HISTORY

_Ancient._--Our earliest knowledge of Denmark is derived from Pliny, who

speaks of three islands named "Skandiai," a name which is also applied

to Sweden. He says nothing about the inhabitants of these islands, but

tells us more about the Jutish peninsula, or Cimbric Chersonese as he

calls it. He places the Saxons on the neck, above them the Sigoulones,

Sabaliggoi and Kobandoi, then the Chaloi, then above them the

Phoundousioi, then the Charondes and finally the Kimbroi. He also

mentions the three islands called Alokiai, at the northern end of the

peninsula. This would point to the fact that the Limfjord was then open

at both ends, and agree with Adam of Bremen (iv. 16), who also speaks of

three islands called Wendila, Morse and Thud. The Cimbri and Charydes

are mentioned in the _Monumentum Ancyranum_ as sending embassies to

Augustus in A.D. 5. The Promontorium Cimbrorum is spoken of in Pliny,

who says that the Sinus Codanus lies between it and Mons Saevo. The

latter place is probably to be found in the high-lying land on the N.E.

coast of Germany, and the Sinus Codanus must be the S.W. corner of the

Baltic, and not the whole sea. Pomponius Mela says that the Cimbri and

Teutones dwelt on the Sinus Codanus, the latter also in Scandinavia (or

Sweden). The Romans believed that these Cimbri and Teutones were the

same as those who invaded Gaul and Italy at the end of the 2nd century

B.C. The Cimbri may probably be traced in the province of Aalborg,

formerly known as Himmerland; the Teutones, with less certainty, may be

placed in Thyth or Thyland, north of the Limfjord. No further reference

to these districts is found till towards the close of the migration

period, about the beginning of the 6th century, when the Heruli (q.v.),

a nation dwelling in or near the basin of the Elbe, were overthrown by

the Langobardi. According to Procopius (_Bellum Gothicum_, ii. 15), a

part of them made their way across the "desert of the Slavs," through

the lands of the Warni and the Danes to Thoule (i.e. Sweden). This is

the first recorded use of the name "Danes." It occurs again in Gregory

of Tours (_Historiae Francorum_, iii. 3) in connexion with an irruption

of a Götish (loosely called Danish) fleet into the Netherlands (c. 520).

From this time the use of the name is fairly common. The heroic poetry

of the Anglo-Saxons may carry the name further back, though probably it

is not very ancient, at all events on the mainland.

According to late Danish tradition Denmark now consisted of Vitheslaeth

(i.e. Zealand, Möen, Falster and Laaland), Jutland (with Fyen) and

Skaane. Jutland was acquired by Dan, the eponymous ancestor of the

Danes. He also won Skaane, including the modern provinces of Halland,

Kristianstad, Malmöhus and Blekinge, and these remained part of Denmark

until the middle of the 17th century. These three divisions always

remained more or less distinct, and the Danish kings had to be

recognized at Lund, Ringsted and Viborg, but Zealand was from time

immemorial the centre of government, and Lejre was the royal seat and

national sanctuary. According to tradition this dates from the time of

Skiöldr, the eponymous ancestor of the Danish royal family of

Skiöldungar. He was a son of Othin and husband of the goddess Gefjon,

who created Zealand. Anglo-Saxon tradition also speaks of Scyld (i.e.

Skiöldr), who was regarded as the ancestor of both the Danish and

English royal families, and it represented him as coming as a child of

unknown origin in a rudderless boat. There can be little doubt that from

a remote antiquity Zealand had been a religious sanctuary, and very

probably the god Nerthus was worshipped here by the Angli and other

tribes as described in Tacitus (_Germania_, c. 40). The Lejre sanctuary

was still in existence in the time of Thietmar of Merseburg (i. 9), at

the beginning of the 11th century.

In Scandinavian tradition the next great figure is Fróðe the peace-king,

but it is not before the 5th century that we meet with the names of any

kings which can be regarded as definitely historical. In _Beowulf_ we

hear of a Danish king Healfdene, who had three sons, Heorogar, Hrothgar

and Halga. The hero Beowulf comes to the court of Hrothgar from the land

of the Götar, where Hygelac is king. This Hygelac is undoubtedly to be

identified with the Chochilaicus, king of the Danes (really Götar) who,

as mentioned above, made a raid against the Franks c. 520. Beowulf

himself won fame in this campaign, and by the aid of this definite

chronological datum we can place the reign of Healfdene in the last half

of the 5th century, and that of Hrothgar's nephew Hrothwulf, son of

Halga, about the middle of the 6th century. Hrothgar and Halga

correspond to Saxo's Hroar and Helgi, while Hrothwulf is the famous

Rolvo or Hrólfr Kraki of Danish and Norse saga. There is probably some

historical truth in the story that Heoroweard or Hiörvarðr was

responsible for the death of Hrólfr Kraki. Possibly a still earlier king

of Denmark was Sigarr or Sigehere, who has won lasting fame from the

story of his daughter Signy and her lover Hagbarðr.

From the middle of the 6th to the beginning of the 8th century we know

practically nothing of Danish history. There are numerous kings

mentioned in Saxo, but it is impossible to identify them historically.

We have mention at the beginning of the 8th century of a Danish king

Ongendus (cf. O. E. Ongenþeow) who received a mission led by St

Willibrord, and it was probably about this time that there flourished a

family of whom tradition records a good deal. The founder of this line

was Ivarr Viðfaðmi of Skaane, who became king of Sweden. His daughter

Auðr married one Hroerekr and became the mother of Haraldr Hilditönn.

The genealogy of Haraldr is given differently in Saxo, but there can be

no doubt of his historical existence. In his time it is said that the

land was divided into four kingdoms--Skaane, Zealand, Fyen and Jutland.

After a reign of great splendour Haraldr met his death in the great

battle of Bråvalla (Bravík in Östergötland), where he was opposed by his

nephew Ring, king of Sweden.

The battle probably took place about the year 750. Fifty years later the

Danes begin to be mentioned with comparative frequency in continental

annals. From 777-798 we have mention of a certain Sigifridus as king of

the Danes, and then in 804 his name is replaced by that of one

Godefridus, This Godefridus is the Godefridus-Guthredus of Saxo, and is

to be identified also with Guðröðr the Yngling, king in Vestfold in

Norway. He came into conflict with Charlemagne, and was preparing a

great expedition against him when he was killed by one of his own

followers (c. 810). He was succeeded by his brother Hemmingus, but the

latter died in 812 and there was a disputed succession. The two

claimants were "Sigefridus nepos Godefridi regis" and "Anulo nepos

Herioldi quondam regis" (i.e. probably Haraldr Hilditönn). A great

battle took place in which both claimants were slain, but the party of

Anulo (O.N. Áli) were victorious and appointed as kings Anulo's brothers

Herioldus and Reginfridus. They soon paid a visit to Vestfold, "the

extreme district of their realm, whose peoples and chief men were

refusing to be made subject to them," and on their return had trouble

with the sons of Godefridus. The latter expelled them from their

kingdom, and in 814 Reginfridus fell in a vain attempt to regain it.

Herioldus now received the support of the emperor, and after several

unsuccessful attempts a compromise was effected in 819 when the parties

agreed to share the realm. In 820 Herioldus was baptized at Mainz and

received from the emperor a grant of Riustringen in N.E. Friesland. In

827 he was expelled from his kingdom, but St Anskar, who had been sent

with Herioldus to preach Christianity, remained at his post. In 836 we

find one Horic as king of the Danes; he was probably a son of

Godefridus. During his reign there was trouble with the emperor as to

the overlordship of Frisia. In the meantime Herioldus remained on

friendly terms with Lothair and received a further grant of Walcheren

and the neighbouring districts. In 850 Horic was attacked by his own

nephews and compelled to share the kingdom with them, while in 852

Herioldus was charged with treachery and slain by the Franks. In 854 a

revolution took place in Denmark itself. Horic's nephew Godwin,

returning from exile with a large following of Northmen, overthrew his

uncle in a three days' battle in which all members of the royal house

except one boy are said to have perished. This boy now became king as

"Horicus junior." Of his reign we know practically nothing. The next

kings mentioned are Sigafrid and Halfdane, who were sons of the great

Viking leader Ragnarr Loðbrok. There is also mention of a third king

named Godefridus. The exact chronology and relationship of these kings

it is impossible to determine, but we know that Healfdene died in

Scotland in 877, while Godefridus was treacherously slain by Henry of

Saxony in 885. During these and the next few years there is mention of

more than one king of the names Sigefridus and Godefridus: the most

important event associated with their names is that two kings Sigefridus

and Godefridus fell in the great battle on the Dyle in 891.

We now have the names of several kings, Heiligo, Olaph (of Swedish

origin), and his sons Chnob and Gurth. Then come a Danish ruler Sigeric,

followed by Hardegon, son of Swein, coming from Norway. At some date

after 916 we find mention of one "Hardecnuth Urm" ruling among the

Danes. Adam of Bremen, from whom these details come, was himself

uncertain whether "so many kings or rather tyrants of the Danes ruled

together or succeeded one another at short intervals." Hardecnuth Urm is

to be identified with the famous Gorm the old, who married Thyra

Danmarkarbót: their son was Harold Bluetooth. (A. MW.)

_Medieval and Modern._--Danish history first becomes authentic at the

beginning of the 9th century. The Danes, the southernmost branch of the

Scandinavian family, referred to by Alfred (c. 890) as occupying

Jutland, the islands and Scania, were, in 777, strong enough to defy the

Frank empire by harbouring its fugitives. Five years later we find a

Danish king, Sigfrid, among the princes who assembled at Lippe in 782 to

make their submission to Charles the Great. About the same time

Willibrord, from his see at Utrecht, made an unsuccessful attempt to

convert the "wild Danes." These three salient facts are practically the

sum of our knowledge of early Danish history previous to the Viking

period. That mysterious upheaval, most generally attributed to a love of

adventure, stimulated by the pressure of over-population, began with the

ravaging of Lindisfarne in 793, and virtually terminated with the

establishment of Rollo in Normandy (911). There can be little doubt that

the earlier of these expeditions were from Denmark, though the term

Northmen was originally applied indiscriminately to all these terrible

visitants from the unknown north. The rovers who first chastened and

finally colonized southern England and Normandy were certainly Danes.

Conversion of the Danes.

