AT THE COURT OF DENMARK.
1767-1768.
The relations between the King and Queen did not improve as time went
on. Matilda was frightened by Christian's wildness and dissipation,
piqued by his indifference, and wounded by his sarcasms. Though she
was very young she had a high spirit, and did not submit quietly to
insult. Her position at the court, of which she was nominally the
reigning Queen, was very unsatisfactory--the King was autocrat and she
was nothing--even in trifling questions concerning the royal household
she was not consulted, and if she ventured to express an opinion it
was ignored. She had no relative to whom she could look for guidance.
The Queen-Mother, Sophia Magdalena, had retired to Hirschholm; she was
nearly seventy years old, and since the fall of Moltke had abjured
politics and given herself up to good works. The Queen-Dowager, Juliana
Maria, was secretly hostile, and Matilda did not trust her, though the
three Queens at this time, as Reverdil says, lived outwardly "_dans
une grande intimité et dans un ennui paisible_". The King's sister,
the Princess Louise, was too much absorbed in her husband and child
to be of any use to her sister-in-law, and the King's aunt, Charlotte
Amelia, had never appeared at court since Matilda arrived in Denmark.
So the young Queen had to seek the advice of her chief lady, Madame de
Plessen, and she was guided by her in all things. It was the wish of
this lady to bring back to the lax court of Christian VII. the stiff
and wearisome etiquette that had prevailed in the reign of the King's
grandfather, Christian VI. In her eyes Matilda was not only a young
married woman, but the Queen of the land, whom the King himself might
only approach according to the rules of etiquette. Christian must be
made to understand that Queen Matilda was his honoured consort, and not
his mistress.
It is possible that, had the young couple been left to themselves, they
would in time have understood one another better, and learned to make
allowances for each other. They were little more than children when
they married, and quarrelled like children; they would probably have
been reconciled afterwards like children, and become better friends.
But they were not left to themselves. Madame de Plessen chose to stand
between husband and wife in their most intimate relations, and with
disastrous results. She was especially to blame in embittering the
Queen's mind against the King by repeating every thoughtless utterance
of his, and magnifying every foolish deed. In Madame de Plessen's
opinion the Queen could only acquire an influence over her husband by
treating him with coldness, and resisting his advances. The ladies
of the court were ready to throw themselves into the King's arms at
the least provocation--not that he ever gave them any--and Madame
de Plessen thought that he would value most what it was not easy to
obtain. In pursuance of this policy she advised the Queen to treat
him with coyness and reserve. For instance, the King came unannounced
one morning into the Queen's room while she was dressing. A kerchief
had just been placed around her neck; the King pushed it aside and
pressed a kiss upon his wife's shoulder. Whereupon Madame de Plessen
held up her hands in disgust, and the Queen, taking her cue from the
duenna, feigned anger, and reproached her husband for disarranging her
kerchief. The King snatched it off her bosom, tore it in pieces, and
threw it on the floor. He did not come back for several days.
Again, Madame de Plessen was annoyed because the King sent in the
evening to know if the Queen had retired to bed; she considered it
wanting in respect to the Queen, and advised Matilda to put a stop to
it. The next time the King sent to make his inquiry, the answer was
returned that her Majesty was playing chess and would not retire until
her game was finished. The King waited until twelve o'clock, and then
he came into the Queen's apartments and found her still playing chess
with Madame de Plessen. Very much annoyed he began to walk up and down
the room without saying a word, and the game was not finished until
the clock struck one. The Queen then said she wished to have her
revenge, and he saw Madame de Plessen give a triumphant smile. Then he
understood what was meant. He left the room in a fury, and banged the
door after him, and did not come near the Queen again for a fortnight.
There were many such scenes as these, and each one left the relations
between the King and Queen more strained than before, until within a
year of their marriage they were thoroughly alienated from one another.
The immediate result of Madame de Plessen's interference was to drive
the King still further into dissipation and folly. Prevented from
enjoying his wife's society as he would, he spent his evenings with
his friends, who included the wildest spirits of the court. The King's
evening parties, which he held in his own rooms, had long ceased to
bear even a superficial resemblance to the celebrated gatherings of
Frederick the Great; they assumed by degrees a more and more noisy and
riotous character. The young men indulged in sham fights and wrestling
to develop the King's "smartness"--this was the word he used to denote
his physical strength. These fights, indulged in after plentiful
libations of wine, often proved destructive of the furniture, and
sometimes ended in high words and bad temper. But the fighting was
comparatively harmless. The King's evening gatherings unfortunately did
not stop here, but degenerated into excesses which recalled the orgies
described in the pages of Juvenal and Petronius. Even Sperling seems
to have found these dissipations too much for him. At any rate he
gradually lost the King's favour, and was replaced by Brandt, a page of
the chamber.
