opposed her son the king's desired marriage with her maid of honor Anne Hardenberg, a matter which was also drawn out for years. The relationship between queen dowager Dorothea and her reigning son king Frederick II was tense. Frederick was given his own court at the age of twenty, and Dorothea often used her authority as his mother to reprimand him for his lifestyle of "drinking and other indecencies", and this state of affairs did not change after Frederick became king. She favored her younger sons, particularly Magnus, to the point that he had difficulties handling his responsibilities on his own, and protected her younger children from her eldest son the king and what she regarded as his bad influence. Her less favorable view upon her eldest son may also have affected by the fact that he did not attend his fathers deathbed, despite the fact that his mother repeatedly called upon him during his father's illness to do so. Dorothea considered it her God given right and duty as a mother not only to love but to advise and rule over her children, including her son the king, and once wrote: "It does not become a faithful mother to be silent about what could bring the ruin to her children, or to flatter, rather God has earnestly commanded not to spare the lash." However, Frederick II detested both her reprimands and her attempts to involve in state affairs as she had done during his father's reign. The tense relationship between Dorothea and Frederick II finally resulted in a break during the Nordic Seven Years War (1562-1570). Dorothea intensely disliked the war and repeatedly offered herself as a mediator to put an end to it. Her son Frederick II greatly disliked her interference and warned her to stay out of state affairs in no uncertain terms, upon which she replied: "We can, God be praised, do without this long journey to Sweden and now have a good day with a clear conscience [...] You may be convinced, that we have no intention to trouble ourselves in this matter, when we can understand from your letter that you now better" - but she resumed her efforts to act as a mediator the following year. Dorothea issued separate contact with Sweden, and in 1567, Frederick II discovered that his mother had conducted secret negotiations to arranged a marriage between his brother Magnus