Christian II had indeed supported the lesson of Martin Luther and had received in Denmark a certain number of his disciples. With the death of Frederik, the royal council divides between a catholic faction which supports its young person Hans son, and another, Protestant, in favor of his/her oldest son Christian, openly Lutheran. In the middle of this dead end, the count Christophe d' Oldenbourg hoists his banner in the name of Christian II, still in prison. The nobility joins in its majority with the duke Christian, whose German troops take Copenhagen in 1536 and put an end to the last civil war of Denmark (called “war of the count”). Christian immediately puts himself to impose the constitution of a Church Lutheran in his new kingdom. The catholic bishops must yield ecclesiastical grounds and the states approve the new religion. The function of archbishop is abolished. However, the Bible will be published in Danish only in 1550.  

Christian III dies in 1559, followed closely by Christian II, always prisoner of State. Frederik II, son and successor of Christian III, follow a foreign politics less careful than that of his father and it is quickly implied in the fight for the power which proceeds in the Baltic and which opposes Sweden, Russia and Poland. The Seven Year old war with Sweden (1563-1570) pays little to Denmark which in fate with a very weakened treasury. Denmark must withdraw business of the Baltic until the end of the century, but this period of peace makes it possible to reform finances of the kingdom thanks to the councils of Peder Oxe, an excellent chancellor.  

The XVIIe century

In 1596, at the end of a eight years regency, Christian IV, son of Frederik, takes the reins of government. Its appetite of living makes it initially popular near its subjects but, mû by an ambition without limits, it soon will lose the acquired advantages. In 1611, it launches Denmark in a war against Sweden from which it does not obtain anything more than of broad allowances once the peace returned in 1613. For the period of peace which follows, it tries to stimulate the Danish economy while reinforcing the defense of the country. It attaches an private interest to its fleet. He also endeavors to embellish the capital: some of the most famous buildings, the such Stock Exchange and the palate of Rosenborg, are the fruit of its inspiration.  

When the Thirty Year old war bursts in Germany, in 1618, and spite of a preparation and insufficient resources, Christian IV is tempted to intervene once again in the foreign affairs. In 1626, him and its Protestant German allies are beaten by the catholic forces with the battle To fight, and, after the occupation of Jutland by the enemy (1629), it must accept the peace process. It is constrained to leave Sweden, under the reign of Gustave Adolphe (Gustav II), to usurp the old place of Denmark as a first power of the Baltic. In 1643, Sweden attacks Denmark by the south. The Danish fleet is defended honourably but, to the peace of Brömsebro (1645), Christian must yield the island of Gotland and the province of Halland to the Swedes during thirty years. The three last years of its reign were tarnished by conflicts with its council, whose his son-in-law Corfitz Ulfeld had taken the head, and by the disappearance of his/her oldest son.  

His/her son junior, Frederik II, must sign a strict charter so that the royal council accepts its election in 1648, but he endeavors almost at once to release himself from his word. In 1657, Corfitz Ulfeld is obliged to flee in Sweden, country where the king Charles X seems to trap himself more and more in a campaign in Poland. Frederik judges that the occasion is good to take its revenge and declares the war. However, Charles not only succeeds in occupying Jutland but, at the time of the particularly rigorous winter of 1658, he even manages to advance his troops on the ice to the Danish islands and forces Frederik to accept peace. The peace treaty stipulates that Denmark yields the island of Bornholm, the parts of Norway and all the territory still in its possession east of Sund. The war bursts soon again, but this time, the Danes are intractable. Copenhagen is well defended until a Dutch fleet comes to help it, and with the death of Charles X in 1660, a peace is signed. Denmark recovers Bornholm and the center of Norway but must give up forever its possessions in Sund.  

At a meeting of the states in Copenhagen aiming at discussing the financial position the shortly after the war, the middle-class men and the clergy violently tackle the privileges which the nobility enjoys. The crown then opens negotiations with the groups of dissatisfied so that they give their support for the establishment of a hereditary monarchy. The nobility is driven back with the tender. As the charter to which Frederik had subscribed was null and without effect, the states accept that the king defines his new powers. In 1661, he declares absolute monarch, declaration appearing in the royal Law of 1665. The states do not meet any more, but the middle-class men are rewarded and obtain rights equivalent to those of the nobility concerning the ground possession and the possibility of providing a civil service.  

