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Christian I of Denmark (1426 – 1481), Danish monarch and union king of Denmark (1448 – 1481), Norway (1450 – 1481) and Sweden (1457 – 1464), under the Kalmar Union. In Sweden his short tenure as monarch was preceded by viceroys (Regents), Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and Erik Axelsson Tott and succeeded by viceroy (regent) Kettil Karlsson Vasa. Also Duke of Schleswig-Holstein 1460-81.

He was born in February 1426 in Oldenburg. His father was Count Dietrich of Oldenburg (died 1444) whom he succeeded as Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. His mother was his father's second wife, Hedwig of Schleswig and Holstein (Helvig of Schauenburg) (died 1436). Christian had two brothers, Count Moritz V of Delmenhorst (1428 - 1464) and Count Gerhard VI of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst (1430 - 1500), and one sister Adelheid.

1448 Christian was elected to the vacant Danish throne, as a cognatic descendant of King Eric V of Denmark. The throne was firstly offered by the Statsraad to the most prominent feudal lord of Danish dominions, i.e Duke Adolf VIII of Schleswig-Holstein, but (relatively old and childless) he declined and recommended his nephew.

Christian soon also married Dorothea of Brandenburg (1430 - November 25 1495), the widow of his predecessor King Christopher (of Bavaria) and thus dowager queen, on October 28 1449 in Copenhagen. Dorothea and Christian had five children:

1. Olaf (1450-1451)
2. Knut (1451-1455)
3. John (Kung Hans) (1455 - 1513), Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
4. Margarete of Denmark (1456-1486), 13 years old married to the 17 years old King James III of Scotland
5. Frederick (1471-1533), Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, in Gottorp, later also King of Denmark and Norway

After an intervening brief reign of another, in 1450 Christian was recognized also to succeed to the hereditary throne of Norway, as a cognatic descendant of King Haakon V of Norway. The throne had originally been left vacant at the death of Christian's predecessor in Denmark, king Christopher of Norway, and was briefly occupied in 1449 by the Swedish rival (who was not of blood of Norwegian kings), Charles Knutsson (Charles I of Norway) who however became deposed in Norway in 1450. (At the time, Norway was the only Scandinavian kingdom which was hereditary. However, beginning from the 14th century, it had become so weak that its hereditary succession tended to follow the monarch-elections in Denmark and Norway.) Christian's mother Hedwig of Schauenburg (countess consort of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst) was a descendant, and in her issue the heiress-general, of Ingeborg of Mecklenburg (Countess consort of Holstein and Schauenburg), a daughter of Euphemia of Sweden and Norway (Duchess Albert of Mecklenburg), herself the only daughter of Ingeborg of Norway, Duchess Consort of Sudermannia, who was the only daughter and sole surviving child of Haakon V of Norway and Euphemia of Rugen.

In 1460 King Christian also became Duke of Schleswig and Count of Holstein (during his tenure, Holstein was 1474 elevated a Duchy by the Holy Roman Emperor). Christian inherited Schleswig-Holstein after a short "interregnum" as the eldest son of the sister of late Duke Adolf VIII, Duke of Schleswig (Southern Jutland) and Count of Holstein, of the Schauenburg furstlig clan, who died 4 December 1459, without children. There would have been several genealogically senior claimants of Holstein, but Christian was nephew of the incumbent, the closest relative to that very branch which had lived longest and acquired most fiefs. Christian's succession was confirmed by the Estates (nobility and representatives) of these provinces in Ribe 5 March 1460.

King Christian died in Copenhagen on May 21, 1481, at the age of 55. Through his fourth and fifth children respectively, he was an ancestor to James VI, of Scotland and England, and his wife, Anne of Denmark. He is therefore an ancestor to the present-day British royal family, including Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Through his eldest surviving son, he is ancestor of Dukes of Lorraine (later Emperors of Austria) and also of Electors of Saxony. Through his youngest son, he is ancestor of kings of denmark, Greece, Norway, some kings of Sweden, as well as Tsars of Russia.

• 1426 births
• 1481 deaths
• Danish monarchs
• Kalmar Union
• House of Oldenburg
• Norwegian monarchs
• Swedish monarchs