Johan Friis

Who was Johan Friis?

Johan Friis was a Danish statesman. He was born in Lundbygaard, Sweden, and died in Koge, Denmark. He studied in Odense and in Copenhagen before completing his education abroad.

Few among the ancient Danish nobility occupy so prominent a place in Danish history as Johan Friis, who exercised a decisive influence in the government of the realm during the reign of three kings. He was one of the first of the magnates to adhere to the Reformation and its promoter King Frederick I. Friis succeeded Claus Gjoodsen as imperial chancellor in 1532, and held that dignity till his death.

During the ensuing interregnum he powerfully contributed, at the head of the nobles of Funen and Jutland, to the election of Christian III, but in the course of the Counts' War he was taken prisoner by Count Christopher, the Catholic candidate for the throne, and forced to do him homage. Subsequently by judicious bribery he contrived to escape to Germany, and from thence rejoined Christian III.

He was one of the plenipotentiaries who concluded peace with Lübeck at the congress of Hamburg, and subsequently took an active part in the great work of national reconstruction necessitated by the Reformation, acting as mediator between the Danish and the German parties who were contesting for supremacy during the earlier years of Christian III. This he was able to do, as a moderate Lutheran, whose calmness and common sense contrasted advantageously with the unbridled violence of his contemporaries.