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Christoffer af Bayern Kristofer av Bayern
By the grace of God, King of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Wends and the Goths, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria[1]
Reign	9 April 1440–5 January 1448 (Denmark) 1442–5 January 1448 (Norway) 1441–5 January 1448 (Sweden)
Coronation	13 September 1441 in Uppsala (as king of Sweden) 2 July 1442 in Oslo (as king of Norway) 1 January 1443 in Ribe (as king of Denmark)
Born	February 26, 1418(1418-02-26)
Died	5/January 6, 1448
	Helsingborg
Buried	Roskilde Cathedral, Roskilde
Predecessor	Eric of Pomerania (Denmark and Norway) Karl Knutsson Bonde, Regent (Sweden)
Successor	Christian I (Denmark) Carl I (Norway) Regents Bengt and Nils Oxenstierna (Sweden)
Consort	Dorothea of Brandenburg
Issue	None
Royal House	Pfalz-Neumarkt as branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty
Father	Duke John of Pfalz-Neumarkt
Mother	Catherine Vratislava

Christopher of Bavaria known by his Danish and Norwegian title as Christoffer (III) af/av Bayern and by his Swedish title as Kristofer av Bayern (26 February 1416-5 January/6 January 1448) was union king of Denmark (1440-1448), Sweden (1441-1448) and Norway (1442-1448).

He was probably born at Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, the son of Duke John of Pfalz-Neumarkt and Catherine Vratislava, sister to Eric of Pomerania. Duke John was a son of King Ruprecht of Palatinate. In 1445 he married Dorothea of Brandenburg (1430-November 25, 1495), in Copenhagen.

King Eric of Pomerania was deposed as king of Denmark and Sweden in 1439. As Eric's nephew, Christopher, who was rather unfamiliar to Scandinavian conditions, was elected by the Danish Council of the realm as the successor to his uncle, first as regent from 1439, and then as king on 9 April 1440. He was probably just meant to be a puppet, however he succeeded in maintaining some personal line. As a whole his rule, according to the politics of the nobility and his succession, might be called the start of the long period of balance between royal power and nobility which lasted until 1660. He was later elected king of Sweden in 1441, and Norway in June 1442.

Seal of Christopher of Bavaria.

Christopher of Bavaria.

In 1441 Christopher crushed a great peasant rebellion in Northern Jutland (one of the central domestic events of his short rule) and as a whole his reign meant a growing suppression of the peasantry especially in Eastern Denmark. On the other hand he tried to support the cities and their merchants as far as the limits of nobility and Hanseatic cities allowed. During his reign Copenhagen was made permanently the capital of Denmark (municipal charter of 1443).

He carried on a half-hearted policy of war and negotiations against his exiled uncle on Gotland probably in order to damp the dissatisfaction within both Sweden and the Hansabund. The results of this policy of balance were still not reached when he suddenly died as the last descendant of Valdemar Atterdag.

Christopher died suddenly at Helsingborg in 1448. On October 28, 1449, Dorothea remarried Christian I. King Christopher is buried in Roskilde Cathedral. In 1654 his Wittelsbach family returned to power in Sweden.

• Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, vol. 7, Copenhagen 1980.
• Politikens Danmarkshistorie, vol. 4 by Erik Kjersgaard, Copenhagen 1962.
• Politikens bog om Danske Monarker by Benito Scocozza, Copenhagen 1998