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CHAPTER XXIIL

DENMARK FROM 1730 TO 1839.

Frederick IV. succeeded by Christian VI., who encourages Germans-The Queen despises everything Danish-Her mania for building and pulling down-Crown Prince discouraged in learning Danish-Bigotry of Court-Tyranny in Religion-Reproofs and penalties and stocks awarded to those who neglected services of the Church-Orders sent to Iceland to regulate domestic life-Hypocrisy-Frederick V. and English Queen undo all that his father had done-Great reaction-French manners followed-King's weakness-Good ministers-Their services--The Gottorp princes-Russian emperor-His hatred to Denmark-His threats-Danger of invasion-His murder averts the peril-Peace with Russia-Christian VII. and his Queen Caroline Matilda of England -King's weakness-His acts-His favourites-Struensee and BrandtTheir power, influence, acts-Their fate-Queen's disgrace-Removal from Copenhagen-Her early death-The execution of the ministersThe power of Queen Dowager and her son-The Guldberg MinistryPrince Frederick acts as Regent- Guldberg's party dismissed-Bernstorf's influence and acts-Slave trade abolished-Armed neutrality— Difficulties with England-Nelson's appearance-Battle--His admiration of Danish valour-Danish heroes-Peace with England-Some years of quiet-Denmark trading agent for other countries-English squadron under Gambier seizes on Danish fleet-Danes nearly crushed Gustavus IV. of Sweden attacks Norway-Frederick VI. reigns alone from 1808 on the death of his father-Critical position-Forced into alliance with Napoleon-French army under Bernadotte sent to Jutland -The mutinies of troops-Bernadotte withdraws without striking a blow-Paper money issued-Merchants ruined-Frederick's fickle policy-Norway given to Sweden-England takes Heligoland-King disappointed in not securing Swedish throne, which is obtained by Bernadotte-Gradual improvement of country-Legislative Chambers opened-King anxious to draw back from further political concessions-Laws against the press-Great turmoil-His death.

PART I.

A PERIOD OF RESTRAINT.

Christian VI., 1730-1746.-THE reign of Christian VI. of Denmark, who succeeded his father, Frederick IV., in 1730,

is only remarkable for its peculiarly un-Danish and strong German character. The queen, Sophia Magdalena of Kulm bach-Bayreuth, exerted her great influence over the king in filling all offices of trust with Germans, and in banishing from the court the language and usages of the country; and in her dislike for everything Danish, she even tried to prevent the crown prince being taught to understand his native tongue. She had a fatal mania for building, which led her to pull down one palace only to erect another on some site that pleased her better. Thus she demolished the noble castle of Axelhus in Copenhagen, which Frederick IV. had restored and enlarged at great expense, and substituted for it the enormous building known as Christiansborg, which cost near 3,000,000 rix dollars and was seven years in building. To gratify a whim of hers, a beautiful hunting palace was erected at Hirschholm on a piece of swampy land, where the foundations soon gave way, and the house had to be pulled down. While the queen was thus indulging her expensive hobby, the king was introducing a system of bigotry and pietism into the country to which Denmark had hitherto been an entire stranger, and which soon brought about the most deplorable state of hypocrisy and intolerance. A General Church Inspection College was established in 1737, which may be regarded as a Protestant form of the Court of Inquisition, for the duties of its directors consisted in taking cognizance of the doctrines and lives of all preachers and teachers in the kingdom, watching over the proper performance of church services, and inspecting all works that passed through the Danish press. Heavy penalties were inflicted, and severe reproofs were publicly given from the pulpits in accordance with the decisions of this inquisitorial court, which moreover punished neglect of attendance at church by money fines, and in default of payment with the long disused penalty of standing in the stocks, which were for that purpose erected before every church door. All public amusements were forbidden, together with recreations that had hitherto been thought harmless, as riding or driving on a Sunday; and all the old national games and festivities were put down as things offensive to God and injurious to the working man." A royal decree was drawn up for the main

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tenance of household piety and domestic virtue in Iceland, in which the islanders were warned to abstain from reading idle stories, and so-called Sagas, which were not "seemly for a Christian soul's entertainment, and were a cause of offence to the Holy Ghost." The result of these coercive measures was to create great dissensions in churches and families, and to form a party who, in spite of all restrictions, showed utter indifference to religion, and tried by ridicule to bring the pietists into discredit.