The Viking raids were one of the determining causes of the establishment

of the feudal monarchies of western Europe, but the untameable

freebooters were themselves finally subdued by the Church. At first

sight it seems curious that Christianity should have been so slow to

reach Denmark. But we must bear in mind that one very important

consequence of the Viking raids was to annihilate the geographical

remoteness which had hitherto separated Denmark from the Christian

world. Previously to 793 there lay between Jutland and England a sea

which no keel had traversed within the memory of man. The few and

peaceful traders who explored those northern waters were careful never

to lose sight of the Saxon, Frisian and Frankish shores during their

passage. Nor was communication with the west by land any easier. For

generations the obstinately heathen Saxons had lain, a compact and

impenetrable mass, between Scandinavia and the Frank empire, nor were

the measures adopted by Charles the Great for the conversion of the

Saxons to the true faith very much to the liking of their warlike Danish

neighbours on the other side. But by the time that Charles had succeeded

in "converting" the Saxons, the Viking raids were already at their

height, and though generally triumphant, necessity occasionally taught

the Northmen the value of concessions. Thus it was the desire to secure

his Jutish kingdom which induced Harold Klak, in 826, to sail up the

Rhine to Ingelheim, and there accept baptism, with his wife, his son

Godfred and 400 of his suite, acknowledging the emperor as his overlord,

and taking back with him to Denmark the missionary monk Ansgar. Ansgar

preached in Denmark from 826 to 861, but it was not till after the

subsidence of the Viking raids that Adaldag, archbishop of Hamburg,

could open a new and successful mission, which resulted in the erection

of the bishoprics of Schleswig, Ribe and Aarhus (c. 948), though the

real conversion of Denmark must be dated from the baptism of King Harold

Bluetooth (960).

Danish expansion.

Meanwhile the Danish monarchy was attempting to aggrandize itself at the

expense of the Germans, the Wends who then occupied the Baltic littoral

as far as the Vistula, and the other Scandinavian kingdoms. Harold

Bluetooth (940-986) subdued German territory south of the Eider,

extended the _Danevirke_, Denmark's great line of defensive

fortifications, to the south of Schleswig and planted the military

colony of Julin or Jomsborg, at the mouth of the Oder. Part of Norway

was first seized after the united Danes and Swedes had defeated and

slain King Olaf Trygvessön at the battle of Svolde (1000); and between

1028 and 1035 Canute the Great added the whole kingdom to his own; but

the union did not long survive him. Equally short-lived was the Danish

dominion in England, which originated in a great Viking expedition of

King Sweyn I.

Consolidation of the kingdom under the Valdemars, 1157-1251.

The period between the death of Canute the Great and the accession of

Valdemar I. was a troublous time for Denmark. The kingdom was harassed

almost incessantly, and more than once partitioned, by pretenders to the

throne, who did not scruple to invoke the interference of the

neighbouring monarchs, and even of the heathen Wends, who established

themselves for a time on the southern islands. Yet, throughout this

chaos, one thing made for future stability, and that was the growth and

consolidation of a national church, which culminated in the erection of

the archbishopric of Lund (c. 1104) and the consequent ecclesiastical

independence of Denmark. The third archbishop of Lund was Absalon

(1128-1201), Denmark's first great statesman, who so materially assisted

Valdemar I. (1157-1182) and Canute VI. (1182-1202) to establish the

dominion of Denmark over the Baltic, mainly at the expense of the Wends.

The policy of Absalon was continued on a still vaster scale by Valdemar

II. (1202-1241), at a time when the German kingdom was too weak and

distracted to intervene to save its seaboard; but the treachery of a

vassal and the loss of one great battle sufficed to plunge this

unwieldy, unsubstantial empire in the dust. (See VALDEMAR I., II., and

ABSALON.)

Yet the age of the Valdemars was one of the most glorious in Danish

history, and it is of political importance as marking a turning-point.

Favourable circumstances had, from the first, given the Danes the lead

in Scandinavia. They held the richest and therefore the most populous

lands, and geographically they were nearer than their neighbours to

western civilization. Under the Valdemars, however, the ancient

patriarchal system was merging into a more complicated development, of

separate estates. The monarchy, now dominant, and far wealthier than

before, rested upon the support of the great nobles, many of whom held

their lands by feudal tenure, and constituted the royal _Raad_, or

council. The clergy, fortified by royal privileges, had also risen to

influence; but celibacy and independence of the civil courts tended to

make them more and more of a separate caste. Education was spreading.

Numerous Danes, lay as well as clerical, regularly frequented the

university of Paris. There were signs too of the rise of a vigorous

middle class, due to the extraordinary development of the national

resources (chiefly the herring fisheries, horse-breeding and

cattle-rearing) and the foundation of gilds, the oldest of which, the

_Edslag_ of Schleswig, dates from the early 12th century. The _bonder_,

or yeomen, were prosperous and independent, with well-defined rights.

Danish territory extended over 60,000 sq. kilometres, or nearly double

its present area; the population was about 700,000; and 160,000 men and

1400 ships were available for national defence.

Period of disintegration.

On the death of Valdemar II. a period of disintegration ensued.

Valdemar's son, Eric Plovpenning, succeeded him as king; but his near

kinsfolk also received huge appanages, and family discords led to civil

wars. Throughout the 13th and part of the 14th century, the struggle

raged between the Danish kings and the Schleswig dukes; and of six

monarchs no fewer than three died violent deaths. Superadded to these

troubles was a prolonged struggle for supremacy between the popes and

the crown, and, still more serious, the beginning of a breach between

the kings and nobles, which had important constitutional consequences.

The prevalent disorder had led to general lawlessness, in consequence of

which the royal authority had been widely extended; and a strong

opposition gradually arose which protested against the abuses of this

authority. In 1282 the nobles extorted from King Eric Glipping the first

_Haandfaestning_, or charter, which recognized the _Danehof_, or

national assembly, as a regular branch of the administration and gave

guarantees against further usurpations. Christopher II. (1319-1331) was

constrained to grant another charter considerably reducing the

prerogative, increasing the privileges of the upper classes, and at the

same time reducing the burden of taxation. But aristocratic licence

proved as mischievous as royal incompetence; and on the death of

Christopher II. the whole kingdom was on the verge of dissolution.

Eastern Denmark was in the hands of one magnate; another magnate held

Jutland and Fünen in pawn; the dukes of Schleswig were practically

independent of the Danish crown; the Scandian provinces had (1332)

surrendered themselves to Sweden.

Valdemar IV., 1340-1375.

It was reserved for another Valdemar (Valdemar IV., q.v.) to reunite and

weld together the scattered members of his heritage. His long reign

(1340-1375) resulted in the re-establishment of Denmark as the great

Baltic power. It is also a very interesting period of her social and

constitutional development. This great ruler, who had to fight, year

after year, against foreign and domestic foes, could, nevertheless,

always find time to promote the internal prosperity of his much

afflicted country. For the dissolution of Denmark, during the long

anarchy, had been internal as well as external. The whole social fabric

had been convulsed and transformed. The monarchy had been undermined.

The privileged orders had aggrandized themselves at the expense of the

community. The yeoman class had sunk into semi-serfdom. In a word, the

natural cohesion of the Danish nation had been loosened and there was no

security for law and justice. To make an end of this universal

lawlessness Valdemar IV. was obliged, in the first place, to

re-establish the royal authority by providing the crown with a regular

and certain income. This he did by recovering the alienated royal

demesnes in every direction, and from henceforth the annual _landgilde_,

or rent, paid by the royal tenants, became the monarch's principal

source of revenue. Throughout his reign Valdemar laboured incessantly to

acquire as much land as possible. Moreover, the old distinction between

the king's private estate and crown property henceforth ceases; all such

property was henceforth regarded as the hereditary possession of the

Danish crown.

The national army was also re-established on its ancient footing. Not

only were the magnates sharply reminded that they held their lands on

military tenure, but the towns were also made to contribute both men and

ships, and peasant levies, especially archers, were recruited from every

parish. Everywhere indeed Valdemar intervened personally. The smallest

detail was not beneath his notice. Thus he invented nets for catching

wolves and built innumerable water-mills, "for he would not let the

waters run into the sea before they had been of use to the community."

Under such a ruler law and order were speedily re-established. The

popular tribunals regained their authority, and a supreme court of

justice, _Det Kongelige Retterting_, presided over by Valdemar himself,

not only punished the unruly and guarded the prerogatives of the crown,

but also protected the weak and defenceless from the tyranny of the

strong. Nor did Valdemar hesitate to meet his people in public and

periodically render an account of his stewardship. He voluntarily

resorted to the old practice of summoning national assemblies, the

so-called _Danehof_. At the first of these assemblies held at Nyborg,

Midsummer Day 1314, the bishops and councillors solemnly promised that

the commonalty should enjoy all the ancient rights and privileges

conceded to them by Valdemar II., and the wise provision that the

_Danehof_ should meet annually considerably strengthened its authority.

The keystone to the whole constitutional system was "King Valdemar's

Charter" issued in May 1360 at the _Rigsmöde_, or parliament, held at

Kalundborg in May 1360. This charter was practically an act of national

pacification, the provisions of which king and people together undertook

to enforce for the benefit of the commonweal.

The Union of Kalmar, 1397.

The work of Valdemar was completed and consolidated by his illustrious

daughter Margaret (1375-1412), whose crowning achievement was the Union

of Kalmar (1397), whereby she sought to combine the three northern

kingdoms into a single state dominated by Denmark. In any case Denmark

was bound to be the only gainer by the Union. Her population was double

that of the two other kingdoms combined, and neither Margaret nor her

successors observed the stipulations that each country should retain its

own laws and customs and be ruled by natives only. In both Norway and

Sweden, therefore, the Union was highly unpopular. The Norwegian

aristocracy was too weak, however, seriously to endanger the Union at

any time, but Sweden was, from the first, decidedly hostile to

Margaret's whole policy. Nevertheless during her lifetime the system

worked fairly well; but her pupil and successor, Eric of Pomerania, was

unequal to the burden of empire and embroiled himself both with his

neighbours and his subjects. The Hanseatic League, whose political

ascendancy had been shaken by the Union, enraged by Eric's efforts to

bring in the Dutch as commercial rivals, as well as by the establishment

of the Sound tolls, materially assisted the Holsteiners in their

twenty-five years' war with Denmark (1410-35), and Eric VII. himself was

finally deposed (1439) in favour of his nephew, Christopher of Bavaria.

Growth of the power of the nobles.