Enevold Brandt was a few years older than Christian VII. He came of
an ancient Danish family: his father had been a privy councillor and
private secretary to Queen Sophia Magdalena, but he died before his
son's birth. His mother married again Baron Söhlenthal, and young
Brandt was brought up in his stepfather's house. At an early age he
went to Copenhagen to study law, and passed his examinations with
flying colours. In his vacations Brandt travelled widely: he was a
polished man of the world and possessed brilliant social qualities.
Christian VII., who was clever enough to appreciate cleverness in
others, took a great fancy to him, for a time. Honours, both legal
and courtly, were showered upon him. He was appointed an assessor of
the Court of Chancery, a page of the chamber, and an assessor of the
Supreme Court. Brandt was below the middle height, and though his face
could not be described as handsome, he had an air of distinction. After
Christian's accession he was a good deal about the person of the King,
and was of great use in arranging the masquerades. It was thought that
he would succeed Sperling as the King's first favourite, but Christian
quickly tired of his friends, and as soon as the masquerades were over
Brandt found himself eclipsed in the royal favour by Holck.
Conrad, Count Holck, despite his wildness and extravagancies, was the
best of Christian VII.'s favourites (and bad was the best). Unlike
Sperling and Brandt, he was neither an intriguer nor a self-seeker.
He was a dare-devil youth, wealthy, handsome, and brimming over with
boisterous good-humour and animal spirits. Christian VII. found Holck
an excellent foil for the dark moods and the morbid humours that
occasionally beset him, and the pair soon became fast friends.
Brandt and Holck were always at the King's evening gatherings, and
sought to outvie one another in their master's favour by proposing
fresh extravagancies. There were many others; among them a young
Englishman named Osborne, who held a commission in the Danish service,
Count Danneskjold-Laurvig, and some older men, including Saldern
the Russian envoy. By way of variety the King resumed his nocturnal
expeditions, which he had abandoned since his marriage. Accompanied by
his wild companions he roamed the streets of Copenhagen in disguise,
visiting taverns and houses of ill-repute, molesting peaceable
citizens, fighting with the watchmen, and breaking lamps and windows.
Of course these freaks got abroad and set a fashion, and bands of
disorderly youths prowled about the city at night in imitation of
the King and his companions, thereby causing great difficulty to the
superintendent of the police, for they pretended often to be the King's
party, and for fear of mistake he hardly dared to make an arrest.
Things came to such a pass at last that the watchmen lost patience,
and determined not to let the rioters off easily, whether they
belonged to the King's party or not. On one occasion, pretending not
to know, they caught the King and belaboured him so unmercifully that
he had to retire to bed for some days, and pretend that he was ill of
the fever.[81] On another night, however, he achieved a triumph, and
brought home a club as a trophy, which he had wrested from one of the
watchmen.
[81] The Saxon minister at Copenhagen in his despatch of April 12,
1768, states that the King's indisposition was due to a wound he
received in one of these combats with the watchmen.
Details of these extravagancies came to the young Queen's ears from
time to time, through the medium of Sperling, who, now that he was
superseded in the King's favour, attached himself to the Queen's
_entourage_, and, with his uncle, Reventlow, who was the Queen's
chamberlain, was often to be seen in the apartments of Madame de
Plessen. Prejudiced by Sperling the Queen took a violent dislike to
Holck, whose evil influence over the King she believed to be the cause
of all her troubles. Holck ascribed the Queen's dislike of him to
Madame de Plessen, whom he regarded as his enemy, and he retaliated
after the manner of his kind. Not only did he treat the Queen with
scant respect, but he declared that she was piqued because he did not
make love to her. He also behaved to Madame de Plessen with great
rudeness, and instigated the coarse and mischievous jokes whereby the
King sought to make the chief lady's position intolerable at court and
so force her to resign. But these tactics proved unavailing, for the
more rudely Madame de Plessen was treated by the King the more closely
did she cling to her post. She determined to protect the Queen come
what might, and Matilda, in return, identified herself with Madame de
Plessen's friends, and regarded her chief lady's enemies as her own. On
July 22, 1767, the Queen attained her sixteenth birthday, but to punish
her the King would not celebrate it.
