Frederick III of Denmark

Born 18 March 1609, the second son of Christian IV, Frederick was never meant to rule until his older brother died in 1647. He inherited a kingdom exhausted by his father's costly wars and was shut out of the Peace of Westphalia negotiations in 1648, forced to watch Sweden take Bremen and stop paying the Øresund Tolls. To secure his election, he made large concessions to the nobility. Then he fought Sweden twice and lost both times - in 1658, Charles X Gustav marched 5,000 men across the frozen Belts to Zealand and cornered an unprepared Frederick into signing the Treaty of Roskilde. That defeat became his opening: in 1660 he disbanded the elective monarchy in favor of absolute rule, formalized by law in 1665, a system that endured until 1814 in Norway and 1848 in Denmark. He died 9 February 1670.