The deposition of Eric marks another turning-point in Danish history. It

was the act not of the people but of the _Rigsraad_ (Senate), which had

inherited the authority of the ancient _Danehof_ and, after the death of

Margaret, grew steadily in power at the expense of the crown. As the

government grew more and more aristocratic, the position of the

peasantry steadily deteriorated. It is under Christopher that we first

hear, for instance, of the _Vornedskab_, or patriarchal control of the

landlords over their tenants, a system which degenerated into rank

slavery. In Jutland, too, after the repression, in 1441, of a peasant

rising, something very like serfdom was introduced.

Break-up of the Union.

On the death of Christopher III. without heirs, in 1448, the Rigsraad

elected his distant cousin, Count Christian of Oldenburg, king; but

Sweden preferred Karl Knutsson (Charles "VIII."), while Norway finally

combined with Denmark, at the conference of Halmstad, in a double

election which practically terminated the Union, though an agreement was

come to that the survivor of the two kings should reign over all three

kingdoms. Norway, subsequently, threw in her lot definitively with

Denmark. Dissensions resulting in interminable civil wars had, even

before the Union, exhausted the resources of the poorest of the three

northern realms; and her ruin was completed by the ravages of the Black

Death, which wiped out two-thirds of her population. Unfortunately,

too, for Norway's independence, the native gentry had gradually died

out, and were succeeded by immigrant Danish fortune-hunters; native

burgesses there were none, and the peasantry were mostly thralls; so

that, excepting the clergy, there was no patriotic class to stand up for

the national liberties.

Far otherwise was it in the wealthier kingdom of Sweden. Here the clergy

and part of the nobility were favourable to the Union; but the vast

majority of the people hated it as a foreign usurpation. Matters were

still further complicated by the continual interference of the Hanseatic

League; and Christian I. (1448-1481) and Hans (1481-1513), whose chief

merit it is to have founded the Danish fleet, were, during the greater

part of their reigns, only nominally kings of Sweden. Hans also received

in fief the territory of Dietmarsch from the emperor, but, in attempting

to subdue the hardy Dietmarschers, suffered a crushing defeat in which

the national banner called "Danebrog" fell into the enemy's hands

(1500). Moreover, this defeat led to a successful rebellion in Sweden,

and a long and ruinous war with Lübeck, terminated by the peace of

Malmö, 1512. It was during this war that a strong Danish fleet dominated

the Baltic for the first time since the age of the Valdemars.

Christian II., 1513-1523.

Frederick I., 1523-1533. The Reformation.

The Count's War, 1533-36.

On the succession of Hans's son, Christian II. (1513-1523), Margaret's

splendid dream of a Scandinavian empire seemed, finally, about to be

realized. The young king, a man of character and genius, had wide views

and original ideas. Elected king of Denmark and Norway, he succeeded in

subduing Sweden by force of arms; but he spoiled everything at the

culmination of his triumph by the hideous crime and blunder known as the

Stockholm massacre, which converted the politically divergent Swedish

nation into the irreconcilable foe of the unional government (see

CHRISTIAN II.). Christian's contempt of nationality in Sweden is the

more remarkable as in Denmark proper he sided with the people against

the aristocracy, to his own undoing in that age of privilege and

prejudice. His intentions, as exhibited to his famous _Landelove_

(National Code), were progressive and enlightened to an eminent degree;

so much so, indeed, that they mystified the people as much as they

alienated the patricians; but his actions were often of revolting

brutality, and his whole career was vitiated by an incurable

double-mindedness which provoked general distrust. Yet there is no doubt

that Christian II. was a true patriot, whose ideal it was to weld the

three northern kingdoms into a powerful state, independent of all

foreign influences, especially of German influence as manifested in the

commercial tyranny of the Hansa League. His utter failure was due,

partly to the vices of an undisciplined temperament, and partly to the

extraordinary difficulties of the most inscrutable period of European

history, when the shrewdest heads were at fault and irreparable blunders

belonged to the order of the day. That period was the period of the

Reformation, which profoundly affected the politics of Scandinavia.

Christian II. had always subordinated religion to politics, and was

Papist or Lutheran according to circumstances. But, though he treated

the Church more like a foe than a friend and was constantly at war with

the Curia, he retained the Catholic form of church worship and never

seems to have questioned the papal supremacy. On the flight of Christian

II. and the election of his uncle, Frederick I. (1523-1533), the Church

resumed her jurisdiction and everything was placed on the old footing.

The newly elected and still insecure German king at first remained

neutral; but in the autumn of 1525 the current of Lutheranism began to

run so strongly in Denmark as to threaten to whirl away every opposing

obstacle. This novel and disturbing phenomenon was mainly due to the

zeal and eloquence of the ex-monk Hans Tausen and his associates, or

disciples, Peder Plad and Sadolin; and, in the autumn of 1526, Tausen

was appointed one of the royal chaplains. The three ensuing years were

especially favourable for the Reformation, as during that time the king

had unlooked-for opportunities for filling the vacant episcopal sees

with men after his own heart, and at heart he was a Lutheran. The

reformation movement in Denmark was further promoted by

Schleswig-Holstein influence. Frederick's eldest son Duke Christian had,

since 1527, resided at Haderslev, where he collected round him Lutheran

teachers from Germany, and made his court the centre of the propaganda

of the new doctrine. On the other hand, the Odense Recess of the 20th of

August 1527, which put both confessions on a footing of equality,

remained unrepealed; and so long as it remained in force, the spiritual

jurisdiction of the bishops, and, consequently, their authority over the

"free preachers" (whose ambition convulsed all the important towns of

Denmark and aimed at forcibly expelling the Catholic priests from their

churches) remained valid, to the great vexation of the reformers. The

inevitable ecclesiastical crisis was still further postponed by the

superior stress of two urgent political events--Christian II.'s invasion

of Norway (1531) and the outbreak, in 1533, of "_Grevens fejde_," or

"The Count's War" (1534-36), the count in question being Christopher of

Oldenburg, great-nephew of King Christian I., whom Lübeck and her

allies, on the death of Frederick I., raised up against Frederick's son

Christian III. The Catholic party and the lower orders generally took

the part of Count Christopher, who acted throughout as the nominee of

the captive Christian II., while the Protestant party, aided by the

Holstein dukes and Gustavus Vasa of Sweden, sided with Christian III.

The war ended with the capture of Copenhagen by the forces of Christian

III., on the 29th of July 1536, and the triumph of so devoted a Lutheran

sealed the fate of the Roman Catholic Church in Denmark, though even now

it was necessary for the victorious king to proceed against the bishops

and their friends by a _coup d'état_, engineered by his German generals

the Rantzaus. The Recess of 1536 enacted that the bishops should forfeit

their temporal and spiritual authority, and that all their property

should be transferred to the crown for the good of the commonwealth. In

the following year a Church ordinance, based upon the canons of Luther,

Melanchthon and Bugenhagen, was drawn up, submitted to Luther for his

approval, and promulgated on the 2nd of September 1537. On the same day

seven "superintendents," including Tausen and Sadolin, all of whom had

worked zealously for the cause of the Reformation, were consecrated in

place of the dethroned bishops. The position of the superintendents and

of the reformed church generally was consolidated by the Articles of

Ribe in 1542, and the constitution of the Danish church has practically

continued the same to the present day. But Catholicism could not wholly

or immediately be dislodged by the teaching of Luther. It had struck

deep roots into the habits and feelings of the people, and traces of its

survival were distinguishable a whole century after the triumph of the

Reformation. Catholicism lingered longest in the cathedral chapters.

Here were to be found men of ability proof against the eloquence of Hans

Tausen or Peder Plad and quite capable of controverting their

theories--men like Povl Helgesen, for instance, indisputably the

greatest Danish theologian of his day, a scholar whose voice was drowned

amidst the clash of conflicting creeds.

Effects of the Reformation.

European influence of Denmark, 1544-1626.

Though the Reformation at first did comparatively little for

education,[1] and the whole spiritual life of Denmark was poor and

feeble in consequence for at least a generation afterwards, the change

of religion was of undeniable, if temporary, benefit to the state from

the political point of view. The enormous increase of the royal revenue

consequent upon the confiscation of the property of the Church could not

fail to increase the financial stability of the monarchy. In particular

the suppression of the monasteries benefited the crown in two ways. The

old church had, indeed, frequently rendered the state considerable

financial aid, but such voluntary assistance was, from the nature of the

case, casual and arbitrary. Now, however, the state derived a fixed and

certain revenue from the confiscated lands; and the possession of

immense landed property at the same time enabled the crown

advantageously to conduct the administration. The gross revenue of the

state is estimated to have risen threefold. Before the Reformation the

annual revenue from land averaged 400,000 bushels of corn; after the

confiscations of Church property it averaged 1,200,000 bushels. The

possession of a full purse materially assisted the Danish government in

its domestic administration, which was indeed epoch-making. It enabled

Christian III. to pay off his German mercenaries immediately after the

religious _coup d'état_ of 1536. It enabled him to prosecute

shipbuilding with such energy that, by 1550, the royal fleet numbered at

least thirty vessels, which were largely employed as a maritime police

in the pirate-haunted Baltic and North Seas. It enabled him to create

and remunerate adequately a capable official class, which proved its

efficiency under the strictest supervision, and ultimately produced a

whole series of great statesmen and admirals like Johan Friis, Peder

Oxe, Herluf Trolle and Peder Skram. It is not too much to say that the

increased revenue derived from the appropriation of Church property,

intelligently applied, gave Denmark the hegemony of the North during the

latter part of Christian III.'s reign, the whole reign of Frederick II.

and the first twenty-five years of the reign of Christian IV., a period

embracing, roughly speaking, eighty years (1544-1626). Within this

period Denmark was indisputably the leading Scandinavian power. While

Sweden, even after the advent of Gustavus Vasa, was still of but small

account in Europe, Denmark easily held her own in Germany and elsewhere,

even against Charles V., and was important enough, in 1553, to mediate a

peace between the emperor and Saxony. Twice during this period Denmark

and Sweden measured their strength in the open field, on the first

occasion in the "Scandinavian Seven Years' War" (1562-70), on the second

in the "Kalmar War" (1611-13), and on both occasions Denmark prevailed,

though the temporary advantage she gained was more than neutralized by

the intense feeling of hostility which the unnatural wars, between the

two kindred peoples of Scandinavia, left behind them. Still, the fact

remains that, for a time, Denmark was one of the great powers of Europe.

