Which Monarch of Denmark? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gorm the Old

Gorm the Old conducted his reign from Jelling, which is now a railway town of Denmark. He orchestrated the making of the first Jelling stones, large runestones, in honor of his wife, Thyra, also known as Thyre or Thorvi. Gorm was reportedly the son of semi-legendary Danish King Cnut I, or Harthacnut, both of whom followed the religion of Norse paganism.

Answer: Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson

The facts surrounding King Harald Bluetooth's conversion to Christianity are somewhat debated. Medieval Saxon Chronicler, Widukind of Corvey, and German Chronicler Adam of Bremen, gave different accounts.

Widukind of Corvey wrote during the lifetime of Harald, that a Christian cleric named "Poppa" proved his divinity by carrying a heavy and heated weight, without becoming burned. Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, later claimed that he performed this miracle for Harald's son, who was having second thoughts about his own baptism.

100 years after Harald had died, Adam of Bremen suggested that Harald's conversion was forced, at the hands of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Answer: Sweyn Forkbeard

Sweyn Forkbeard was the son of Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, who died in exile after his son's revolt. Sweyn was a violent warlord and fighter and was said to have allied with legendary pagan chieftain, Palnatoke, who is said to have helped raise him. He is also said to have convinced Sweyn to revolt against his father, and sometimes is even claimed to have killed Harald himself. However, the history of Palnatoke is highly legendary - the factuality of accounts of his life are historically questionable.

Sweyn Forkbeard led a campaign of fear and violence against England, raiding and laying waste to parts of it. In response King Æthelred the Unready of England ordered the execution of all Danes living in England. This culminated in the St. Brice's Day massacre of 1002. There is no solid evidence of the official death toll, but historians suggest that a lot of life was lost.

Answer: Cnut the Great

When Cnut was ruling all three countries, they were often referred to together as the "North Sea Empire", and considering his victory against Sweden and Norway in 1026, Cnut proclaimed himself "King of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes".

When Harald II died in 1018, Cnut traveled to Denmark to confirm his succession to the Danish throne.

Cnut's rise to power in England and treatment of those he conquered made his relationship with the Church awkward. The Catholic Church also did not approve of Cnut having two wives: Ælfgifu of Northampton and Emma of Normandy. To appease the Church, Cnut had the monasteries and churches that had been damaged and looted via Viking plunder restored, and also gave money to the Church.

Cnut died in 1035 Shaftesbury, England.

Answer: Harthacnut

Harthacnut was the son of Cnut the Great and his second wife, Emma of Normandy. He struggled to hold firm the lands that Cnut the Great had acquired during his reign. Magnus I, also known as Magnus the Good, had taken hold of Norway. Harthacnut did, however, maintain the Danish throne from 1035-1042 and was King of England from 1040-1042.

In 1042, Harthacnut was a guest at a wedding in Lambeth, London. It was the wedding of Tovi the Proud, a Danish thane and Gytha, the daughter of an Anglo-Saxon noble, Osgod Clapa. His death was attributed to drinking too much alcohol, which perhaps gave him a stroke. However, it has also been speculated that he was murdered - though no proof exists of this.

Answer: Frederick III

After the completion of an established absolute monarchy in Denmark and Norway, Frederick III ordered the creation of the Throne Chair of Denmark. The creator was Bendix Grodtschilling, a Danish carpenter and artist. Construction of the throne took 9 years, and its design, which features 3 lions guarding it, was inspired by the throne of biblical King Solomon, whose throne had 12 lions guarding it.

Frederick III was the second-oldest son of Christian IV and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg.

Answer: Christian IV

Christian IV hailed from the House of Oldenburg and was King of Denmark from 1588 - from the death of his father when he was 11, to fully becoming king at the age of 19 - until his own death in 1648. He acquired the titles of King of Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein in his lifetime. He also had the longest rule of all the Scandinavian monarchs to date.

