Period

Christian IV lived from 1577 to 1648 and reigned as King of Denmark and Norway from 1588 until his death.

Marriage

He first married Anna Cathrine of Brandenburg and later in a left-handed marriage to Kirsten Munk - which led to many children and many scandals.

Interests

Christian loved architecture, seafaring, science and - not least - celebration and splendor. He was behind the construction of the Stock Exchange, the Round Tower and Rosenborg Castle, and he wanted to make Copenhagen a European capital worthy of its name.

Your family

He was the son of Frederik II and Queen Sophie. He had over 20 children in total, both with his queen and with Kirsten Munk - leading to dynastic conflicts and dramatic family dinners.

Although it was his father, Frederik II, who built Kronborg, Christian IV was quick to take it over as part of his royal staging. He used the castle as a residence, banquet hall and symbol of royal power. It was here that he showed foreign guests how magnificent Denmark was and how powerful he himself was.

Christian helped ensure that Kronborg remained one of the most important castles in the kingdom - not by rebuilding, but by using it strategically as a backdrop for his own power and grandeur. He continued his father's tradition of using the castle as a kind of stage for Denmark's role in Europe and for his own role as a cultured Renaissance prince.

Christian IV wasn't so much concerned with budgets as he was with ambition. He spent huge sums building castles, constructing cities and waging wars. Some projects succeeded (like the Round Tower and Christianshavn), others became monuments to decay and unrealized dreams. But his ability to stage Denmark, and himself, was unparalleled.

Through architecture, ceremonial and spectacular events, he made royal power visible and present to the people. In his hands, Kronborg was not just a castle, but a living symbol of Danish greatness, which he brought into play whenever he needed to impress or negotiate. Today, it would be called a really good branding strategy.

Christian IV never became the victorious warrior king he dreamed of. But as a builder, curator and stager, he left his mark everywhere and no Danish king before or since has built so much, partied so hard and played so seriously with the idea of what a king could be.

He died in 1648, poorer than he was born, but richer in stories than most. And many of them were created at Kronborg.