Frederick VII (Denmark)

King Friedrich VII of Denmark , portrait by Johan Vilhelm Gertner , 1861

Frederick VII of Denmark , detail from a portrait by Frederik Ludvig Storch , 1855, Swedish National Museum

Friedrich VII. Karl Christian (born October 6, 1808 at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen , † November 15, 1863 at Glücksburg Palace ) was King of Denmark from 1848 until his death .

Live and act

Friedrich VII. Karl Christian was the second and only surviving son (his older brother died on the day of his birth) of King Christian VIII of Denmark and his wife, Princess Charlotte Friederike of Mecklenburg-Schwerin .

On January 20, 1848 he succeeded his father. As king he soon followed the request of the liberals to have a general state constitution drawn up for the entire monarchy, including the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . The political unrest was intensified by the February Revolution in Paris . Since the national relations between the German and Danish residents of the entire state intensified and the position of the Duchy of Schleswig was disputed between the liberal groups of both nations, the conflict escalated in March 1848 in the March Revolution , whereupon the three-year civil war broke out in Schleswig -Holstein uprising , in Denmark called revolt . The war could not be ended until the end of 1850 with a few interruptions.

According to an international agreement, which was recorded in the London Protocol of May 8, 1852, Prince Christian von Glücksburg was finally appointed heir to the throne in the entire monarchy. Duke Christian August von Augustenburg from the oldest branch of the royal family was expelled from the country because of his role in the escalation of the conflict, had to sell his goods and renounce his claims to the throne. In the protocol, Frederick also undertook for Denmark not to incorporate Schleswig and not to “do anything in that direction”.

While the revolution in the duchies failed for the time being, it was successful in the kingdom itself: The Basic State Law of June 5, 1849 put the Danish constitution on a decidedly democratic basis and is the basis of the Danish Basic Law to this day. Personally, Frederick cared little about politics and left as a constitutional king, the state leadership throughout the new organized after Ministerialsystem governments where on the Eider policy oriented National Liberal and Conservative general government politicians were balanced. Although it was precisely his passivity that made the system change possible, he has since been revered as the “giver of the Basic Law” in Denmark, and his monument is still on the forecourt of the Danish parliament building, Christiansborg Palace .

With the London Protocol of 1852, which legally concluded the First Schleswig War , a new constitutional debate arose in the 1850s. The question was how the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg should be constitutionally incorporated. Schleswig itself was a fiefdom of Denmark, while Holstein and Lauenburg were members of the Dt. Were federal, with all three duchies in personal union with the Danish king. The London Protocol adhered to the state as a whole , but also stipulated that Schleswig should not be bound more closely to Denmark than Holstein. A possible extension of the Danish constitution to include the Danish fiefdom of Schleswig was therefore out of the question. Instead, Frederick VII signed an overall state constitution in October 1855 that was to apply to the entire monarchy. The Basic Law continued to work in Denmark, but was supplemented at the level of the general state by the general state constitution. As early as 1854, Friedrich had two separate constitutions for Schleswig and Holstein and a short-term constitution for the entire state promulgated. However, it appeared problematic that the new overall state constitution confirmed the paternalistic monarchy that had previously ruled in the duchies with census-based assemblies (which actually favored the German upper class) and thus (unlike the Basic Law in Denmark proper) no gain in democratic rights gave. Within the entire Danish state, a parliamentary and a paternalistic model existed side by side. The state constitution as a whole also met with rejection on the German side, as the Holstein assembly of estates was not involved in its creation. The German Confederation declared the entire state constitution for Holstein and Lauenburg to be invalid in 1858, so that the entire state constitution was in fact only valid in parts of the entire state, which was not tenable in the long term.

After Orla Lehmann became the new Interior Minister of the Danish National Liberals in September 1861 , government work again came under the influence of the Eider policy. This was expressed not least in the drafting of the so-called November constitution of November 1863. This should only be valid for Denmark and Schleswig and was thus in contradiction to the London Protocol of 1852 on the relationship between the duchies within the entire state. Konseilpräsident Carl Christian Hall , an advocate of the separation of the Elbe duchies and the complete incorporation of Schleswig into the Danish state, emphasized that a corresponding order for Holstein's relationship within the entire Danish state should be worked out. The German federal government declared on 1 October 1863, the November constitutional void and decided to Federal execution against Holstein and Lauenburg . Nevertheless, the new November constitution was adopted by the Danish parliament on November 13, 1863, trusting British and Swedish support, thus taking the first two steps on the way to the German-Danish war .