He revamped and renamed Oslo as "Christiania", which was what Oslo was called until 1925. He also got Denmark involved in the Thirty Years Wars, and is remembered as one of the most ambitious and popular Danish kings.

He also made an impression on Norway, spending more time there than any Oldenburg monarch.

Answer: Christian VII

Christian VII was part of the House of Oldenburg, born in 1749, dying in 1808. Due to his mental illness, he was King of Denmark in name only. Some historians argue that he likely suffered from schizophrenia. This had an effect on his decision making regarding the government hallucinations.

He married Princess Caroline Matilda, the sister of King George III of Britain, and was frequently unfaithful to her. They had two children and later divorced.

Christian VII died of a stroke in 1808. He was buried in Roskilde Cathedral in eastern Denmark.

Answer: Frederick VI

The Gunboat War, or "Kanonbådskrigen" in Danish, was fought between 1807-1814. This war resulted in a British victory, and the dissolution of Denmark-Norway. Denmark had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Kiel, ceding Norway to Sweden.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Frederick VI at first tried to keep neutral. However, after the Second Battle of Copenhagen of 1807, also known as the Bombardment of Copenhagen, Frederick VI was inclined to side with Napoleon.

Frederick VI was a keen patron of astronomy, and rewarded gold medals to anyone who discovered a new comet with a telescope.

Answer: Olaf II

The False Olaf was a sick man who stayed in the village of Grudzi¹dz, now in modern-day northern Poland. Traders from Denmark remarked how much this sick man resembled King Olaf II. Many people, particularly in Norway, did not believe Olaf II had really died. His death was subject to conspiracy, saying that he had hidden and escaped from an attempt on his life on the orders of Margaret I, and was alive and hiding somewhere.

They took the False Olaf to Gdañsk in Poland, and gave him presents and quality clothes. He even had a new seal made. He wrote to Queen Margaret, proclaiming he was her son. She arranged to meet him.

The Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights arranged to have the False Olaf delivered to Kalmar in Sweden to meet the Queen. She knew he was not her son straight away. It did not help his case that he could not speak Danish. He admitted he was an imposter, a Prussian peasant.

The False Olaf was burned at the stake in Lund, Sweden, for his deception. Even the seal that was made for him was destroyed.

Answer: Christian III

Christian III was King of Denmark from 1534, and King of Norway from 1537, until he died in 1559. He was sympathetic to the Protestant cause, and formed a close relationship with this church. He made Lutheranism the state religion to do his duty for the Protestant Reformation.

He was a very outspoken Lutheran and thought nothing of upsetting the Catholic bishops in his council, and his father, Frederick I.

Answer: Frederick VII

Frederick VII was also the last monarch of the House of Oldenburg. He was King of Denmark from 1848-1863. During his reign he signed a constitution that constructed a Parliament for Denmark, and made the monarchy a constitutional one, as opposed to an absolute one.

Answer: Frederick I

Frederick I was also the last King of Norway to be Roman Catholic. Despite having never visited Norway, and never being crowned King of Norway, Frederick I still had the title.

Frederick I was the father of Christian III, King of Denmark and Norway, and Dorothea of Denmark.

Answer: Margrethe I

Margaret I of Denmark was daughter of King Valdemar IV, and had married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden. The Treaty of Kalmar established the Kalmar Union. At the time, Norway's territories included Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and the islands of Orkney and Shetland.

The countries united with Denmark under this treaty remained individual sovereign states legally, but their foreign and domestic policies were directed under one ruling monarch.

This treaty was broken in 1523, when Gustav I of Sweden left the Kalmar Union. Sweden's independence was formally recognised by the Treaty of Malmö in 1524.

Answer: Abel Valdemarsen

Frisia is a cultural region that stretches between Germany and the Netherlands, around the south-east corner of the North Sea.

Abel was in conflict with his brother, Eric Ploughpenny, when he was King. He was said to be behind Eric being beheaded and dumped in a river, upon being kidnapped. He denied these claims, and ascended the throne. He was killed in battle around two years after being crowned.