In August, 1767, Christian VII. determined to make a tour through
Holstein. The Queen, who was fond of travel, eagerly desired to
accompany the King, and the royal tour was made the subject of many
entreaties and negotiations on her part and the part of her household.
But to further mark his displeasure the King refused to take her, and
a serious quarrel took place between them. The Queen was to be pitied,
because the indifference she had shown towards her husband had in great
part been assumed at the suggestion of Madame de Plessen. She was now
likely to become a mother, and, by a natural instinct, she had grown
into an inclination for the father of her child. But she attributed
the King's refusal not to Madame de Plessen but to Holck (who, it is
very possible, had something to do with it), and insisted that if the
King would not take her he should not take Holck either. After much
difficulty she carried the point, but her victory only enraged the
King, and gave her no satisfaction.
Reverdil, who was the Queen's friend, did his best to patch up the
quarrel. He accompanied the King on his tour through Holstein, and
urged him to write affectionate letters to his wife. He pointed out
that, considering the state of the Queen's health, there was need to
indulge her in her whims and fancies. Christian, who was still smarting
from the interference of Madame de Plessen, consented with an ill
grace, and only on condition that Reverdil composed the letters and he
merely copied them. These letters pacified Matilda; she was ignorant
of their real authorship, and replied with affection. The King did not
distinguish himself during his tour or increase the loyalty of the
duchy. He offended, by his frivolity and recklessness, the old Holstein
nobility, who, if somewhat barbarous, were very strict in their ideas
of what a King should be.
[Illustration: EDWARD, DUKE OF YORK, BROTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA.
_From the Painting by G. H. Every._]
While Christian VII. was absent in Holstein Matilda heard of the
death of her favourite brother, Edward Duke of York, a gallant,
high-spirited youth. The Duke chose the navy as a profession, and if
his promotion in it was rapid (he was promoted to be a rear-admiral at
the age of twenty-three), he showed himself to be a brave sailor, and
distinguished himself under Howe at the bombardment of Cherbourg. After
the capture of the town the Duke gave the French ladies a ball. "He
told them he was too young to know what was good breeding in France,
and therefore he should behave as if meaning to please in England, and
he kissed them all."[82] The young Prince was a great favourite
with the ladies. His first love was the beautiful and witty Charlotte,
Countess of Essex. He then transferred his affections to the even more
beautiful Duchess of Richmond, sister-in-law of Lady Sarah Lennox.
But the most serious of all his love affairs was his passion for Lady
Mary Coke, a young widow, who found herself at an early age "the envy
of her sex; in the possession of youth, health, wealth, wit, beauty
and liberty". The young and ardent Duke seems to have given her a
promise of marriage, for during his lifetime she always spoke of
him to her friends as her betrothed, and after his death displayed
immoderate grief. The Duke's numerous love affairs and his constant
pursuit of pleasure naturally involved him in money difficulties. The
Princess-Dowager of Wales declined to supplement her second son's
allowance, and often lamented his extravagance, but George III. was
fond of his volatile brother, and occasionally helped him, though it
was against his strict principles to do so. One day the Duke went to
St. James's in a state of the greatest dejection, and, when he saw the
King, sighed heavily. The King asked him why he was so low-spirited.
"How can I be otherwise," said the Duke, "pressed as I am by creditors
and without a penny to pay them?" The King, much affected, pressed a
thousand pound note into his brother's hand. The Duke gravely read
every word of it aloud, then marched out of the room singing, "God save
great George our King!"
[82] _The Georgian Era_, vol. i.
The Duke of York had kept up a constant correspondence with Queen
Matilda since she had left England; he wrote to her from Paris a few
weeks before his death telling her that he was making a tour through
France, and intended, before he returned to England, to travel
northwards and pay her a visit at Copenhagen. But on his journey to the
south of France the Duke caught a chill, and when he arrived at Monaco
he was taken seriously ill. For fourteen days he lingered in great
suffering, alleviated only by the affectionate offices of the gentlemen
of his suite and the kindness of the Prince of Monaco. The Duke died on
September 17, 1767, at the age of twenty eight. His body was removed
on board the British ship-of-war _Montreal_, and conveyed home to be
buried in Westminster Abbey.
