Kirsten Munk

Kirsten Munk (sometimes "Christina Munk"; 6 July 1598 19 April 1658) was a Danish noblewoman, who became the second spouse of King Christian IV of Denmark, and the mother of twelve of his children.

Early life and morganatic marriage

Kirsten Munk was the only surviving daughter of Ludvig Munk (1537–1602) and Ellen Marsvin (1572–1649), members of the wealthy, but untitled Danish nobility. Her mother, widowed a second time in 1611, was the greatest landowner on Funen.

Prior to yielding Kirsten to the evident desires of King Christian, her mother negotiated that, because Kirsten was a member of the nobility and not a commoner, she would become his wife rather than his mistress, and that she receive properties in her own name as tokens of the king's honourable intentions. On 31 December 1615, she was married morganatically to the widowed king, but not within a church. In 1627, she was given the title Countess of Schleswig-Holstein. In the end, he formally charged Kirsten with adultery, witchcraft, and consorting with a magician in Hamburg.

His mother-in-law sought to mitigate the king's indignationseveral of her granddaughters were then engaged to marry Denmark's leading noblesby encouraging him to engage in an affair with her daughter's lady-in-waiting, Vibeke Kruse. Although the king did father children with Kruse who later became political rivals of Kirsten Munck's children and in-laws, he continued with the divorce and exiled her to Jutland in 1629.

Kirsten herself refused to admit her adultery. After an interrogation, she was kept at Stjernholm in Horsens and then placed under house arrest in Boller in 1637. This confinement continued until 1647, allegedly owing to Vibeke Kruse's encouragement to the king to remain strict. However, Kirsten was never brought to trial despite repeated threats to that effect from the king and her good relationship with her children and in-laws led to their intercession with the king and the removal of her confinement.

Later life On his deathbed in 1648, her husband sent for her, but by the time she arrived he was already dead. Kirsten and her children then had Vibeke Kruse banished from court. She also had her marriage and children confirmed as legitimate, although morganatic.

The Sons-in-law Party spoke for her in the council 1648–51, and when it fell from power, she supported her son-in-law Corfitz Ulfeldt. Ulfeldt and her daughter Leonora sided with Sweden, and Kirsten Munk is alleged to have financed King Charles X of Sweden's invasion and occupation of Denmark-Norway. She died during the Swedish occupation and was given a grand funeral in Odense.

Cultural references The 2018 drama film Christian IV - Den sidste rejse describes the relationship between Christian IV (Bard Ove) and Kirsten Munk (Karen-Lise Mynster). The 1998 novel Music and Silence by Rose Tremain, is a fictionalized account of the disintegration of the relationship between Kirsten Munk and Christian IV, mirrored by a developing relationship between a young lady in waiting of Munk and a musician of the Royal Court.