Christian II., perceiving that in order to increase the power of the Scandinavian kingdom it was necessary to form great alliances, sought and obtained the hand of Isabella, sister of the Emperor Charles V. The princess, then fifteen years of age, arrived at Copenhagen in August, 1518, bringing with her a dower of 300,000 florins. The honors which she received on her entry into the capital were too much for her strength. While a bishop was delivering before her an interminable discourse, she turned pale, tottered, and fainted away, the first of her ladies in waiting catching her in her arms. The king showed great respect for her; but in the midst of royal fêtes and pomp, a sharp thorn of sorrow pierced the soul of the daughter of the Cæsars. During a residence at Bergen, in Norway, of which kingdom he had been viceroy, Christian had made the acquaintance of a young and beautiful Dutchwoman, named Dyveke, whose mother Sigbrit kept a hostelry. The prince conceived a violent passion for the girl, and thenceforth lived with her. She died in 1517; but her mother, a proud, tyrannical, and angry woman, who had a great mastery over other minds and who was competent even to give prudent counsel in affairs of state, retained the favor of the prince after her daughter’s death. He had more consideration for her than for any one else; and when the king was at her house the greatest lords and most esteemed ministers were compelled to wait before her door, exposed to rain or snow, till the time came for them to be admitted. The cold policy of which she made avowal, led this fierce prince into grave errors and terrible deeds.[223] A commissioner of the pope, named Arcimbold, having, in 1517, obtained from the king by dint of much flattery a license for the sale of indulgences to the peoples of the North, had set out his wares in front of the principal churches. ‘By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ said he, ‘and of our holy father the pope, I absolve you from all the sins which you have committed, however enormous they may be; and I restore you to the purity and the innocence which you possessed at the time of your baptism, in order that at your death the gates of heaven may be opened to you.’[224] The papal commissioner, not satisfied with laying hold of the money of the king’s subjects, was anxious also to gain the favor of the king. He managed the matter so craftily that he succeeded. Christian disclosed to him his projects and the most hidden secrets of his government, in the hope that either the legate or the pope himself would favor his designs.