The news of the Duke of York's death reached Copenhagen on October 10,
and the English envoy was under some difficulty how best to break the
news to the Queen, in her delicate state of health. He writes: "My
apprehensions of the effect it might have had on her Danish Majesty in
her present situation, whenever she became acquainted with it, made
me communicate my first intelligence of it to Madame de Plessen, of
whose caution and discretion in this instance I have no doubt, that she
might take such methods of preparing the Queen for it as she judged
most likely to lessen the shock, which otherwise so unexpected an event
might be attended with. I have the pleasure to acquaint you that her
Majesty has suffered as little as (considering the great tenderness of
her disposition) could well be expected."[83]
[83] Gunning's despatch, Copenhagen, October 13, 1767.
Queen Matilda felt her brother's death keenly, the more so as she
had been looking forward to his visit to Copenhagen, when she hoped
to confide to him her troubles, and ask his help and guidance. When
Christian heard of his Queen's loss, he wrote her (through Reverdil)
an affectionate letter of condolence. The Queen was touched by this
consideration; she felt tenderly towards her husband, and was anxious
to be friends. When the King returned from Holstein, the Queen drove
out eight leagues from Copenhagen to meet him. But Christian's greeting
was cold and formal, though he got into her coach and drove back with
her into Copenhagen, so that the citizens might think that he was on
good terms with his Queen.
After her husband's return Matilda made several efforts to win his
love, and behaved to him with the utmost submission, but he did
not respond. Her pathetic desire to please him, her extreme youth
and loneliness, the fact that she was soon to become the mother of
his child--these considerations had no weight with Christian VII.
He repulsed his wife's advances, and treated her with rudeness and
contempt, conduct which, under the circumstances, was peculiarly
brutal. He made coarse jokes about her condition; he even tried to
force Holck, whom she detested, upon her as master of her household.
She refused with tears and agitation, so the King made him court
marshal, and gave him the management of all the festivities at court,
where comedies, balls and masquerades succeeded one another without
interruption.
In addition to Christian's cruelty to his Queen, he flaunted his
infidelity before her eyes. He had no inclination for the ladies of
the court (indeed the company of refined women seemed distasteful
to him), but at Holck's suggestion he sought the society of women
politely termed "actresses," and thereby derived no little amusement
and distraction. Holck, however, was not responsible for a woman whose
acquaintance the King made at this time, who went by the nickname
of _Stovlep Katerine_, or "Catherine of the Gaiters". This woman,
according to Reverdil, was brought before the King's notice by Count
Danneskjold-Laurvig. Her real name appears to have been Anna Catherine
Benthaken, and she was the natural daughter of an eminent officer in
the Danish service. As a child she was brought up in the household
of this officer, but after his death her mother married a retired
soldier, who was by trade a tailor who made gaiters. As Catherine
was penniless she accompanied her mother to her stepfather's poor
house, where, in return for her board and lodging, she was obliged to
sew gaiters--hence her nickname. But she could not brook this life
long, and having a vivacious temperament and some natural gifts she
sought other means of livelihood. Copenhagen in the eighteenth century
offered few opportunities of honest work for unmarried women, so
Catherine first became an opera dancer, and then the mistress of an
Englishman, Sir John Goodrich.[84] She lived with him for some time,
and was generally known as "Milady". At the time Christian made her
acquaintance, "Milady" was a good-looking young woman, with a fine
figure, and an excellent taste in dress. She was amusing and witty, and
equal to any wild scheme the King might conceive. It was her ambition
to become _maîtresse en titre_, and to this end she lent herself to all
kinds of extravagancies in order that she might gain greater influence
over the King. Before long "Milady" achieved her ambition; she received
the honour of an invitation to a masquerade at the palace, and the
King showed his preference to the court by dancing with her nearly all
the evening. Queen Matilda was spared the sight of this insult, for in
consequence of her state of health she was unable to be present, but
the incident was duly reported to her, and filled her with grief and
resentment.
[84] Sir John Goodrich was nominated by the British Government Minister
Plenipotentiary to Sweden, but, through the intrigues of the French
Government, he never got nearer Stockholm than Copenhagen.