On his deathbed King John recommended Ove Bille to his son Christian II.

When Frederick I died in 1533 he headed the Catholic Party and tried to have the young Duke John II made the new king but after a meeting in Gammel Rye in 1534 with the councils of Jutland he had to accept Christian III instead.

[3][2] The proclamation of Christian III eventually led to the Count's Feud conflict and the coup d'état in 1536 and the conclusion of the reformation in Denmark.

Catholic bishops were subsequently stripped of their titles and the many large lands accumulated by the church was confiscated by the crown.

Not until Bille refused to give over Silkeborg Castle to the king was he eventually imprisonment although still quite leniently.