Christian II, King of Denmark, Norway, et al, has Protestant sympathies, but his evil character and slaughter of his enemies blunts the Reformation from taking root in his kingdoms.

SYNOPSIS:

EPISODE 10, SYNOPSIS, CHRISTIAN

It is 1520, and Christian II, King of Denmark and Norway, is crowned King of Sweden. This unites all of Scandinavia into The Kalmar Union.

Christian and Sigbrit (occultic practitioner and Mother of his deceased Mistress) plot to eliminate future threats to his reign. As a result, 82 Swedish nobles and clerics are beheaded. The event, called The Stockholm Bloodbath, still lives in the consciousness of Sweden.

A rebellion nevertheless occurs led by Gustav Vasa, a strong burly leader whose father was killed at Stockholm. Gustav pieces together an army and a resistance. Christian II abdicates after several bloody battles. He and wife Queen Elizabeth and children are almost killed by cannon fire.

On the way to Denmark by ship, Christian, with his chief cleric, Archbishop Slagheck, toss ten Swedish monks into the Baltic Sea.

Christian detours to the Netherlands to see Desiderius Erasmus, an important Catholic theologian, to question him about Reformation theology. Despite Queen Elizabeth’s interest in the Reformation, Erasmus leaves Christian more indecisive than ever.

While there, Christian visits brother-in-law, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and pleads for money to finance a new army.

Charles and Elizabeth’s mother, Juana, Queen of Castile, comes up in conversation. They question her incarceration by Juana’s mother, Isabella of Castile, due to Juana’s preference for Protestantism.

Charles’ tutor and mentor, Cardinal Adrian Boeyens, visits Juana at a castle in Castile and finds that Juana’s confinement has made her insane. Juana is tortured and reveals shocking mental instability for the family embarrassment of being a Protestant.

With Christian back in Denmark, Pope Leo objects to the murder of clerics in Stockholm. Simultaneously, Gustav Vasa demands the release of his mother from prison. Christian responds by blaming Archbishop Slagheck for the Stockholm Bloodbath.

Christian has Gustav Vasa’s mother beheaded and Archbishop Slagheck burned at the stake.