Frederick II., in his later years (1571-1588), aspired to the dominion

of all the seas which washed the Scandinavian coasts, and before he died

he was able to enforce the rule that all foreign ships should strike

their topsails to Danish men-of-war as a token of his right to rule the

northern seas. Favourable political circumstances also contributed to

this general acknowledgment of Denmark's maritime greatness. The power

of the Hansa had gone; the Dutch were enfeebled by their contest with

Spain; England's sea-power was yet in the making; Spain, still the

greatest of the maritime nations, was exhausting her resources in the

vain effort to conquer the Dutch. Yet more even than to felicitous

circumstances, Denmark owed her short-lived greatness to the great

statesmen and administrators whom Frederick II. succeeded in gathering

about him. Never before, since the age of Margaret, had Denmark been so

well governed, never before had she possessed so many political

celebrities nobly emulous for the common good.

Denmark at the accession of Christian IV., 1588.

Frederick II. was succeeded by his son Christian IV. (April 4, 1588),

who attained his majority on the 17th of August 1596, at the age of

nineteen. The realm which Christian IV. was to govern had undergone

great changes within the last two generations. Towards the south the

boundaries of the Danish state remained unchanged. Levensaa and the

Eider still separated Denmark from the Empire. Schleswig was recognized

as a Danish fief, in contradistinction to Holstein, which owed vassalage

to the Empire. The "kingdom" stretched as far as Kolding and Skedborg,

where the "duchy" began; and this duchy since its amalgamation with

Holstein by means of a common _Landtag_, and especially since the union

of the dual duchy with the kingdom on almost equal terms in 1533, was,

in most respects, a semi-independent state, Denmark, moreover, like

Europe in general, was, politically, on the threshold of a transitional

period. During the whole course of the 16th century the monarchical

form of government was in every large country, with the single exception

of Poland, rising on the ruins of feudalism. The great powers of the

late 16th and early 17th centuries were to be the strong, highly

centralized, hereditary monarchies, like France, Spain and Sweden. There

seemed to be no reason why Denmark also should not become a powerful

state under the guidance of a powerful monarchy, especially as the

sister state of Sweden was developing into a great power under

apparently identical conditions. Yet, while Sweden was surely ripening

into the dominating power of northern Europe, Denmark had as surely

entered upon a period of uninterrupted and apparently incurable decline.

What was the cause of this anomaly? Something of course must be allowed

for the superior and altogether extraordinary genius of the great

princes of the house of Vasa; yet the causes of the decline of Denmark

lay far deeper than this. They may roughly be summed up under two heads:

the inherent weakness of an elective monarchy, and the absence of that

public spirit which is based on the intimate alliance of ruler and

ruled. Whilst Gustavus Vasa had leaned upon the Swedish peasantry, in

other words upon the bulk of the Swedish nation, which was and continued

to be an integral part of the Swedish body-politic, Christian III. on

his accession had crushed the middle and lower classes in Denmark and

reduced them to political insignificance. Yet it was not the king who

benefited by this blunder. The Danish monarchy since the days of

Margaret had continued to be purely elective; and a purely elective

monarchy at that stage of the political development of Europe was a

mischievous anomaly. It signified in the first place that the crown was

not the highest power in the state, but was subject to the aristocratic

_Rigsraad_, or council of state. The _Rigsraad_ was the permanent owner

of the realm and the crown-lands; the king was only their temporary

administrator. If the king died before the election of his successor,

the _Rigsraad_ stepped into the king's place. Moreover, an elective

monarchy implied that, at every fresh succession, the king was liable to

be bound by a new _Haandfaestning_, or charter. The election itself

might, and did, become a mere formality; but the condition precedent of

election, the acceptance of the charter, invariably limiting the royal

authority, remained a reality. This period of aristocratic rule, which

dates practically from the accession of Frederick I. (1523), and lasted

for nearly a century and a half, is known in Danish history as

_Adelsvaelde_, or rule of the nobles.

Again, the king was the ruler of the realm, but over a very large

portion of it he had but a slight control. The crown-lands and most of

the towns were under his immediate jurisdiction, but by the side of the

crown-lands lay the estates of the nobility, which already comprised

about one-half of the superficial area of Denmark, and were in many

respects independent of the central government both as regards taxation

and administration. In a word, the monarchy had to share its dominion

with the nobility; and the Danish nobility in the 16th century was one

of the most exclusive and selfish aristocracies in Europe, and already

far advanced in decadence. Hermetically sealing itself from any

intrusion from below, it deteriorated by close and constant

intermarriage; and it was already, both morally and intellectually,

below the level of the rest of the nation. Yet this very aristocracy,

whose claim to consideration was based not upon its own achievements but

upon the length of its pedigrees, insisted upon an amplification of its

privileges which endangered the economical and political interests of

the state and the nation. The time was close at hand when a Danish

magnate was to demonstrate that he preferred the utter ruin of his

country to any abatement of his own personal dignity.

All below the king and the nobility were generally classified together

as "subjects." Of these lower orders the clergy stood first in the

social scale. As a spiritual estate, indeed, it had ceased to exist at

the Reformation, though still represented in the _Rigsdag_ or diet.

Since then too it had become quite detached from the nobility, which

ostentatiously despised the teaching profession. The clergy recruited

themselves therefore from the class next below them, and looked more and

more to the crown for help and protection as they drew apart from the

gentry, who, moreover, as dispensers of patronage, lost no opportunity

of appropriating church lands and cutting down tithes.

The burgesses had not yet recovered from the disaster of "Grevens

fejde"; but while the towns had become more dependent on the central

power, they had at the same time been released from their former

vexatious subjection to the local magnates, and could make their voices

heard in the _Rigsdag_, where they were still, though inadequately,

represented. Within the Estate of Burgesses itself, too, a levelling

process had begun. The old municipal patriciate, which used to form the

connecting link between the _bourgeoisie_ and the nobility, had

disappeared, and a feeling of common civic fellowship had taken its

place. All this tended to enlarge the political views of the burgesses,

and was not without its influence on the future. Yet, after all, the

prospects of the burgesses depended mainly on economic conditions; and

in this respect there was a decided improvement, due to the increasing

importance of money and commerce all over Europe, especially as the

steady decline of the Hanse towns immediately benefited the trade of

Denmark-Norway; Norway by this time being completely merged in the

Danish state, and ruled from Copenhagen. There can, indeed, be no doubt

that the Danish and Norwegian merchants at the end of the 16th century

flourished exceedingly, despite the intrusion and competition of the

Dutch and the dangers to neutral shipping arising from the frequent wars

between England, Spain and the Netherlands.

At the bottom of the social ladder lay the peasants, whose condition had

decidedly deteriorated. Only in one respect had they benefited by the

peculiar conditions of the 16th century: the rise in the price of corn

without any corresponding rise in the land-tax must have largely increased

their material prosperity. Yet the number of peasant-proprietors had

diminished, while the obligations of the peasantry generally had

increased; and, still worse, their obligations were vexatiously

indefinite, varying from year to year and even from month to month. They

weighed especially heavily on the so-called _Ugedasmaend_, who were forced

to work two or three days a week in the demesne lands. This increase of

villenage morally depressed the peasantry, and widened still further the

breach between the yeomanry and the gentry. Politically its consequences

were disastrous. While in Sweden the free and energetic peasant was a

salutary power in the state, which he served with both mind and plough,

the Danish peasant was sinking to the level of a bondman. While the

Swedish peasants were well represented in the Swedish _Riksdag_, whose

proceedings they sometimes dominated, the Danish peasantry had no

political rights or privileges whatever.

Christian IV., 1588-1648.

First losses of territory.

Such then, briefly, was the condition of things in Denmark when, in

1588, Christian IV. ascended the throne. Where so much was necessarily

uncertain and fluctuating, there was room for an almost infinite variety

of development. Much depended on the character and personality of the

young prince who had now taken into his hands the reins of government,

and for half a century was to guide the destinies of the nation. In the

beginning of his reign the hand of the young monarch, who was nothing if

not energetic, made itself felt in every direction. The harbours of

Copenhagen, Elsinore and other towns were enlarged; many decaying towns

were abolished and many new ones built under more promising conditions,

including Christiania, which was founded in August 1624, on the ruins of

the ancient city of Oslo. Various attempts were also made to improve

trade and industry by abolishing the still remaining privileges of the

Hanseatic towns, by promoting a wholesale immigration of skilful and

well-to-do Dutch traders and handicraftsmen into Denmark under most

favourable conditions, by opening up the rich fisheries of the Arctic

seas, and by establishing joint-stock chartered companies both in the

East and the West Indies. Copenhagen especially benefited by Christian

IV.'s commercial policy. He enlarged and embellished it, and provided it

with new harbours and fortifications; in short, did his best to make it

the worthy capital of a great empire. But it was in the foreign policy

of the government that the royal influence was most perceptible. Unlike

Sweden, Denmark had remained outside the great religious-political

movements which were the outcome of the Catholic reaction; and the

peculiarity of her position made her rather hostile than friendly to the

other Protestant states. The possession of the Sound enabled her to

close the Baltic against the Western powers; the possession of Norway

carried along with it the control of the rich fisheries which were

Danish monopolies, and therefore a source of irritation to England and

Holland. Denmark, moreover, was above all things a Scandinavian power.

While the territorial expansion of Sweden in the near future was a

matter of necessity, Denmark had not only attained, but even exceeded,

her natural limits. Aggrandizement southwards, at the expense of the

German empire, was becoming every year more difficult; and in every

other direction she had nothing more to gain. Nay, more, Denmark's

possession of the Scanian provinces deprived Sweden of her proper

geographical frontiers. Clearly it was Denmark's wisest policy to seek a

close alliance with Sweden in their common interests, and after the

conclusion of the "Kalmar War" the two countries did remain at peace for

the next thirty-one years. But the antagonistic interests of the two

countries in Germany during the Thirty Years' War precipitated a fourth

contest between them (1643-45), in which Denmark would have been utterly

ruined but for the heroism of King Christian IV. and his command of the

sea during the crisis of the struggle. Even so, by the peace of

Brömsebro (February 8, 1645) Denmark surrendered the islands of Oesel

and Gotland and the provinces of Jemteland and Herjedal (in Norway)

definitively, and Halland for thirty years. The freedom from the Sound

tolls was by the same treaty also extended to Sweden's Baltic provinces.

Frederick III., 1648-1670.

Peace of Roskilde, 1658.

Treaty of Copenhagen, 1660.

The peace of Brömsebro was the first of the long series of treaties,

extending down to our own days, which mark the progressive shrinkage of

Danish territory into an irreducible minimum. Sweden's appropriation of

Danish soil had begun, and at the same time Denmark's power of resisting

the encroachments of Sweden was correspondingly reduced. The Danish

national debt, too, had risen enormously, while the sources of future

income and consequent recuperation had diminished or disappeared. The

Sound tolls, for instance, in consequence of the treaties of Brömsebro

and Kristianopel (by the latter treaty very considerable concessions

were made to the Dutch) had sunk from 400,000 to 140,000 rix-dollars.

