Christian VII (Denmark and Norway)

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Christian VII of Denmark,
painting by Jens Juel , 1789

Christian VII (born January 29, 1749 in Copenhagen ; † March 13, 1808 in Rendsburg ) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1766 to 1808 and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein and from 1766 until the Treaty of Tsarskoe Selo in 1774 Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. He came from the Oldenburg family . Christian VII was considered insane . He is known to posterity primarily because of the affair surrounding his personal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee .

Life

youth

Christian as the three-year-old Crown Prince
King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway by Jens Juel

Christian VII was the son of Frederick V , King of Denmark and Norway, and his first wife, Louise of Great Britain . Christian was the fourth child and the second son of his parents. His older brother of the same name died a year and a half before Christian was born at the age of two. On the occasion of the birth of the new crown prince, Christoph Willibald Gluck composed the opera La contesa dei Numi , which was performed on April 9, 1749 when the queen went to church for the first time in Copenhagen. The "dispute of the gods" revolves around which of the Olympian gods is best suited to educate the Crown Prince and how.

Christian was less than three years old when his mother died during her sixth pregnancy. Parental affection was denied to the prince. His stepmother Juliane von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , whom his father married less than a year later, showed no interest in him, but preferred her biological son Frederik . The father himself became increasingly indifferent to the shy, sensitive child, who was also prone to epileptic seizures. Christian was treated very strictly by his tutor , Count Detlev von Reventlow (1712–1783). Interest in government business was deliberately not aroused by this education. Christian was considered intelligent as a youth, and his teacher of French literature, Élie-Salomon-François Reverdil , encouraged his interest in philosophy and the Enlightenment . However, he showed signs of mental illness from a young age . According to Viggo Christiansen, he suffered from schizophrenia . Ole Sylvester Joergensen, on the other hand, suspects Asperger's syndrome as the cause of Christian's social disorders.

Accession to government and marriage

Christian's father died on January 14, 1766, and a few days later Christian VII was crowned shortly before his 17th birthday. As in his father's time, government affairs were initially carried out by the Cabinet called the Secret Council , in particular Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff , the chairman of the German Chancellery . The only task of the king was to sign the resolutions, because according to the Danish royal law all power came from the king alone. The regents had no interest in the king's real participation in the government. What worried her, however, was that after just a few days, the young king's unpredictability became apparent when he dismissed the long-time court marshal Adam Gottlob von Moltke .

Christian VII and Caroline Mathilde

At the age of seventeen he married his fifteen-year-old cousin Caroline Mathilde of Great Britain , the sister of King George III of England , on November 8, 1766 at Christiansborg Palace . , to whom he had been engaged two years earlier. The marriage turned unhappy. The king publicly declared that he did not love her and instead roamed the streets with his favorite Conrad Holck . He had a relationship with the prostitute Anne Cathrine Benthagen (Støvlet-Cathrine) (1745-1805), to whom he fell completely into disrepair and which he even brought to the court. At the beginning of 1768 she was arrested, initially locked in prison and later expelled from the country when the king set out on his European tour, but received a handsome pension when she married the customs inspector Conrad Ditlev Maes in 1770. The young king's antics quickly became known and caused offense. The ruling ministers tried in vain to at least hide his condition and behavior from foreign diplomats and finally sent him on a trip abroad.

Europe trip

On May 6, 1768, the king set off on a journey through Europe with a large retinue. The Grand Tour , which is customary for young nobles , had been planned before his father's death. Immediately before the trip began, an extra tax was levied to finance the expenses. Bernstorff accompanied the king in order to monitor him and to derive political benefit from the trip. Caroline Mathilde would also have wanted to go to visit her family, but was left behind in Copenhagen. The first major stay was Gottorf Palace , where Christian VII signed the Gottorf Treaty on May 27, which sealed the imperial immediacy of Hamburg against the waiver of 1.3 million Reichstalers of Danish and ducal-Gottorf debts. There were other stays of several days at Schloss Traventhal and Schloss Ahrensburg , where Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann was appointed royal treasurer on June 10 and joined the tour company. Schimmelmann paid a large part of the travel expenses. As a travel doctor, the king was assigned the poor doctor Johann Friedrich Struensee , an educator from Altona chosen by Conrad Holck.

