Christian II (1 July 1481 – 25 January 1559), was a monarch under the Kalmar Union, reigning as King of Denmark and Norway from 1513 until 1523. He was briefly King of Sweden from 1520 until 1521. As king of Denmark, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in joint rule with his uncle Frederick.
As king, Christian tried to maintain the Kalmar Union between the Scandinavian countries, which brought him to war with Sweden, lasting between 1518 and 1523. Though he captured the country in 1520, the subsequent slaughter of leading Swedish nobility, churchmen, and others, known as the Stockholm Bloodbath, caused the Swedes to rise against his rule. He was deposed in a rebellion led by the nobleman and later king of Sweden, Gustav Vasa. He attempted to bring in a radical reform of the Danish state in 1521–22, which would have strengthened the rights of commoners at the expense of the nobles and clergy. The nobility rose against him in 1523, and he was exiled to the Netherlands, ceding the Danish throne to his uncle Frederick.
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