The political influence of the crown, moreover, had inevitably been

weakened, and the conduct of foreign affairs passed from the hands of

the king into the hands of the _Rigsraad_. On the accession of Frederick

III. (1648-1670) moreover, the already diminished royal prerogative was

still further curtailed by the _Haandfaestning_, or charter, which he

was compelled to sign. Fear and hatred of Sweden, and the never

abandoned hope of recovering the lost provinces, animated king and

people alike; but it was Denmark's crowning misfortune that she

possessed at this difficult crisis no statesman of the first rank, no

one even approximately comparable with such competitors as Charles X. of

Sweden or the "Great Elector" Frederick William of Brandenburg. From the

very beginning of his reign Frederick III. was resolved upon a rupture

at the first convenient opportunity, while the nation was, if possible,

even more bellicose than the king. The apparently insuperable

difficulties of Sweden in Poland was the feather that turned the scale;

on the 1st of June 1657, Frederick III. signed the manifesto justifying

a war which was never formally declared and brought Denmark to the very

verge of ruin. The extraordinary details of this dramatic struggle will

be found elsewhere (see FREDERICK III., king of Denmark, and CHARLES X.,

king of Sweden); suffice it to say that by the peace of Roskilde

(February 26, 1658), Denmark consented to cede the three Scanian

provinces, the island of Bornholm and the Norwegian provinces of Baahus

and Trondhjem; to renounce all anti-Swedish alliances and to exempt all

Swedish vessels, even when carrying foreign goods, from all tolls.

These terrible losses were somewhat retrieved by the subsequent treaty

of Copenhagen (May 27, 1660) concluded by the Swedish regency with

Frederick III. after the failure of Charles X.'s second war against

Denmark, a failure chiefly owing to the heroic defence of the Danish

capital (1658-60). By this treaty Sweden gave back the province of

Trondhjem and the isle of Bornholm and released Denmark from the most

onerous of the obligations of the treaty of Roskilde. In fact the peace

of Copenhagen came as a welcome break in an interminable series of

disasters and humiliations. Anyhow, it confirmed the independence of the

Danish state. On the other hand, if Denmark had emerged from the war

with her honour and dignity unimpaired, she had at the same time tacitly

surrendered the dominion of the North to her Scandinavian rival.

Hereditary monarchy established, 1660.

But the war just terminated had important political consequences, which

were to culminate in one of the most curious and interesting revolutions

of modern history. In the first place, it marks the termination of the

_Adelsvaelde_, or rule of the nobility. By their cowardice, incapacity,

egotism and treachery during the crisis of the struggle, the Danish

aristocracy had justly forfeited the respect of every other class of the

community, and emerged from the war hopelessly discredited. On the other

hand, Copenhagen, proudly conscious of her intrinsic importance and of

her inestimable services to the country, whom she had saved from

annihilation by her constancy, now openly claimed to have a voice in

public affairs. Still higher had risen the influence of the crown. The

courage and resource displayed by Frederick III. in the extremity of the

national danger had won for "the least expansive of monarchs" an

extraordinary popularity.

On the 10th of September 1660, the _Rigsdag_, which was to repair the

ravages of the war and provide for the future, was opened with great

ceremony in the _Riddersaal_ of the castle of Copenhagen. The first bill

laid before the Estates by the government was to impose an excise tax on

the principal articles of consumption, together with subsidiary taxes on

cattle, poultry, &c., in return for which the abolition of all the old

direct taxes was promised. The nobility at first claimed exemption from

taxation altogether, while the clergy and burgesses insisted upon an

absolute equality of taxation. There were sharp encounters between the

presidents of the contending orders, but the position of the Lower

Estates was considerably prejudiced by the dissensions of its various

sections. Thus the privileges of the bishops and of Copenhagen

profoundly irritated the lower clergy and the unprivileged towns, and

made a cordial understanding impossible, till Hans Svane, bishop of

Copenhagen, and Hans Nansen the burgomaster, who now openly came forward

as the leader of the reform movement, proposed that the privileges which

divided the non-noble Estates should be abolished. In accordance with

this proposal, the two Lower Estates, on the 16th of September,

subscribed a memorandum addressed to the _Rigsraad_, declaring their

willingness to renounce their privileges, provided the nobility did the

same; which was tantamount to a declaration that the whole of the clergy

and burgesses had made common cause against the nobility. The opposition

so formed took the name of the "Conjoined Estates." The presentation of

the memorial provoked an outburst of indignation. But the nobility soon

perceived the necessity of complete surrender. On the 30th of September

the First Estate abandoned its former standpoint and renounced its

privileges, with one unimportant reservation.

The struggle now seemed to be ended, and the financial question having

also been settled, the king, had he been so minded, might have dismissed

the Estates. But the still more important question of reform was now

raised. On the 17th of September the burgesses introduced a bill

proposing a new constitution, which was to include local self-government

in the towns, the abolition of serfdom, and the formation of a national

army. It fell to the ground for want of adequate support; but another

proposition, the fruit of secret discussion between the king and his

confederates, which placed all fiefs under the control of the crown as

regards taxation, and provided for selling and letting them to the

highest bidder, was accepted by the Estate of burgesses. The

significance of this ordinance lay in the fact that it shattered the

privileged position of the nobility, by abolishing the exclusive right

to the possession of fiefs. What happened next is not quite clear. Our

sources fail us, and we are at the mercy of doubtful rumours and more or

less unreliable anecdotes. We have a vision of intrigues, mysterious

conferences, threats and bribery, dimly discernible through a shifting

mirage of tradition.

The first glint of light is a letter, dated the 23rd of September, from

Frederick III. to Svane and Nansen, authorizing them to communicate the

arrangements already made to reliable men, and act quickly, as "if the

others gain time they may possibly gain more." The first step was to

make sure of the city train-bands: of the garrison of Copenhagen the

king had no doubt. The headquarters of the conspirators was the bishop's

palace near _Vor Frue_ church, between which and the court messages were

passing continually, and where the document to be adopted by the

Conjoined Estates took its final shape. On the 8th of October the two

burgomasters, Hans Nansen and Kristoffer Hansen, proposed that the realm

of Denmark should be made over to the king as a hereditary kingdom,

without prejudice to the privileges of the Estates; whereupon they

proceeded to Brewer's Hall, and informed the Estate of burgesses there

assembled of what had been done. A fiery oration from Nansen dissolved

some feeble opposition; and simultaneously Bishop Svane carried the

clergy along with him. The so-called "Instrument," now signed by the

Lower Estates, offered the realm to the king and his house as a

hereditary monarchy, by way of thank-offering mainly for his courageous

deliverance of the kingdom during the war; and the _Rigsraad_ and the

nobility were urged to notify the resolution to the king, and desire him

to maintain each Estate in its due privileges, and to give a written

counter-assurance that the revolution now to be effected was for the

sole benefit of the state. Events now moved forward rapidly. On the 10th

of October a deputation from the clergy and burgesses proceeded to the

Council House where the _Rigsraad_ were deliberating, to demand an

answer to their propositions. After a tumultuous scene, the aristocratic

_Raad_ rejected the "Instrument" altogether, whereupon the deputies of

the commons proceeded to the palace and were graciously received by the

king, who promised them an answer next day. The same afternoon the

guards in the streets and on the ramparts were doubled; on the following

morning the gates of the city were closed, powder and bullets were

distributed among the city train-bands, who were bidden to be in

readiness when the alarm bell called them, and cavalry was massed on the

environs of the city. The same afternoon the king sent a message to the

_Rigsraad_ urging them to declare their views quickly, as he could no

longer hold himself responsible for what might happen. After a feeble

attempt at a compromise the _Raad_ gave way. On the 13th of October it

signed a declaration to the effect that it associated itself still with

the Lower Estates in the making over of the kingdom, as a hereditary

monarchy, to his majesty and his heirs male and female. The same day the

king received the official communication of this declaration and the

congratulation of the burgomasters. Thus the ancient constitution was

transformed; and Denmark became a monarchy hereditary in Frederick III.

and his posterity.

But although hereditary sovereignty had been introduced, the laws of the

land had not been abolished. The monarch was specifically now a

sovereign overlord, but he had not been absolved from his obligations

towards his subjects. Hereditary sovereignty _per se_ was not held to

signify unlimited dominion, still less absolutism. On the contrary, the

magnificent gift of the Danish nation to Frederick III. was made under

express conditions. The "Instrument" drawn up by the Lower Estates

implied the retention of all their rights; and the king, in accepting

the gift of a hereditary crown, did not repudiate the implied

inviolability of the privileges of the donors. Unfortunately everything

had been left so vague, that it was an easy matter for ultra-royalists

like Svane and Nansen to ignore the privileges of the Estates, and even

the Estates themselves.

On the 14th of October a committee was summoned to the palace to

organize the new government. The discussion turned mainly upon two

points, (1) whether a new oath of homage should be taken to the king,

and (2) what was to be done with the _Haandfaestning_ or royal charter.

The first point was speedily decided in the affirmative, and, as to the

second, it was ultimately decided that the king should be released from

his oath and the charter returned to him; but a rider was added

suggesting that he should, at the same time, promulgate a Recess

providing for his own and his people's welfare. Thus Frederick III. was

not left absolutely his own master; for the provision regarding a

Recess, or new constitution, showed plainly enough that such a

constitution was expected, and, once granted, would of course have

limited the royal power.

It now only remained to execute the resolutions of the committee. On the

17th of October the charter, which the king had sworn to observe twelve

years before, was solemnly handed back to him at the palace, Frederick

III. thereupon promising to rule as a Christian king to the satisfaction

of all the Estates of the realm. On the following day the king, seated

on the topmost step of a lofty tribune surmounted by a baldaquin,

erected in the midst of the principal square of Copenhagen, received the

public homage of his subjects of all ranks, in the presence of an

immense concourse, on which occasion he again promised to rule "as a

Christian hereditary king and gracious master," and, "as soon as

possible, to prepare and set up" such a constitution as should secure to

his subjects a Christian and indulgent sway. The ceremony concluded with

a grand banquet at the palace. After dinner the queen and the clergy

withdrew; but the king remained. An incident now occurred which made a

strong impression on all present. With a brimming beaker in his hand,

Frederick III. went up to Hans Nansen, drank with him and drew him

aside. They communed together in a low voice for some time, till the

burgomaster, succumbing to the influence of his potations, fumbled his

way to his carriage with the assistance of some of his civic colleagues.