After he had left his territory, the king continued his journey as “Prince of Traventhal” and was thus largely able to forego the narrow ceremonial of public honorary displays. In Hanau he visited his sisters Wilhelmine Caroline , wife of Count von Hanau Wilhelm , and Louise , who was married to his brother Karl von Hessen-Kassel . He then traveled to the Netherlands . There he visited u. a. social institutions, factories and a Moravian settlement. Via France he traveled to England , where he went ashore in Dover on August 10th . In London he visited his mother-in-law Augusta von Sachsen-Gotha and his brother-in-law King George III. He was awarded honorary doctorates in law at Cambridge and Oxford . On October 14th he boarded a ship in Dover that took him back to Calais . In Paris he met with the French King Louis XV. together. Health problems appeared for the first time in November. The king stayed in his room under Struensee's care for several days. On the way back he visited his sisters again and on New Year's Day 1769 in Altona he reached his domain again.

Struensee government

Struensee won the king's trust on the trip. Back at the Danish court in early 1769, this influence increased. In mid-May 1770, Christian awarded him the title of Budget Councilor . Struensee was also officially appointed personal physician . In September 1770, Struensee caused the king to dismiss Bernstorff. He aroused the king's interest in liberal reforms in the spirit of the Enlightenment . The Gehejmekonseil , which was particularly critical of the reforms directed against the nobility, was dissolved on December 27, 1770. But Christian’s progressive illness soon overshadowed his collaboration with Struensee. Struensee managed to get a general power of attorney from Christian that allowed him to sign instead of the king. He was almost the sole ruler. He employed Enevold von Brandt to look after and entertain the king and called back the former tutor Reverdil.

Christian VII also introduced Struensee to his wife, who was unhappy in their marriage and at court. Instead of reviving the marriage of the royal couple, Struensee's recommendations for a healthier lifestyle resulted in the personal doctor and the queen getting closer. It is believed that Struensee was also the father of her daughter Louise Auguste . Christian, however, recognized as his daughter and raised Struensee on the day of their baptism Lehnsgrafen .

Portraits of Struensee and Brandt, who was also executed, from (allegedly) Christian VII's hand with the remark "I would have liked to have saved them both".

Struensee's laws such as those on freedom of the press and freedom of expression , the abolition of torture and church penance made Denmark the most progressive state of its time. The reorganization of the administration also weakened the powerful Danish nobility , which is why Struensee was overthrown by conservative forces under the leadership of the king's widow Juliane Marie in 1772 and executed on April 28, 1772 at the gates of Copenhagen. In the previous process, Christian had not been questioned, only the necessary signatures had been forced from him. His increasing mental illness was also not discussed. His marriage to Caroline Mathilde ended in divorce. The queen was banished to Celle .

In the implementation of one of the last decrees of Struensee, the city ​​of Christiansfeld , named after Christian VII , was founded in the north of the Duchy of Schleswig in 1773 , where Protestant Christians of the Moravian Brethren from German principalities and the Netherlands were settled Had met in the Netherlands in 1768 .

Høegh-Guldberg's government

From then on, Ove Høegh-Guldberg managed Denmark's fortunes with the support of the queen widow Juliane and her son. Most of the Struensee reforms were repealed. With the indigenous law he tried to limit the German influence: civil servants and preachers had to have studied at Copenhagen University if they wanted to get a job in the kingdom. Andreas Peter von Bernstorff , who had made a great contribution to the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo signed with Russia in 1773 , the basis for the entire Danish state , resigned his office in 1780.

Friedrich's V court preacher Johann Andreas Cramer , who had been deposed by Struensee and went to Lübeck as superintendent , was recalled and received a professorship at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , as its chancellor from 1780 he promoted the university's boom. The construction of the Eider Canal also fell in the years of Høegh-Guldberg's reign .

Reign of the Crown Prince

King Christian's coffin in Roskilde Cathedral

In 1784 Christian's son Friedrich Høegh-Guldberg disempowered and ruled as Crown Prince Regent in place of his father. Since he was inclined to the Enlightenment in contrast to Høegh-Guldberg , he carried out a number of reforms such as the abolition of serfdom . One of his first official acts was the appointment of Ernst Heinrich von Schimmelmann as Minister of Finance and Trade, who, together with Christian Detlev von Reventlow , promoted free trade. Andreas Peter von Bernstorff also returned to the government in 1784, to which he belonged until his death in 1797. Bernstorff campaigned for the neutrality of the entire state. Denmark experienced a heyday.