The first part of the reign of Christian V, who becomes king in 1670, is dominated by his chancellor Peder Schumacher (ennobled under the name of count Griffenfeld). Griffenfeld is a typical example of the new nobility established to serve the absolute monarch, even related to the king since the creation of rewards such as the new titles of counts and barons and the orders of knights like that of the Elephant. Griffenfeld loses finally the power following its arrogance and with the jealousy of its rivals. He is recognized guilty of high treason and is condemned to life. After a defeat with the war carried out of 1675 to 1679 against Sweden allied to France, a heavy debt justifies a peaceful foreign politics during the remainder of the reign in addition to a batch of reforms understanding the promulgation, in 1683, of the first code of laws for the whole of the kingdom.  

The reign of Frederik IV begins in 1699 by the signature from an alliance with Russia and Saxony aiming attacking Sweden and at regaining the territories lost earlier in the century. But in 1700, a Swedish army carried out by the young Charles XII unloads close to Copenhagen and Frederik force to withdraw coalition. After the defeat of Charles by Russia with Poltava (1709), Denmark takes share with the hostilities again. However, at the time of the peace treaty of 1720, Denmark obtains only on the part of the great powers a guarantee on the royal possessions of the duchies of Slesvig (Schleswig) and Holstein.  

The XVIIIe century

The last part of the reign of Frederik IV and the reign of his/her son Christian VI, crowned in 1730, see the influence of the pietism reaching its apogee in Denmark under the patronage of the court. Thus, the observance of Sunday is imposed by the law and the playwright Ludvig Holberg ceases writing comedies to devote himself to the tests. However, among the most important achievements, let us quote the re-establishment of the relations with Greenland via the missionary Hans Egede as well as an ordinance of 1739 stipulating the opening of an elementary school in each parish. On the other hand, the country condition worsens. In 1733, with a crisis of agriculture like backdrop, a law is promulgated rivetting for practically all their working life all the male peasants with the field on which they were born (stavnsbånd). In the middle of the century, the economic situation starts to improve and the Danish trade profits from the permanent neutrality of the country in the European wars of the time.  

Frederik V, who reigns of 1746 to 1766, rejects the pietism of his parents and fall into opposite excess. However, whereas it is let absorb more and more by a life of pleasures, the country is controlled by a certain number of qualified ministers carried out by the count Adam Moltke and J.H.E. Bernstorff, which directs at the same time the economic life and the foreign politics. In 1762, the country is about to be implied in a war with Russia because of the claims of the new tsar Pierre III on the duchies of Slesvig and Holstein. The assassination of the tsar this same year offers a peaceful solution to the conflict, leaving the Danish king in possession of his grounds. Moltke and Bernstorff take both in heart to improve agriculture, at the base of the economy of the country. They carry out reforms limited in the properties of which they have control and abolish for example the drudgeries to which the sharecroppers were subjected. However, few of other owners follow their example.  

Moltke and Bernstorff keep their function after the accession of Christian VII with the power (1766), but the new reign sees the birth of a group of reformers definitely more radical carried out inter alia by young German doctor Johan Friedrich Struensee. It acquires the ascending total on the king who shows signs of mental and emotional instability and on the young English queen Caroline Mathilde, of which he becomes the lover. For 18 months, Struensee controls Denmark as a true dictator, promulgating decrees which upset most acquired rights in the country. It is finally reversed in 1772 by a plot of the court, is considered and carried out. The queen is forced to leave the country and dies shortly after in Hanover.  

The power passes to the hands of a preserving group carried out by Ove Høegh-Guldberg, and the reforms end. The opposition to Guldberg concentrates around the crown prince Frederik (the future Frederik VI) and of the nephew to Bernstorff, the count Andreas Peter Bernstorff. In 1784, at his first meeting in the council, Frederik persuades his father to return Guldberg and his assistants and to name Bernstorff and his friends in the place. Hardly places from there, they start to carry out a certain number of reforms whose principal one improves the statute of the peasant.

In 1788, the stavnsbånd is abolished, the sharecroppers and the owners must get along on well defined drudgeries and the possibility of exchanging them against tenant farming. The fence of the open fields also develops and the sharecroppers start to buy their farm. The Danish rural company is truly transformed during the fifty following years.