Frederick V., 1746-1766. French manners.--When, by the death of Christian VI. in 1746, his eldest son, Frederick V., ascended the throne, all the ordinances of the former reign were annulled, and brilliancy and liberty were restored to the court under the direction of the good-humoured sociable king, and his lovely young queen, Louisa, daughter of George II. of England. The royal couple, by their youth, beauty and affability, won the hearts of the people, and the nation at large rejoiced publicly at their release from the religious thraldom in which the late king had bound them. At first the reaction seemed harmless and even beneficial, and as long as Queen Louisa lived, the amusements of the court were kept within the bounds of moderation, but after her death in 1751, and when another queen, Juliana Maria of Brunswick, had taken her place, greater luxury began to prevail, and in the attempt to imitate the sumptuous habits of the French, the Danish royal family were led to incur expenses for which the ordinary resources of the crown were quite inadequate. Frederick himself towards the close of his life fell into habits of drinking, which, coupled with his naturally easy good nature, often made him a tool in the hands of unworthy favourites. But although he was not himself an active or efficient ruler, he had the good fortune to secure able ministers, amongst whom the most distinguished were Counts Schimmelmann and Bernstorf. To the latter Denmark owes a large debt of gratitude, for to him are mainly due all the great improvements in manufactures, trade, and agriculture which distinguish this reign. He encouraged. learning, established societies for the promotion of science, invited learned teachers, as Mallet and Schlegel, into the country; was the means of sending Niebuhr to Arabia to

make archæological researches; co-operated with the Norwegian Holberg, the greatest dramatic writer of his time, in the reorganization of the noble academy of Sorö near Copenhagen; founded hospitals in the chief towns of the kingdom, and in many other ways used his great influence in promoting the general education and improved cultivation of the people. This reign was peaceful, although more than once war seemed imminent, owing to the new influence acquired by Denmark's old enemies, the Gottorp princes, through the accession of Charles Peter Ulrik, the head of their house, to the throne of Russia, on the death of his mother's sister, the Empress Elizabeth. This prince, who assumed the title of Peter III., bore strong feelings of hatred to Denmark on account of the losses inflicted upon his family by the incorporation of the Slesvig territories with the Danish crown lands, and in 1762 he sent an army into Mecklenburg, with orders to advance on the duchies, and openly announced his intention of driving the Danish royal family out of Europe, and forcing them to take refuge in their East Indian settlement at Tranquebar. The danger was threatening, and the Danes were in daily expectation of hearing that the fleet, which had been equipped in haste to defend the coasts, would come into conflict with the Russian squadron lying in wait for it in the Baltic, when their fears of coming war were suddenly set at rest by the news of the murder of the emperor, Peter III., on the 14th of July, 1762. The empress, Catherine II., who succeeded her husband, the murdered prince, and was known to have been averse to the war, at once concluded a peace with Denmark, by which she renounced, in the name of her son, all claims to the Gottorp lands in Holstein in exchange for Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. This treaty, which was brought about by the able diplomacy of Count Bernstorf, relieved Denmark of a very great cause of danger, and although only conditional at the time it was first drawn up, owing to the minority of the Czarevitz, Paul, it was duly confirmed by him when he reached his majority in 1773.

PART II.

STRUENSEE'S RULE..

Christian VII., 1766-1808.—Christian VII.. was only seventeen years of age when he succeeded his father, Frederick V., in 1766, and in the same year he married his cousin, Caroline Matilda, the beautiful sister of George III. of England. This prince was both obstinate and morose, and was weak in body and mind. His distrust of his stepmother, the dowager queen Juliana Maria, induced him to dismiss from his service all who had enjoyed favour during the former reign, and to fill their places with new favourites. Thus within the first few years of his reign, Count Bernstorf, Admiral Danneskjold-Samsoe, to whom the Danish navy owed much of its efficiency, and several other able ministers of the crown, had been driven out of the country, and all the power of the state thrown into the hands, first of Count Holk, a young man of vicious habits, who did much to injure the king in health and character, and afterwards into those of Brandt and Struensee. These two men, whose names are intimately associated with the extraordinary events which in the course of a few years brought about their own and the young queen's ruin, and threw the king into the power of hist enemies, were by no means of equal ability or like responsibility. Johan Frederick Struensee, the originator and guiding spirit in all the despotic measures in which both were engaged, was a man of great natural ability and extensive knowledge. At the time he was appointed private physician to Christian VII. during the tour which that king made in 1768 through the principal countries of Europe, he had already acquired considerable reputation both in his profession and by his literary productions, and when the University of Oxford in the course of the same year conferred the degree of D.C.L. on King Christian, they gave that of M.D. to Struensee "in recognition of his great merits in science and literature." By his address this able man soon supplanted the favourite, Count Holk, and succeeded in persuading the king to recall from banishment his former chamberlain, Enevold von Brandt, and Count Rantzau-Ascheberg, a dismissed minister. whose acquaintance

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