Mogens Gøye

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Mogens Gøye (surname also spelled Gøje or Gjøe), (c. 1470 - 6 April 1544), was a Danish statesman and Steward of the Realm.

Belonging to a very wealthy and influential Jutland magnate family and educated abroad Gøye was already an outstanding man in the times of King John (Hans). His many heritages and buying of lands gave him the nickname ”the King of Jutland”. During the reign of Christian II he became the most influential nobleman of the government.

From 1516 he was the marsk (and besides in reality the leading royal councillor) of Denmark and he performed diplomatically and special tasks (for instance as substitute at the king’s marriage 1514). Though a representative of the great landowners himself and probably an opponent of the king’s middle class advisers Gøye seems to have been loyal to Christian II. He even accepted some of his reform plans trying to moderate them and to damp the dissatisfaction of his social colleagues.

At the rebellion against Christian II (1523) he also supported the king as long as possible but at last he left him accepting the accession of Frederick I. During the latter’s government Gøye had his real golden age. He was made Steward of the Realm (possesseing this post for the rest of his life) and again seems to have tried an act of balance, moderating the political anarchist attitudes of some of the large squires as well as protecting the peasants against encroachments.

In religious matters he became an eager Protestant openly supporting the work of the agitators and reformers and therefore hated by the Roman Catholic clergy. In spite of all efforts he did not succeed in damping the social clash of interests.

After the death of Frederick 1533 Mogens Gøye energetically but in vain tried to secure a common aristocratic and clerical support of Frederick's son Christian III. At the outbreak of the Count's Feud he then whole-heartedly forced through the election of Christian in Jutland (1534) and was his nearest adviser for the rest of the war.

After the victory of Christian III and the Protestant Reformation of (1536) Gøye continued as Steward during the new government but he was weakened by ill health and was gradually overshadowed by Johan Friis.

Often lauded by elder Danish historians as a social liberal upper-class idealist Gøye is today viewed a realist statesman understanding the need of a government and a moderate political attitude of the nobility

His daughter was Birgitte Gøye, married to the admiral Herluf Trolle. A grandson was the statesman Peder Oxe.