Friedrich VII died unexpectedly on November 15, 1863 at the Schleswig castle in Glücksburg , where he used to spend part of the autumn months. With him the older line of the House of Oldenburg died out and Prince Christian von Glücksburg succeeded him in Denmark as King Christian IX.

activities

Frederick's favorite occupation was the research of patriotic antiquities, which he pursued without restriction and was involved in the excavation of megalithic structures such as the Dæmpegårdsdyssen and the Rokkestenen . He was chairman of the Royal and Nordic Antiquities Society in Copenhagen. In the writings of this society he also repeatedly published treatises, one of which, On the Construction of the Giant Beds of Prehistoric Times , appeared in a special edition in 1857.

Most of his collections were lost in 1859 in a fire in his favorite castle, Frederiksborg on Zealand . What was left came to the Museum of Nordic Antiquities in Copenhagen after his death.

Reform of Freemasonry in Denmark

Frederick VII was accepted into Freemasonry in 1827 on a trip to Geneva . In 1839, in the presence of his father Christian VIII , he was affiliated to the Danish Freemason lodge Maria to the three hearts in Odense .

In 1855 he reformed Freemasonry in Denmark, the rectified system that had been in place until then was replaced by the Swedish system . In 1858 the Great National Lodge of Denmark, "Den Danske Store Landsloge" (today "Den Danske Frimurerorden"), was established under his leadership. On April 11, 1853 he became a knight of the Swedish order of Charles XIII. reserved for Freemasons.

ancestors

King Frederick V of Denmark (1723–1766)

Friedrich Hereditary Prince of Denmark (1753–1805)

Juliane von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1729–1796)

King Christian VIII of Denmark (1786–1848)

Ludwig of Mecklenburg (1725–1778)

Sophie Friederike von Mecklenburg (1758–1794)

Charlotte Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1731–1810)

Frederick VII King of Denmark

Ludwig of Mecklenburg (1725–1778)

Duke Friedrich Franz I of Mecklenburg (1756–1837)

Charlotte Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1731–1810)

Charlotte Friederike of Mecklenburg (1784–1840)

Johann August von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg (1704–1767)

Luise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1756–1808)

Luise Reuss zu Schleiz (1726–1773)

Due to marriages within the family, Ludwig zu Mecklenburg and his wife Charlotte are represented twice as great-grandparents in Friedrich's line of ancestors.

Marriages

King Friedrich VII was married three times:

• 1828 ∞ Princess Wilhelmine of Denmark , his 2nd cousin. The couple separated in 1834 and divorced in 1837.
• 1841 ∞ Princess Caroline Marianne of Mecklenburg-Strelitz . The marriage was divorced in 1846.
• 1850 ∞ ( morganatic ) Louise Rasmussen . The former ballet dancer and lover of the publisher Carl Berling , a friend of the king, was elevated to liege countess Danner on the occasion of the marriage. The ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Copenhagen Jacob Peter Mynster .

All marriages were childless.

See also

• Family table of the Danish kings
• Friedrich VII Canal

literature

• Giessing: Kong Frederik VII Ungdoms- og Regjeringshistorie (Kopenh. 1865)
• Thorsoe: Kong Frederik den syvendes Regjering (das. 1885)

Web links

Commons : Frederick VII of Denmark  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Frederik VII. Short biography , Kendtes Gravsted (Danish)

Single receipts

1. ↑ Reiners, Ludwig: Bismarck founds the empire. Munich: CH Beck, 1957, ISBN 3-423-01574-8 , p. 5.
2. ↑ Helmert, Heinz / Usceck, Hansjürgen: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history , Berlin: Militärverlag der DDR, 1988. ISBN 978-3327002223 , p. 45.
3. ^ Anton Frans Karl Anjou: Riddare af Konung Carl XIII: s orden 1811-1900. Biografiska anteckningar. Eskjö 1900, p. 175.

predecessor	Office	successor
Christian VIII	King of Denmark 1848–1863	Christian IX