Christina of Denmark
duchess consort of Milan and duchess consort of Lorraine (1521-1590)
Christina of Denmark (Danish: Christine, [ˈkʰʁɛsd̥iːnə]; November 1521 – 10 December 1590) was a Danish princess, the younger surviving daughter of King Christian II of Denmark and Norway and Isabella of Austria. By her two marriages, she became Duchess of Milan, then Duchess of Lorraine. She served as the regent of Lorraine from 1545 to 1552 during the minority of her son. She was also a claimant to the thrones of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in 1561–1590 and was sovereign Lady of Tortona from 1578 to 1584.
Early life
Christina was born in Nyborg on Funen, Denmark in 1521 to King Christian II of Denmark and his wife Isabella of Austria, the third child of Duke Philip of Burgundy and Queen Joanna of Castile. In January 1523, nobles rebelled against her father and offered the throne to his uncle, Duke Frederick of Holstein. Christina and her sister and brother followed their parents into exile in April of the same year, to Veere in Zeeland, the Netherlands, and were raised by the Dutch regents, their grandaunt and aunt, Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. In 1532, her father Christian II of Denmark was imprisoned in Denmark after an attempt to retake his throne. The same year, her brother died, and she became second in line to her father's claim to the Danish throne after her elder sister Dorothea.
Christina was given a good education by her aunt, the regent of the Netherlands, under supervision of her governess, Madame de Fiennes.
“Christina of Denmark” enters the record as duchess consort of Milan and duchess consort of Lorraine (1521-1590). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Christina, Denmark and duchess can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q233821. VIAF identifies the subject as 122299382. The Library of Congress control number is nr2001031861. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1521, 1590, 1545 and 1552.
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This entry incorporates text from “Christina of Denmark” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.