Whether Nansen, intoxicated by wine and the royal favour, consented on

this occasion to sacrifice the privileges of his order and his city, it

is impossible to say; but it is significant that, from henceforth, we

hear no more of the Recess which the more liberal of the leaders of the

lower orders had hoped for when they released Frederick III. from the

obligations of the charter.

Establishment of absolute rule.

We can follow pretty plainly the stages of the progress from a limited

to an absolute monarchy. By an act dated the 10th of January 1661,

entitled "Instrument, or pragmatic sanction," of the king's hereditary

right to the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, it was declared that all

the prerogatives of majesty, and "all regalia as an absolute sovereign

lord," had been made over to the king. Yet, even after the issue of the

"Instrument," there was nothing, strictly speaking, to prevent Frederick

III. from voluntarily conceding to his subjects some share in the

administration. Unfortunately the king was bent upon still further

emphasizing the plenitude of his power. At Copenhagen his advisers were

busy framing drafts of a _Lex Regia Perpetua_; and the one which finally

won the royal favour was the famous _Kongelov_, or "King's Law."

This document was in every way unique. In the first place it is

remarkable for its literary excellence. Compared with the barbarous

macaronic jargon of the contemporary official language it shines forth

as a masterpiece of pure, pithy and original Danish. Still more

remarkable are the tone and tenor of this royal law. The _Kongelov_ has

the highly dubious honour of being the one written law in the civilized

world which fearlessly carries out absolutism to the last consequences.

The monarchy is declared to owe its origin to the surrender of the

supreme authority by the Estates to the king. The maintenance of the

indivisibility of the realm and of the Christian faith according to the

Augsburg Confession, and the observance of the _Kongelov_ itself, are

now the sole obligations binding upon the king. The supreme spiritual

authority also is now claimed; and it is expressly stated that it

becomes none to crown him; the moment he ascends the throne, crown and

sceptre belong to him of right. Moreover, par. 26 declares guilty of

_lèse-majesté_ whomsoever shall in any way usurp or infringe the king's

absolute authority. In the following reign the ultra-royalists went

further still. In their eyes the king was not merely autocratic, but

sacrosanct. Thus before the anointing of Christian V. on the 7th of June

1671, a ceremony by way of symbolizing the new autocrat's humble

submission to the Almighty, the officiating bishop of Zealand delivered

an oration in which he declared that the king was God's immediate

creation, His vicegerent on earth, and that it was the bounden duty of

all good subjects to serve and honour the celestial majesty as

represented by the king's terrestrial majesty. The _Kongelov_ is dated

and subscribed the 14th of November 1665, but was kept a profound

secret, only two initiated persons knowing of its existence until after

the death of Frederick III., one of them being Kristoffer Gabel, the

king's chief intermediary during the revolution, and the other the

author and custodian of the _Kongelov_, Secretary Peder Schumacher,

better known as Griffenfeldt. It is significant that both these

confidential agents were plebeians.

Effects of the revolution of 1660.

The revolution of 1660 was certainly beneficial to Norway. With the

disappearance of the _Rigsraad_, which, as representing the Danish

crown, had hitherto exercised sovereignty over both kingdoms, Norway

ceased to be a subject principality. The sovereign hereditary king stood

in exactly the same relations to both kingdoms; and thus,

constitutionally, Norway was placed on an equality with Denmark, united

with but not subordinate to it. It is clear that the majority of the

Norwegian people hoped that the revolution would give them an

administration independent of the Danish government; but these

expectations were not realised. Till the cessation of the Union in 1814,

Copenhagen continued to be the headquarters of the Norwegian

administration; both kingdoms had common departments of state; and the

common chancery continued to be called the Danish chancery. On the other

hand the condition of Norway was now greatly improved. In January 1661 a

land commission was appointed to investigate the financial and

economical conditions of the kingdoms; the fiefs were transformed into

counties; the nobles were deprived of their immunity from taxation; and

in July 1662 the Norwegian towns received special privileges, including

the monopoly of the lucrative timber trade.

Christian V., 1670-1699.

The _Enevaelde_, or absolute monarchy, also distinctly benefited the

whole Danish state by materially increasing its reserve of native

talent. Its immediate consequence was to throw open every state

appointment to the middle classes; and the middle classes of that

period, with very few exceptions, monopolized the intellect and the

energy of the nation. New blood of the best quality nourished and

stimulated the whole body politic. Expansion and progress were the

watchwords at home, and abroad it seemed as if Denmark were about to

regain her former position as a great power. This was especially the

case during the brief but brilliant administration of Chancellor

Griffenfeldt. Then, if ever, Denmark had the chance of playing once more

a leading part in international politics. But Griffenfeldt's

difficulties, always serious, were increased by the instability of the

European situation, depending as it did on the ambition of Louis XIV.

Resolved to conquer the Netherlands, the French king proceeded, first of

all, to isolate her by dissolving the Triple Alliance. (See SWEDEN and

GRIFFENFELDT.) In April 1672 a treaty was concluded between France and

Sweden, on condition that France should not include Denmark in her

system of alliances without the consent of Sweden. This treaty showed

that Sweden weighed more in the French balances than Denmark. In June

1672 a French army invaded the Netherlands; whereupon the elector of

Brandenburg contracted an alliance with the emperor Leopold, to which

Denmark was invited to accede; almost simultaneously the States-General

began to negotiate for a renewal of the recently expired Dano-Dutch

alliance.

Denmark in the Great Northern War.

In these circumstances it was as difficult for Denmark to remain neutral

as it was dangerous for her to make a choice. An alliance with France

would subordinate her to Sweden; an alliance with the Netherlands would

expose her to an attack from Sweden. The Franco-Swedish alliance left

Griffenfeldt no choice but to accede to the opposite league, for he saw

at once that the ruin of the Netherlands would disturb the balance of

power in the north by giving an undue preponderance to England and

Sweden. But Denmark's experience of Dutch promises in the past was not

reassuring; so, while negotiating at the Hague for a renewal of the

Dutch alliance, he at the same time felt his way at Stockholm towards a

commercial treaty with Sweden. His Swedish mission proved abortive, but,

as he had anticipated, it effectually accelerated the negotiations at

the Hague, and frightened the Dutch into unwonted liberality. In May

1673 a treaty of alliance was signed by the ambassador of the

States-General at Copenhagen, whereby the Netherlands pledged themselves

to pay Denmark large subsidies in return for the services of 10,000 men

and twenty warships, which were to be held in readiness in case the

United Provinces were attacked by another enemy besides France. Thus,

very dexterously, Griffenfeldt had succeeded in gaining his subsidies

without sacrificing his neutrality.

His next move was to attempt to detach Sweden from France; but, Sweden

showing not the slightest inclination for a _rapprochement_, Denmark was

compelled to accede to the anti-French league, which she did by the

treaty of Copenhagen, of January 1674, thereby engaging to place an army

of 20,000 in the field when required; but here again Griffenfeldt

safeguarded himself to some extent by stipulating that this provision

was not to be operative till the allies were attacked by a fresh enemy.

When, in December 1674, a Swedish army invaded Prussian Pomerania,

Denmark was bound to intervene as a belligerent, but Griffenfeldt

endeavoured to postpone this intervention as long as possible; and

Sweden's anxiety to avoid hostilities with her southern neighbour

materially assisted him to postpone the evil day. He only wanted to gain

time, and he gained it. To the last he endeavoured to avoid a rupture

with France even if he broke with Sweden; but he could not restrain for

ever the foolish impetuosity of his own sovereign, Christian V., and his

fall in the beginning of 1676 not only, as he had foreseen, involved

Denmark in an unprofitable war, but, as his friend and disciple, Jens

Juel, well observed, relegated her henceforth to the humiliating

position of an international catspaw. Thus at the peace of Fontainebleau

(September 2, 1679) Denmark, which had borne the brunt of the struggle

in the Baltic, was compelled by the inexorable French king to make full

restitution to Sweden, the treaty between the two northern powers being

signed at Lund on the 26th of September. Freely had she spent her blood

and her treasure, only to emerge from the five years' contest exhausted

and empty-handed.

By the peace of Fontainebleau Denmark had been sacrificed to the

interests of France and Sweden; forty-one years later she was sacrificed

to the interests of Hanover and Prussia by the peace of Copenhagen

(1720), which ended the Northern War so far as the German powers were

concerned. But it would not have terminated advantageously for them at

all, had not the powerful and highly efficient Danish fleet effectually

prevented the Swedish government from succouring its distressed German

provinces, and finally swept the Swedish fleets out of the northern

waters. Yet all the compensation Denmark received for her inestimable

services during a whole decade was 600,000 rix-dollars! The bishoprics

of Bremen and Verden, the province of Farther Pomerania and the isle of

Rügen which her armies had actually conquered, and which had been

guaranteed to her by a whole catena of treaties, went partly to the

upstart electorate of Hanover and partly to the upstart kingdom of

Prussia, both of which states had been of no political importance

whatever at the beginning of the war of spoliation by which they were,

ultimately, to profit so largely and so cheaply.

Frederick IV., 1699-1730.

The last ten years of the reign of Christian V.'s successor, Frederick

IV. (1699-1730), were devoted to the nursing and development of the

resources of the country, which had suffered only less severely than

Sweden from the effects of the Great Northern War. The court, seriously

pious, did much for education. A wise economy also contributed to reduce

the national debt within manageable limits, and in the welfare of the

peasantry Frederick IV. took a deep interest. In 1722 serfdom was

abolished in the case of all peasants in the royal estates born after

his accession.

Christian VI., 1730-1746.

The first act of Frederick's successor, Christian VI. (1730-1746), was

to abolish the national militia, which had been an intolerable burden

upon the peasantry; yet the more pressing agrarian difficulties were not

thereby surmounted, as had been hoped. The price of corn continued to

fall; the migration of the peasantry assumed alarming proportions; and

at last, "to preserve the land" as well as to increase the defensive

capacity of the country, the national militia was re-established by the

decree of the 4th of February 1733, which at the same time bound to the

soil all peasants between the age of nine and forty. Reactionary as the

measure was it enabled the agricultural interest, on which the

prosperity of Denmark mainly depended, to tide over one of the most

dangerous crises in its history; but certainly the position of the

Danish peasantry was never worse than during the reign of the religious

and benevolent Christian VI.

Frederick V., 1746-1766.

Under the peaceful reign of Christian's son and successor, Frederick V.

