The house of Oldenburg began its reign in Denmark in the year 1448. Christian, who was the first sovereign of that race, and of that name, neglected his dominions in the North in order to turn his attention to the South. He made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he obtained from the Pope a grant of the country of Ditmarsh, and permission to establish an academy at Copenhagen. Christian I was succeeded by Christian II, who, at the period of his coronation, bound himself by a solemn promise to make every possible exertion to restore the intercourse between Denmark and Greenland, and to recover that settlement. But this monarch, instead of recovering what his predecessors had lost, himself lost part of what they had possessed. His tyrannical barbarities caused him to be expelled from Sweden, which Queen Margaret had united with the Danish and Norwegian crown. From Sweden Christian II retired into Denmark; but the same conduct which had occasioned his expulsion by the Swedes, soon led to his deposition by the Danes. It is on this account that he is represented with a shivered sceptre amongst the Danish kings. Eric Valkandor, who had been chancellor to Christian II, and was a Danish gentleman of great and generous sentiments, had been made Archbishop of Drontheim. After the disgrace of his master, he retired to his archiepiscopal see, where he exerted himself with great zeal and activity in order to renew the communication with Greenland, and to discover the fate of that ancient settlement. This learned prelate made it his business to read all the books in which it was mentioned, to examine all the merchants and mariners who had any knowledge of it; and he also caused a chart to be formed of the route which was supposed to have been observed. He was on the point of putting his projects in execution, when, being suspected of favouring the cause of the deposed monarch, he was deprived of his archbishoprick, and banished from the Norwegian territory. The benevolent scheme, which he had formed, was thus disconcerted; and the hopes, which had been excited, vanished in disappointment. The good Archbishop Valcandor retired to Rome, where he ended his days. Frederick I was succeeded by Christian III, who had an expedition fitted out for the discovery of the lost settlement in Greenland; but this proved as abortive as similar attempts had previously been. This monarch now repealed the ordinances which his predecessors had established, by which all communication with Greenland had been strictly prohibited, without a special permission from the crown. The intercourse was now rendered free, without any limitations or restraints. But this act of royal grace came too late to be of any use; for the Norwegians at this period had degenerated from the enterprizing valour of their ancestors; and they were, at the same time, so impoverished that they did not possess the means of equipping any vessels for such a difficult and hazardous undertaking.