coxe’s travels in benmark.

337

This great princefs died fuddenly on the 27th of Oftober 1412, in the fixtieth yearof her age, and, if we include the period of her regency, in the 30th of her reign, leav->ng to her fucceflor the quiet pofleffion of the three kingdoms, and to her fubjeds theregret of her lofs, by the experience of thofe calamities which burd upon the date whenthe fceptre was wielded by a lefs able hand. Her remains were fird depofited at Soroe,but removed to this cathedral by order of the bifhop of Rofkild*.

All the fovereigns of the Houfe of Oldenburgh, which dill paffefies the throne ofDenmark , are interred in the cathedral of Rofkild, excepting John, Chridian II. andFrederic I.

Chridian I. the father of this line, lies in a ftnall chapel without monument or in-fcription. He was count of Oldenburgh, and owed his elevation, as well to his linealdefcent from Eric VII . as to the moderation of his uncle Adolphus, Duke of Slefwick.On the death of Chridopher of Bavaria without iffue, the dates of Denmark offered thethrone to Adolphus, as the neared in blood to the deceafed monarch ; but he declin-mgit on account of his advanced age, they, at his recommendation, eleded his nephewChridian, then in the 22d year of his age. This event happened in 1448 ; and in thefame year he obtained the throne of Norway , in right of his defcent from one of theirancient kings. In 1558, on the depodtion of Charles Canutfon, he received the crownof Sweden , but wore it only a fhort time, as well through his own inactivity, as throughthe averdon of the Swedes to a foreign ruler. Chridian I. reigned three-and-twenlyyears, a fovereign of great moderation and humanity •, whofe qualities, being lefs fliin-mg than folid, were more adapted to the interior adminidration of affairs, than to theexploits of war. He is judly characterized by an hidorian, as one of thofe princes whodo not attraCt the admiration of mankind, yet whom Providence never bedows on a na-tion but as a dgnal mark of favour f.

The fucceffors of Chridian I. who are buried in the fame church, feem in general tohave inherited his pacidc qualities ; as all, except Frederic II. and V. and Chridian IV.Were princes of mild and temperate difpofitions; patrons of the arts and fciences, ra-ther than enterprizing in arms ; who yielded to others the palm of military glory,and for the mod part Ihrunk before the daring fpirit which animated the rival houfe ofVafa.

In the fame chapel are the tombs of Chridian III. and Frederic II . Their fuperbmonuments executed in Italy , at the expence of Chridian IV. are edeemed mader-pieces of fculpture. The datues of the two fovereigns are as large as life, under a ca-nopy of done, fupported by Corinthian pillars. Several figures of angels, and the bafforelievos round the maufoleum of Frederic II . reprefenting that prince’s battles, are muchadmired. No tomb is ereded to the memory of Chridian IV. judly called, by Wraxall,die Idol of Danifh Hidory : his body is depofited in a coffin covered with velvet, orna-mented with diver trophies, efcutcheons, and angels holding crowns of laurel.

It would be tedious to enumerate the other fepulchres of the royal family, mod ofwhich are loaded with infcriptions of great length ; the reader, who is defirous of fur-ther information, will find them accurately tranfcribed in Pontoppidan’s Marmora Da -niw, and in Travels through Denmark , publifhed in 1702.

* Hie primum fepidta,fedpojlea per Dominum petrum Epifcopum Rq/hldenjm violenter tranjlata, & Ro/iildisJepulla. L.angebek, tom. iv p. 5+2.

t “ Plus grand aux yeux de lafaine ra'tfon qu'a ceux du vulgaire, ilfut peut-etre uti de ces princes que let peu-1 l°uent que foibltment, mats que le del ne leur accords que quand il veut leur prouver Jon amour.” Mallet,

95 -

vql. vi.

11. p.

The

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