(1746-1766), still more was done for commerce, industry and agriculture.

To promote Denmark's carrying trade, treaties were made with the Barbary

States, Genoa and Naples; and the East Indian Trading Company flourished

exceedingly. On the other hand the condition of the peasantry was even

worse under Frederick V. than it had been under Christian VI., the

_Stavnsbaand_, or regulation which bound all males to the soil, being

made operative from the age of four. Yet signs of a coming amelioration

were not wanting. The theory of the physiocrats now found powerful

advocates in Denmark; and after 1755, when the press censorship was

abolished so far as regarded political economy and agriculture, a

thorough discussion of the whole agrarian question became possible. A

commission appointed in 1757 worked zealously for the repeal of many

agricultural abuses; and several great landed proprietors introduced

hereditary leaseholds, and abolished the servile tenure.

Christian VII., 1766-1808.

Foreign affairs during the reigns of Frederick V. and Christian VI. were

left in the capable hands of J. H. E. Bernstorff, who aimed at steering

clear of all foreign complications and preserving inviolable the

neutrality of Denmark. This he succeeded in doing, in spite of the Seven

Years' War and of the difficulties attending the thorny Gottorp question

in which Sweden and Russia were equally interested. The same policy was

victoriously pursued by his nephew and pupil Andreas Bernstorff, an even

greater man than the elder Bernstorff, who controlled the foreign policy

of Denmark from 1773 to 1778, and again from 1784 till his death in

1797. The period of the younger Bernstorff synchronizes with the greater

part of the long reign of Christian VII. (1766-1808), one of the most

eventful periods of modern Danish history. The king himself was indeed a

semi-idiot, scarce responsible for his actions, yet his was the era of

such striking personalities as the brilliant charlatan Struensee, the

great philanthropist and reformer C. D. F. Reventlow, the

ultra-conservative Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, whose mission it was to repair

the damage done by Struensee, and that generation of alert and

progressive spirits which surrounded the young crown prince Frederick,

whose first act, on taking his seat in the council of state, at the age

of sixteen, on the 4th of April 1784, was to dismiss Guldberg.

A fresh and fruitful period of reform now began, lasting till nearly the

end of the century, and interrupted only by the brief but costly war

with Sweden in 1788. The emancipation of the peasantry was now the

burning question of the day, and the whole matter was thoroughly

ventilated. Bernstorff and the crown prince were the most zealous

advocates of the peasantry in the council of state; but the honour of

bringing the whole peasant question within the range of practical

politics undoubtedly belongs to C. D. F. Reventlow (q.v.). Nor was the

reforming principle limited to the abolition of serfdom. In 1788 the

corn trade was declared free; the Jews received civil rights; and the

negro slave trade was forbidden. In 1796 a special ordinance reformed

the whole system of judicial procedure, making it cheaper and more

expeditious; while the toll ordinance of the 1st of February 1797 still

further extended the principle of free trade. Moreover, until two years

after Bernstorff's death in 1797, the Danish press enjoyed a larger

freedom of speech than the press of any other absolute monarchy in

Europe, so much so that at last Denmark became suspected of favouring

Jacobin views. But in September 1799 under strong pressure from the

Russian emperor Paul, the Danish government forbade anonymity, and

introduced a limited censorship.

Denmark and Great Britain in the Napoleonic Wars.

It was Denmark's obsequiousness to Russia which led to the first of her

unfortunate collisions with Great Britain. In 1800 the Danish government

was persuaded by the tsar to accede to the second Armed Neutrality

League, which Russia had just concluded with Prussia and Sweden. Great

Britain retaliated by laying an embargo on the vessels of the three

neutral powers, and by sending a considerable fleet to the Baltic under

the command of Parker and Nelson. Surprised and unprepared though they

were, the Danes, nevertheless, on the 2nd of April 1801, offered a

gallant resistance; but their fleet was destroyed, their capital

bombarded, and, abandoned by Russia, they were compelled to submit to a

disadvantageous peace.

The same vain endeavour of Denmark to preserve her neutrality led to the

second breach with England. After the peace of Tilsit there could be no

further question of neutrality. Napoleon had determined that if Great

Britain refused to accept Russia's mediation, Denmark, Sweden and

Portugal were to be forced to close their harbours to her ships and

declare war against her. It was the intention of the Danish government

to preserve its neutrality to the last, although, on the whole, it

preferred an alliance with Great Britain to a league with Napoleon, and

was even prepared for a breach with the French emperor if he pressed her

too hardly. The army had therefore been assembled in Holstein, and the

crown prince regent was with it. But the British government did not

consider Denmark strong enough to resist France, and Canning had private

trustworthy information of the designs of Napoleon, upon which he was

bound to act. He sent accordingly a fleet, with 30,000 men on board, to

the Sound to compel Denmark, by way of security for her future conduct,

to unite her fleet with the British fleet. Denmark was offered an

alliance, the complete restitution of her fleet after the war, a

guarantee of all her possessions, compensation for all expenses, and

even territorial aggrandizement.

Loss of Norway. Treaty of Kiel, 1814.

Dictatorially presented as they were, these terms were liberal and even

generous; and if a great statesman like Bernstorff had been at the head

of affairs in Copenhagen, he would, no doubt, have accepted them, even

if with a wry face. But the prince regent, if a good patriot, was a poor

politician, and invincibly obstinate. When, therefore, in August 1807,

Gambier arrived in the Sound, and the English plenipotentiary Francis

James Jackson, not perhaps the most tactful person that could have been

chosen, hastened to Kiel to place the British demands before the crown

prince, Frederick not only refused to negotiate, but ordered the

Copenhagen authorities to put the city in the best state of defence

possible. Taking this to be tantamount to a declaration of war, on the

16th of August the British army landed at Vedbäck; and shortly

afterwards the Danish capital was invested. Anything like an adequate

defence was hopeless; a bombardment began which lasted from the 2nd of

September till the 5th of September, and ended with the capitulation of

the city and the surrender of the fleet intact, the prince regent having

neglected to give orders for its destruction. After this Denmark,

unwisely, but not unnaturally, threw herself into the arms of Napoleon

and continued to be his faithful ally till the end of the war. She was

punished for her obstinacy by being deprived of Norway, which she was

compelled to surrender to Sweden by the terms of the treaty of Kiel

(1814), on the 14th of January, receiving by way of compensation a sum

of money and Swedish Pomerania, with Rügen, which were subsequently

transferred to Prussia in exchange for the duchy of Lauenburg and

2,000,000 rix-dollars.

On the establishment of the German Confederation in 1815, Frederick VI.

acceded thereto as duke of Holstein, but refused to allow Schleswig to

enter it, on the ground that Schleswig was an integral part of the

Danish realm.

Denmark after 1815.

Constitutional agitation. Beginnings of the Schleswig-Holstein Question.

Unionist Constitution of 1848, and war with Prussia.

The position of Denmark from 1815 to 1830 was one of great difficulty

and distress. The loss of Norway necessitated considerable reductions of

expenditure, but the economies actually practised fell far short of the

requirements of the diminished kingdom and its depleted exchequer; while

the agricultural depression induced by the enormous fall in the price of

corn all over Europe caused fresh demands upon the state, and added

10,000,000 rix-dollars to the national debt before 1835. The last two

years of the reign of Frederick VI. (1838-1839) were also remarkable for

the revival of political life, provincial consultative assemblies being

established for Jutland, the Islands, Schleswig and Holstein, by the

ordinance of the 28th of May 1831. But these consultative assemblies

were regarded as insufficient by the Danish Liberals, and during the

last years of Frederick VI. and the whole reign of his successor,

Christian VIII. (1839-1848), the agitation for a free constitution, both

in Denmark and the duchies, continued to grow in strength, in spite of

press prosecutions and other repressive measures. The rising national

feeling in Germany also stimulated the separatist tendencies of the

duchies; and "Schleswig-Holsteinism," as it now began to be called,

evoked in Denmark the counter-movement known as _Eiderdansk-politik_,

i.e. the policy of extending Denmark to the Eider and obliterating

German Schleswig, in order to save Schleswig from being absorbed by

Germany. This division of national sentiment within the monarchy,

complicated by the approaching extinction of the Oldenburg line of the

house of Denmark, by which, in the normal course under the Salic law,

the succession to Holstein would have passed away from the Danish crown,

opened up the whole complicated Schleswig-Holstein Question with all its

momentous consequences. (See SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION.) Within the

monarchy itself, during the following years, "Schleswig-Holsteinism" and

"Eiderdanism" faced each other as rival, mutually exacerbating forces;

and the efforts of succeeding governments to solve the insoluble problem

broke down ever on the rock of nationalist passion and the interests of

the German powers. The unionist constitution, devised by Christian

VIII., and promulgated by his successor, Frederick VII. (1848-1863), on

the 28th of January 1848, led to the armed intervention of Prussia, at

the instance of the new German parliament at Frankfort; and, though with

the help of Russian and British diplomacy, the Danes were ultimately

successful, they had to submit, in 1851, to the government of Holstein

by an international commission consisting of three members, Prussian,

Austrian and Danish respectively.

Denmark, meanwhile, had been engaged in providing herself with a

parliament on modern lines. The constitutional rescript of the 28th of

January 1848 had been withdrawn in favour of an electoral law for a

national assembly, of whose 152 members 38 were to be nominated by the

king and to form an Upper House (_Landsting_), while the remainder were

to be elected by the people and to form a popular chamber (_Folketing_).

The _Bondevenlige_, or philo-peasant party, which objected to the king's

right of nomination and preferred a one-chamber system, now separated

from the National Liberals on this point. But the National Liberals

triumphed at the general election; fear of reactionary tendencies

finally induced the Radicals to accede to the wishes of the majority;

and on the 5th of June 1849 the new constitution received the royal

sanction.

Germany and the Danish duchies.

Convention of 1852.

At this stage Denmark's foreign relations prejudicially affected her

domestic politics. The Liberal Eiderdansk party was for dividing Schleswig

into three distinct administrative belts, according as the various

nationalities predominated (language rescripts of 1851), but German

sentiment was opposed to any such settlement and, still worse, the great

continental powers looked askance on the new Danish constitution as far

too democratic. The substance of the notes embodying the exchange of

views, in 1851 and 1852, between the German great powers and Denmark, was

promulgated, on the 28th of January 1852, in the new constitutional decree

which, together with the documents on which it was founded, was known as

the Conventions of 1851 and 1852. Under this arrangement each part of the

monarchy was to have local autonomy, with a common constitution for common

affairs. Holstein was now restored to Denmark, and Prussia and Austria

consented to take part in the conference of London, by which the integrity

of Denmark was upheld, and the succession to the whole monarchy

settled on Prince Christian, youngest son of Duke William of

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and husband of Louise of Hesse,

the niece of King Christian VIII. The "legitimate" heir to the duchies,

under the Salic law, Duke Christian of Sonderburg-Augustenburg, accepted

the decision of the London conference in consideration of the purchase by

the Danish government of his estates in Schleswig.

