The Wendic towns had accepted Erik’s deposition by the Danish rigsrad.; it was thus natural for the old king to seek support from their rivals in the Netherlands. In the winter of 1439—40 Erik concluded an alliance with the overlord of the Low Countries, Duke Philip of Burgundy. In return for help in his restoration he promised extensive trading privileges to the towns in the Netherlands and agreed to pledge the castles of Elsinore and Helsingborg to Philip. In view of this danger the Danes acclaimed Christoffer as king (9 April 1440). Less than a month later Christoffer enfeoffed Adolf VIII of Holstein with the entire duchy of Schleswig. In 1441 peace was concluded between the Wendic towns, the Netherlands, Duke Adolf and Denmark (Treaty of Copenhagen, 29 August 1441). Lubeck had not succeeded in keeping vessels from the Low Countries out of the Baltic.
In 1440 Hans Laxmand, archbishop of Lund, negotiated with the Swedish councillors on Christoffer’s behalf. In return for the promise of Finland and Oland as fiefs, Karl Knutsson agreed to leave the government. He accordingly resigned in the autumn of 1440, and the Swedes declared themselves in favour of Christoffer; in September 1441 he was acclaimed and crowned at Uppsala. In June 1442 the Norwegian rigsrad accepted him as king of Norway. In July he was crowned at Oslo and finally also at Ribe, in Denmark (1 January 1443). The Union had been restored, but in a less centralised form than under Erik. Legally speaking, the only institutions covering the three kingdoms were now Christoffer as king and a few commonly observed practices such as the recognition in all countries of a sentence of outlawry imposed in any one of them.
As Christoffer was going to be absent from Norway for long periods, he set up a royal commission to deal with complaints regarding the administration of justice, with wide powers to redress wrongs. In Sweden, a similar commission with six members was established. Its task was mainly to supervise the granting of fiefs which were to be held on the king’s behalf by the commission. In addition, a treasury for the king’s Swedish revenue was set up. Yet the most far-reaching development was the new code for the rural districts, which was a revision of one now almost a century old. Kristoffers landslag was ready by 1442. It stressed Sweden’s character of constitutional elective monarchy governed by king and riksrad and administered by native Swedes.
At Christoffer’s Danish coronation at Ribe important ecclesiastical reforms were adopted: for example, the payment of tithes to bishops was introduced where it had not been practised. Yet, in reality, things continued much as before. Many monasteries needed reform; this is why the Danish archbishop and Christoffer issued a joint manifesto calling for monastic reform. Everybody except the peasants — prelates, aristocracy and burgesses — was asked for help in attaining this noble aim. In practice, it meant that many monasteries came under the administration of laymen, losing their economic independence. At the same time, parish churches lost theirs, as their finances came to be controlled by the bishop, and no longer by the parish alone. The reforms could have rendered ecclesiastical administration more efficient, if they had been carried out with probity. However, they proved to have far-reaching, but unforeseen, consequences. The concentration of economic power in the hands of the bishops made them vulnerable. Were they to be neutralised, it would be fairly easy to gain control over the Church, especially as monasteries and parishes had lost their autonomy. The Lutheran Reformers of the 1530s were well aware of these facts.
Christoffer’s Danish government was important in another respect. It moved the financial administration from Kalundborg to Copenhagen, where the king preferred to stay. The connection between royal residence and permanent central administration in one of the biggest towns of the country justifies us in considering Copenhagen as the capital of Denmark from the 1440s.
King Christoffer’s foreign policy had to deal with issues in two separate regions: the North Sea and the Baltic. Although the settings were different, the two were connected, as the Wendic towns and Christoffer had interests in both.
In 1442 Bergen’s local government passed statutes limiting German influence, while at the same time the rigsrad granted trading licences to English merchants at Bergen. Similarly, in 1443—4 a number of towns in the Low Countries, among them Amsterdam, were allowed to trade with Norway. In order to satisfy the Wendic towns, Christoffer set up a commission to hear complaints and to propose means for their redress. Against the minority view that the Hanseatics were indispensable for the provisioning of northern Norway, the majority prevailed. The position of the Hanseatic merchants was weakened and German craftsmen were not allowed to create an organisation corresponding to the German merchants’ kontor. A Norwegian public quality control of fish for sale was established, and a German merchant could only claim half of his debtor’s catch.
Christoffer accepted these proposals by the act of 4 December 1444, but appeared to contradict himself by confirming Hanseatic liberties in Norway in 1445. In so doing, he was playing for time: the privileges represented the exception, the act the rule. Christoffer’s successor would be bound by the act and not by the privileges, and if Christoffer later felt strong enough to stand up to the Wendic towns, he would be free to revoke their privileges.
Baltic affairs were more complicated. Three main issues can be discerned: the traditional desire to control trade with Novgorod; the wish to recover Gotland, controlled by King Erik; and, above all, the aim of curtailing the Wendic towns’ domination of the Baltic.
Lubeck and her Wendic allies maintained relations with Erik in order to wring concessions from Christoffer. In his turn Erik held out the possession of Gotland as a bait to the Teutonic Order in return for military assistance in his restoration.
Novgorod’s trade with the west was flourishing, a considerable part of it being in non-Hanseatic hands, a fact which jeopardised the traditional transit trade of the Livonian towns. In the 1440s Novgorod’s policy aimed at their eviction from its trade, because the republic sought an understanding with Lithuania. This could threaten the rule of the Teutonic Order in Livonia, while in Prussia the Order was under Polish pressure. Consequently, the Livonian Master sought support where it was to be had, namely in the Nordic countries.
In the autumn of 1444 Christoffer sent Karl Knutsson from Viborg with a force against Pskov, and promised the Teutonic Order in Livonia not to allow trade to Novgorod from his kingdoms. The engagement at the side of the Teutonic Order’s Livonian branch against Novgorod remained a constant factor in Christoffer’s foreign policy, and that mainly for three reasons: Estonia and Livonia were a traditional sphere of interest for Sweden—Finland and Denmark, as Erik’s policy had shown; further, by supporting the Teutonic Order actively, Erik’s offer of Gotland in return for military aid became less tempting; finally, Danzig, which belonged to the Order, was one of the major markets for Swedish exports.
The solution of the Gotland question by military means had probably been considered seriously in the summer of 1447. Preparations ensued, but before the invasion could take place, Christoffer died, probably on 5 January 1448, leaving no issue. In home affairs he had realised the necessity to respect the new constitutional rules, while in foreign affairs he had demonstrated a subtlety which recalled Queen Margrete. His handling of Norwegian trade privileges is eloquent proof of this.