Christian IV lost a few too many battles, mostly with the Swedes, finally bringing his country to the brink of bankruptcy. He died in 1648, consumed by envy at the rise of his Swedish rival, King Gustav II Adolf. One historian wrote of Christian’s funeral, “Financially Denmark had now sunk so low that, when the most splendid of her kings was finally laid to rest, his crown was in pawn and even the silken cloth which covered his coffin had to be bought on credit.” In contrast, by the time Gustav Vasa died, battling the Germans (a preoccupation of his later life), he had transformed Sweden into
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