Constitution of 1855.

Constitution of 1863 and accession of Christian IX.

Prusso-Danish War of 1864, and cession of the duchies.

On the 2nd of October 1855 was promulgated the new common constitution,

which for two years had been the occasion of a fierce contention between

the Conservatives and the Radicals. It proved no more final than its

predecessors. The representatives of the duchies in the new common

_Rigsraad_ protested against it, as subversive of the Conventions of

1851 and 1852; and their attitude had the support of the German powers.

In 1857, Carl Christian Hall (q.v.) became prime minister. After putting

off the German powers by seven years of astute diplomacy, he realized

the impossibility of carrying out the idea of a common constitution and,

on the 30th of March 1862, a royal proclamation was issued detaching

Holstein as far as possible from the common monarchy. Later in the year

he introduced into the _Rigsraad_ a common constitution for Denmark and

Schleswig, which was carried through and confirmed by the council of

state on the 13th of November 1863. It had not, however, received the

royal assent when the death of Frederick VII. brought the "Protocol

King" Christian IX. to the throne. Placed between the necessity of

offending his new subjects or embroiling himself with the German powers,

Christian chose the remoter evil and, on the 18th of November, the new

constitution became law. This once more opened up the whole question in

an acute form. Frederick, son of Christian of Augustenburg, refusing to

be bound by his father's engagements, entered Holstein and, supported by

the Estates and the German diet, proclaimed himself duke. The events

that followed: the occupation of the duchies by Austria and Prussia, the

war of 1864, gallantly fought by the Danes against overwhelming odds,

and the astute diplomacy by which Bismarck succeeded in ultimately

gaining for Prussia the seaboard so essential for her maritime power,

are dealt with elsewhere (see SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION). For Denmark

the question was settled when, by the peace of Vienna (October 30,

1864), the duchies were irretrievably lost to her. At the peace of

Prague, which terminated the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Napoleon III.

procured the insertion in the treaty of paragraph v., by which the

northern districts of Schleswig were to be reunited to Denmark when the

majority of the population by a free vote should so desire; but when

Prussia at last thought fit to negotiate with Denmark on the subject,

she laid down conditions which the Danish government could not accept.

Finally, in 1878, by a separate agreement between Austria and Prussia,

paragraph v. was rescinded.

Constitutional struggles in Denmark since 1866.

The salient feature of Danish politics during subsequent years was the

struggle between the two _Tings_, the _Folketing_ or Lower House, and

the _Landsting_, or Upper House of the _Rigsdag_. This contest began in

1872, when a combination of all the Radical parties, known as the

"United Left," passed a vote of want of confidence against the

government and rejected the budget. Nevertheless, the ministry,

supported by the _Landsting_, refused to resign; and the crisis became

acute when, in 1875, J. B. Estrup became prime minister. Perceiving that

the coming struggle would be essentially a financial one, he retained

the ministry of finance in his own hands; and, strong in the support of

the king, the _Landsting_, and a considerable minority in the country

itself, he devoted himself to the double task of establishing the

political parity of the _Landsting_ with the _Folketing_ and

strengthening the national armaments, so that, in the event of a war

between the European great powers, Denmark might be able to defend her

neutrality.

The Left was willing to vote 30,000,000 crowns for extraordinary

military expenses, exclusive of the fortifications of Copenhagen, on

condition that the amount should be raised by a property and income tax;

and, as the elections of 1875 had given them a majority of three-fourths

in the popular chamber, they spoke with no uncertain voice. But the

Upper House steadily supported Estrup, who was disinclined to accept any

such compromise. As an agreement between the two houses on the budget

proved impossible, a provisional financial decree was issued on the 12th

of April 1877, which the Left stigmatized as a breach of the

constitution. But the difficulties of the ministry were somewhat

relieved by a split in the Radical party, still further accentuated by

the elections of 1879, which enabled Estrup to carry through the army

and navy defence bill and the new military penal code by leaning

alternately upon one or the other of the divided Radical groups.

After the elections of 1881, which brought about the reamalgamation of

the various Radical sections, the opposition presented a united front to

the government, so that, from 1882 onwards, legislation was almost at a

standstill. The elections of 1884 showed clearly that the nation was

also now on the side of the Radicals, 83 out of the 102 members of the

_Folketing_ belonging to the opposition. Still Estrup remained at his

post. He had underestimated the force of public opinion, but he was

conscientiously convinced that a Conservative ministry was necessary to

Denmark at this crisis. When therefore the _Rigsdag_ rejected the

budget, he advised the king to issue another provisional financial

decree. Henceforth, so long as the _Folketing_ refused to vote supplies,

the ministry regularly adopted these makeshifts. In 1886 the Left,

having no constitutional means of dismissing the Estrup ministry,

resorted for the first time to negotiations; but it was not till the 1st

of April 1894 that the majority of the _Folketing_ could arrive at an

agreement with the government and the _Landsting_ as to a budget which

should be retrospective and sanction the employment of the funds so

irregularly obtained for military expenditure. The whole question of the

provisional financial decrees was ultimately regularized by a special

resolution of the _Rigsdag_; and the retirement of the Estrup ministry

in August 1894 was the immediate result of the compromise.

In spite of the composition of 1894, the animosity between _Folketing_

and _Landsting_ continues to characterize Danish politics, and the

situation has been complicated by the division of both Right and Left

into widely divergent groups. The elections of 1895 resulted in an

undeniable victory of the extreme Radicals; and the budget of 1895-1896

was passed only at the last moment by a compromise. The session of

1896-1897 was remarkable for a _rapprochement_ between the ministry and

the "Left Reform Party," caused by the secessions of the "Young Right,"

which led to an unprecedented event in Danish politics--the voting of

the budget by the Radical _Folketing_ and its rejection by the

Conservative _Landsting_ in May 1897; whereupon the ministry resigned in

favour of the moderate Conservative Hörring cabinet, which induced the

Upper House to pass the budget. The elections of 1898 were a fresh

defeat for the Conservatives, and in the autumn session of the same

year, the _Folketing_, by a crushing majority of 85 to 12, rejected the

military budget. The ministry was saved by a mere accident--the

expulsion of Danish agitators from North Schleswig by the German

government, which evoked a passion of patriotic protest throughout

Denmark, and united all parties, the war minister declaring in the

_Folketing_, during the debate on the military budget (January 1899),

that the armaments of Denmark were so far advanced that any great power

must think twice before venturing to attack her. The chief event of the

year 1899 was the great strike of 40,000 artisans, which cost Denmark

50,000,000 crowns, and brought about a reconstruction of the cabinet in

order to bring in, as minister of the interior, Ludwig Ernest Bramsen,

the great specialist in industrial matters, who succeeded (September

2-4) in bringing about an understanding between workmen and employers.

The session 1900-1901 was remarkable for the further disintegration of

the Conservative party still in office (the Sehested cabinet superseded

the Hörring cabinet on the 27th of April 1900) and the almost total

paralysis of parliament, caused by the interminable debates on the

question of taxation reform. The crisis came in 1901. Deprived of nearly

all its supporters in the _Folketing_, the Conservative ministry

resigned, and King Christian was obliged to assent to the formation of a

"cabinet of the Left" under Professor Deuntzer. Various reforms were

carried, but the proposal to sell the Danish islands in the West Indies

to the United States fell through. During these years the relations

between Denmark and the German empire improved, and in the country

itself the cause of social democracy made great progress. In January

1906 King Christian ended his long reign, and was succeeded by his son

Frederick VIII. At the elections of 1906 the government lost its small

absolute majority, but remained in power with support from the Moderates

and Conservatives. It was severely shaken, however, when Herr A.

Alberti, who had been minister of justice since 1901, and was admitted

to be the strongest member of the cabinet, was openly accused of

nepotism and abuse of the power of his position. These charges gathered

weight until the minister was forced to resign in July 1908, and in

September he was arrested on a charge of forgery in his capacity as

director of the Zealand Peasants' Savings Bank. The ministry, of which

Herr Jens Christian Christensen was head, was compelled to resign in

October. The effect of these revelations was profound not only

politically, but also economically; the important export trade in Danish

butter, especially, was adversely affected, as Herr Alberti had been

interested in numerous dairy companies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--I. GENERAL HISTORY. _Danmarks Riges Historie_

(Copenhagen, 1897-1905); R. Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_ (Cambridge,

1905); H. Weitemeyer, _Denmark_ (London, 1901); Adolf Ditley

Jörgensen, _Historiske Afhandlinger_ (Copenhagen, 1898); _ib.

Fortaellinger af Nordens Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1892). II. EARLY AND

MEDIEVAL HISTORY. Saxo, _Gesta Danorum_ (Strassburg, 1886);

_Repertorium diplomaticum regni Danici mediaevalis_ (Copenhagen,

1894); Ludvig Holberg, _Konge og Danehof_ (Copenhagen, 1895); Poul

Frederik Barford, _Danmarks Historie 1319-1536_ (Copenhagen, 1885);

_ib. 1536-1670_ (Copenhagen, 1891). III. 16TH TO 19TH CENTURY. Philip

P. Munch, _Kobstadstyrelsen i Danmark_ (Copenhagen, 1900); Peter

Edvard Holm, _Danmark Norges indre Historie, 1660-1720_ (Copenhagen,

1885-1886); _ib. Danmark Norges Historie, 1720-1814_ (Copenhagen,

1891-1894); Sören Bloch Thrige, _Danmarks Historie i vort

Aarhundrede_ (Copenhagen, 1888); Marcus Rubin, _Frederick VI.'s Tid

fra Kielerfreden_ (Copenhagen, 1895); Christian Frederick von Holten,

_Erinnerungen; Der deutsch-dänische Krieg_ (Stuttgart, 1900); Niels

Peter Jensen, _Den anden slesvigske Krig_ (Copenhagen, 1900); S. N.

Mouritsen, _Vor Forfatnings Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1894); Carl

Frederik Vilhelm Mathildus Rosenberg, _Danmark i Aaret 1848_

(Copenhagen, 1891). See also the special bibliographies appended to

the biographies of the Danish kings and statesmen. (R. N. B.)