When he was nineteen years old, Christian assumed the government in his own name, and was crowned, with great ceremony, in Copenhagen, 1596. None of the other Danish kings have been so zealous for the welfare of Norway. He frequently visited the country, and once even (1599) sailed along the northernmost coast into the White Sea, as he wished to acquaint himself with the circumstances of the northern boundary conflict with Sweden. On his return voyage he came to Bergen, where he witnessed a trial in court, visited the German wharf and watched the games of the Germans. He attended a jolly party at the apothecary's, where the guests smashed the windows; the king's crowned monogram was painted on the new panes. He also visited the peasants and drank toasts with them, according to their custom. King Christian listened to the complaints from Norway of the extortions of the Danish prefects, who, one after another, were deposed from office or compelled to pay heavy fines. He made the Norwegian-born nobleman, Hans Pederson Basse (or Little), Chancellor of Norway. The old Norwegian laws, which were written in the old Norse language, and therefore now hard to understand, were abolished, and, in their stead, the king directed the learned chancellor, Hans Pederson Basse, with the assistance of other experienced men, to elaborate a new code of laws. Hans Pederson died (November, 1602) before this work was completed, but his assistant and successor as Chancellor of Norway, Anders Green, continued it, and the new laws were published in 1604. A Norwegian ecclesiastical law (Ordinance) was also given, because the Danish one was not suited for Norway. Christian IV. had three wars during his long reign, two with Sweden and one with the Catholics in Germany.