Chapter IX: When Rogues Fall Out

THE REACTION--THE KING'S WILL--KOLLER-BANNER--RANTZAU'S
DISMISSAL--PRINCE CHARLES OF HESSE--COURT INTRIGUES--EICKSTEDT'S
CAREER--BERINGSKJOLD'S CAREER AND DEATH--VON DER OSTEN--THE GULDBERG
MINISTRY--THE PRINCE REGENT--THE COUP D'ETAT--UNCLE AND NEPHEW--FATE
OF GULDBERG--DEATH OF JULIANA MARIA.

With Struensee fell all his reforms, and "the good old times" returned in full force.

The detested cabinet minister had scarce been thrown into prison ere the new holders of power hastened to overthrow all the creations of the fallen man. As if anxious to give the country and all the persons watching their movements a proof of their care for the general welfare, they began by establishing justice on its old basis, and restored the Commission of Inquiry, who were allowed by the criminal code to extort confessions from prisoners with the lash. This care for the due administration of justice was soon followed to the satisfaction of the pietists and the orthodox clergy by the reintroduction of public penance for sexual sins, so that the plebs very soon enjoyed once more the edifying spectacle of hot-blooded sinners, male and female, being insulted by bigoted priests in temples devoted to the adoration of the Almighty. Still, they did not dare to abolish the court and city court established by Struensee, because the recognition of this benefit was universal. In the same way, a decided error on Struensee's part, and which, it might be assumed, the reaction would at once reform--the lottery, that plague-spot of the poorer classes--was allowed to exist, of course, because it caused a deal of money to flow into the treasury "of the dearly-beloved king who so dearly loved his nation," and cash was pressingly needed to satisfy the claims of the friends of the new government.

The spirit of the usurping party and its adherents was even more plainly shown by the restoration of serfdom, so that the holders of estates could treat their vassals as they pleased. The general dissatisfaction aroused by this measure among the poor servile peasants is depicted by Suhm, who once took the field so zealously against Struensee's "godless rule," in an anecdote from Jütland.

"Professor John Egede," so Suhm tells us, "saw a man in ragged clothes working in a field with some half-naked children to help him, a few years after Struensee's fall. 'Will not the extra tax be soon removed?' he asked the passing professor. The latter replied that he did not know. 'Oh! yes, I can quite believe that,' the peasant retorted, 'for you don't think about things of that sort in Copenhagen. That was a worthy man who gave us the regulations by which the _corvées_ were settled. But that was the very reason, I fancy, why they cut his head off. The new regulation is only made to torment us poor peasants till we cannot stand it any longer.'"

It is notorious that serfdom was not abolished until the regency of the Crown Prince Frederick. Under his long reign, which lasted from 1784 to 1839, nearly all Struensee's reforms, to which a more enlightened age did ample justice, and which had obtained general recognition through the ideas diffused by the French Revolution, were recalled to life. The task was completed, greatly to his credit, by Christian VIII., the grandson of Juliana Maria.

All that remains for us now to do, is to show by what means the new faction sought to secure its position, and how at last Nemesis revenged herself on the principal conspirators.

The usurpers did not consider themselves fully secured by having declared the king's sole signature invalid, but they wished to make themselves safe in the event of the weak king dying before the prince royal attained his majority. For this object, they persuaded the king, after the queen's matter had been amicably arranged with the English court, to sign a will, a copy of which was handed to the colleges and courts, with orders that the document was only to be opened after the king's death, in case it took place during the crown prince's minority. As the presumed event did not occur, however, the contents of the privy regulation have remained a secret. It was generally supposed that the king's testament contained an order that Queen Caroline Matilda should be excluded from the guardianship of her son, and that the Hereditary Prince Frederick should be appointed regent. Other suppositions hinted at still more important regulations as to the successor, but it can hardly be believed that the king, however imbecile he might be, would have signed such a document.

A desire to prevent a possible surprise was certainly the motive for the decree that for the future foreign envoys would only be admitted to an audience with the king in the presence of the council of state; and yet such a custom had been regarded as high treason on the part of Struensee.

The union among the conspirators, however, only lasted a short time after the revolution had been carried out, and this was specially evident among the military members. Generals Rantzau-Ascheberg and Eickstedt stood at the head of two opposite parties.

Rantzau-Ascheberg, Köller-Banner, and Von der Osten, formed a triumvirate dangerous to their opponents. As chief aide-de-camp, Köller-Banner received apartments in Frederiksberg Palace, where the court resided in the summer of 1772. Hence Rantzau also procured rooms in the palace; but, as the number of doors and windows annoyed him, he hired lodgings in the village adjoining the palace, and Von der Osten removed to the same spot, so that the three friends were close neighbours. Rantzau also supported in the Generalty College all the propositions that emanated from Köller, while he said simultaneously to Eickstedt, who hated Köller:

"Do not suppose that I have any serious understanding with Banner. Certainly not. I only pretend to be his partisan, in order that the Pomeranian may burn his fingers in the candle."

Von der Osten displayed equal dissimulation in the council of state, where he supported and praised everything proposed by Schack Rathlau, while in secret calumniating him to the best of his ability.

