Kalundborg
Kalundborg
Kalundborg is a city with a population of 16,434 in Kalundborg municipality in Denmark and the site of its municipal council. Kalundborg is on the main island Zealand, with Copenhagen, but opposite on the far western edge....
and Samsø
Samsø
Samsø is a Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 4,300 inhabitants called Samsingers and is 114 km² in area. Due to its central location, the island was used during the Viking Age as a meeting place...
in Denmark and Romerike
Romerike
Romerike is a traditional district located north-east of Oslo, in what is today south-eastern Norway. It consists of the Akershus municipalities Fet, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen, Skedsmo, Sørum and Aurskog-Høland in the southern end , and Ullensaker, Gjerdrum, Nannestad, Nes, Eidsvoll and Hurdal...
in Norway. Her claim over her territories in Sweden, however, was something she would not give up. For the rest of her life, she fought to regain control over them. In 1451, war erupted between the countries over her inheritance. She gained control over Närke
Närke
' is a Swedish traditional province, or landskap, situated in Svealand in south central Sweden. It is bordered by Västmanland to the north, Södermanland to the east, Östergötland to the southeast, Västergötland to the southwest, and Värmland to the northwest...
and Värmland
Värmland
' is a historical province or landskap in the west of middle Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland and Närke. It is also bounded by Norway in the west. Latin name versions are Vermelandia and Wermelandia. Although the province's land originally was Götaland, the...
in 1457, but lost them in 1464. In this affair, she requested the assistance of the pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
s from 1455, and she succeeded in having the Swedish regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
Sten Sture the Elder
Sten Sture the Elder
Sten Sture the Elder was a Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden from .-Background:...
excommunicated. This disrupted separate political negotiations with Sweden for many years, and her son, John, King of Denmark, who became king of Sweden in 1497, had the excommunication rescinded as soon as she died in 1495. She also fought with her uncle, Frederick II, Elector of Brandeburg, over the inheritance left after her father, John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
John, nicknamed the Alchemist was a Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and served as the peace-loving Margrave of Brandenburg after the abdication of his father, Frederick I, the first member of the House of Hohenzollern to rule Brandenburg.-Biography:John was the eldest son of Frederick I,...
, died in 1464.
Dorothea served as regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
during the absence of her spouse. She was granted the slotsloven, which meant she had the right to command all the castles in Denmark. She was a powerful political figure due to her strong economic position, both with regard to her husband and her son. She even acquired fiefs from her husband when she lent him money he could not pay back. In 1460, her spouse acquired Holstein and Schleswig, but only on the condition that he could pay his creditors: Dorothea paid the fee demanded of Christian, and made it possible for him to make these territories a part of Denmark. She acquired a large economic influence in Holstein and Schleswig, and by 1470 she was the de facto ruler of those lands. In 1479, she acquired Holstein and in 1480 Schleswig from her husband as a security for a loan he was unable to pay back, and at the time of his death, she ruled the duchies as her own territories. Her eldest son John opposed her grant of Schleswig-Holstein to her younger son Frederick. The dispute was not solved until 1487, when she divided Schleswig-Holstein between her sons.
In 1475 and 1488, Dorothea visited the reigning popes (Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the Sistine Chapel; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age,...
and Innocent VIII
Pope Innocent VIII
Pope Innocent VIII , born Giovanni Battista Cybo , was Pope from 1484 until his death.-Early years:Giovanni Battista Cybo was born at Genoa of Greek extraction...
) in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and her sister Barbara in Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
. In 1488, she also met Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick the Peaceful KG was Duke of Austria as Frederick V from 1424, the successor of Albert II as German King as Frederick IV from 1440, and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III from 1452...
in Innsbrück
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
. She was described as cold, practical and frugal. As a widow, she stayed mainly at Kalundborg castle. She died on 25 November 1495, and is interred next to her second husband in Roskilde Cathedral
Roskilde Cathedral
Roskilde Cathedral , in the city of Roskilde on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, is a cathedral of the Lutheran Church of Denmark. The first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick, it encouraged the spread of the Brick Gothic style throughout Northern Europe...
.
Children
- Oluf of Denmark (1450–1451)
- Canute of Denmark (1451–1455)
- John (1455–1513), Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
- Margaret (1456–1486), married King James III of ScotlandJames III of ScotlandJames III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...
in 1469 - Frederick IFrederick I of DenmarkFrederick I of Denmark and Norway was the King of Denmark and Norway. The name is also spelled Friedrich in German, Frederik in Danish, and Fredrik in Swedish and Norwegian...
(1471–1533), King of Denmark and Norway
Ancestry
Succession
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