Christiansborg Palace burned down in 1794. The Moltke family made their city palace on Amalienborger Platz available to the homeless king . From then on, Amalienborg Palace was the royal residence.

Christian VII died of a stroke in Rendsburg in 1808. The Danish historian Ulrik Langen refuted in 2008 that Christian VII died of a mental heart attack. Christian VII was buried in Roskilde Cathedral.

progeny

The marriage with Caroline Mathilde of Great Britain had a son:

  • Friedrich VI. (January 28, 1768 - December 3, 1839), King of Denmark-Norway.

The daughter Louise Auguste (* July 7, 1771, † January 13, 1843), later Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , was officially issued as Christian's daughter and raised as a Danish princess. However, it is certain that she came from Queen Caroline Mathilde's love affair with Count Struensee.

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 King Friedrich IV. (1671-1730)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 King Christian VI (1699–1746)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Louise of Mecklenburg (1667–1721)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 King Friedrich V (1723–1766)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Christian Heinrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1661–1708)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1700–1770)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sophie Christiane von Wolfstein (1667–1737)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Christian VII. King of Denmark and Norway
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 George I of Great Britain (1660-1727)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 King George II of Great Britain (1683–1760)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sophie Dorothea of ​​Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1666–1726)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Louise of Great Britain, Ireland and Hanover (1724–1751)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Johann Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1654–1686)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1683–1737)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Eleanor of Saxony-Eisenach (1662–1696)
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Struensee affair in fiction and film

Novels and short stories

Movies

See also

literature

  • Otto Andrup, Hans Bølling: Danmarks Konger fra Christian I til Christian X , udsendt af Nationaltidende 1944–45, p. 26.
  • Jan E. Janssen, Erik Thorud: German traces in Copenhagen . Tyskforlaget, Greve 2000, p. 15 ff.
  • Erik Kjersgaard: A History of Denmark , Copenhagen 1974, p. 52.
  • Ulrik Langen: Den afmægtige. En biografi om Christian 7. , Copenhagen 2008, ISBN 978-87-7692-093-7 .

Web links

Commons : Christian VII.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La contesa dei Numi in the Gluck Complete Edition
  2. ^ Viggo Christiansen: Christian VII's Sindssygdom , Historisk Tidsskrift (København), 8/1 (1907); Pp. 167-174.
  3. ^ Ole Sylvester Joergensen: Asperger: Syndrome between autism and normality: diagnosis and healing chances ; Beltz, 2002, pp. 78-81.
  4. ^ Claus Bjørn: Anne Cathrine Benthagen in Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
  5. ↑ The journey to: J. Kr. Höst: Foreign journey of King Christian VII in 1768 . In: Copenhagen Stock Exchange Hall , No. 9, 10, 11 u. 12 (edited and re-edited by Friedemann Prose (Kiel, 2012))
  6. ^ Christian VII. (Excerpt from: Karl Wittich: Struensee , Leipzig 1879, pp. 18–31 (edited and edited by Friedemann Prose (2013)))
  7. ^ Stefan Winkle : Johann Friedrich Struensee. Doctor, enlightener and statesman. Contribution to the cultural, medical and epidemic history of the Enlightenment period. 2nd, revised edition. G. Fischer, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-437-11262-7 ; P. 135
  8. ↑ Ulrik Langen: Den afmægtige. En biografi om Christian VII ; 2008, p. 485 ff.
  9. ↑ http://presse.phoenix.de/dokumentationen/2013/06/20130615_Affaere/20130615_Affaere.phtml
  10. ↑ Berlinale program
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich V. King of Denmark
King of Norway
1766–1808 		Friedrich VI.
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich V. Oldenburg Stammwappen.png
Count of Oldenburg
1766–1774 		Friedrich August
Friedrich V. Count of Delmenhorst
1766–1774 		Friedrich August
personal data
SURNAME Christian VII
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Denmark and Norway
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1749
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1808
Place of death Rendsburg