The other conspirators, consequently, began to entertain doubts about their three ambitious and intriguing colleagues, and apprehended that they might even meditate evil designs against the queen dowager and her son. Suddenly it was announced that Rantzau-Ascheberg, at his own request, had been relieved of all his offices, and retired on a pension of 8,000 dollars; and it was generally believed that Russia and Prussia had insisted on his removal. There may be some truth in this, as the Empress Catharine had just ratified the Holstein exchange, and naturally expected something in return. In the highest circles, however, all were glad at being freed from this dangerous man. Suhm, however, tells us, that the decisive cause of Rantzau's dismissal was, that he said about a letter written by the hereditary prince to Guldberg, "Yes, it can be recognised by the style! But was not Struensee's head cut off for the same thing?" Immediately after his retirement from active service, Rantzau quitted Copenhagen, and went to his Holstein estates; but, on October 16, the restless traitor proceeded to Kragsberg, near Odense, in Fühnen, but whether with reactionary purposes remained an enigma. In Copenhagen the return of the dangerous man occasioned such alarm among his former confederates, that, on November 6, Major von Harboe suddenly handed him a royal order to quit the island immediately. Under the major's escort he returned to Ascheberg, and directly after went, _viâ_ Hamburg, to Frankfort, where he cashed a draft of 24,000 florins in the assumed name of Juel. He left Frankfort again as quietly as he had arrived there, and proceeded to the south of France, where he took up his temporary abode at Orange, probably in obedience to royal commands. Afterwards he removed to Avignon, where he spent the rest of his days, and died there, in 1789, in his seventy-second year, without having once revisited his country.

So soon as some order had been introduced in the course of business, Köller-Banner, as representative of the infantry, produced in the War College projects for the tactical remodelling of the battalions, which, however, Eickstedt considered too expensive, and sought to prevent. Köller-Banner's plans were on the point of failing, when, in the eleventh hour, the government altered their mind, and temporarily assented to his plans. Eickstedt felt so insulted by this, that he forwarded a letter to the hereditary prince, in which he requested his discharge, and added, that he desired no pension. Guldberg naturally undertook to answer this request of one of the principal conspirators, and did it in his unctuous way, by recalling to the petitioner's mind the Glorious 17th of January, and reminding him of the necessity of all the sharers in it hanging together. Eickstedt replied to this in his usual coarse way, that he was sick and tired of constantly listening to the old chatter of January 17. The object of that day had been to secure the king's person, maintain the honour of the royal house, and promote the welfare of the country. But, if that object could not be attained, it would have been better had the events of January 17 never taken place. Such dangerous expressions from a powerful member of the conspiracy induced the hereditary prince himself to undertake satisfying the dissatisfied man; and he declared to the petitioner in writing that the aid of so active and far-sighted a man could not be dispensed with in the projected reforms, and hence his resignation could not be accepted.

Although Eickstedt had not succeeded in overthrowing Köller-Banner, another man completely effected it.

Directly after the revolution, Queen Juliana Maria invited to Copenhagen Prince Charles of Hesse and his wife, but the death of one of their children prevented the princely couple from reaching the capital until October, at the time when the menacing measures of Gustavus III., for the conquest of Norway, had aroused great terror among the incapable members of the government, and caused the nomination of Prince Charles as generalissimo in Norway. Immediately on his arrival the latter was received by the queen; and, after a conversation about the dangers with which Norway was menaced, was requested to examine Köller-Banner's propositions; but, at the same time, was also warned by the crafty queen against this dangerous man and Von der Osten. By the prince's advice, a committee was appointed, under the presidency of the hereditary prince, to investigate Köller-Banner's reforms: the other members being Prince Charles, and Generals von Hauch and von Hobe, while the ministers also took part in the discussions. This committee rejected nearly all Banner's propositions, at which the latter was so offended, that he not only forgot all the respect due to the king's brother-in-law, but publicly declared that Frederick II. of Prussia would erect a statue to him for reforms and ideas like his. When the authorities also learned that Köller-Banner, wrapped in his cloak, paid nocturnal visits to the French and Swedish envoys, his dismissal from his former posts, and his appointment as governor of the fortress of Rendsburg, ensued, while the Prince of Brunswick-Bevern was gazetted as commandant of the capital. Still the hero of January 17 retained his full pay of 4,400 dollars, in order not to offend him too greatly.[60]

Although the general might now be reckoned among the exiles, he had not fallen into utter disgrace, for Juliana Maria afterwards took him under her protection, and tried to keep him, for the purpose of intimidating the violent ministerial opposition. For in July, 1774, he unexpectedly received an invitation from her to come at once to Fredensborg, where the court was residing at the time; but when the ministers heard of this, they were penetrated with fear, and induced the War College to intimate to the general that he was to remain at his post in Rendsburg, and send an apology to the queen. Although Banner found himself compelled to obey on this occasion, on receiving soon after another request from the queen to come across, he informed her that he would accede to her wishes, and appeared at Fredensborg in the beginning of August. As, however, he was a thorn in the eye of the ministers, he soon began quarrelling with them, the result of which was, that he was commanded by the Generalty, who would not listen to his plans and complaints, to return to his post. This induced him to send in his resignation; but it was not accepted. Hence he imagined himself indispensable, and took a step by which he hoped to overthrow his opponents in the War College. He sent into the privy council a rambling plan for a thorough reconstruction of the army; but as Eickstedt had anticipated him, and handed in a similar project, Banner's was sent back to him unheeded. Infuriated at this, he again forwarded his resignation, and dated his request on the eventful day, January 17th, 1775; but this artful trick did not avail him.

On January 23rd, a royal cabinet letter was sent to the Generalty, to the effect that the king, in consideration of the proofs of fidelity, zeal, and devotedness, which Lieut.-General von Köller-Banner had furnished, felt himself induced to assent to his petition of January 17th in all points. He would, however, retain his former pay of 4,400 dollars, of which, 2,600 had been granted him for his meritorious services on January 17th, 1772. Furthermore, he would still remain in the king's service, and be always ready to act as a Danish general whenever the king thought proper, and as befitted a lieutenant-general; at the same time, he was permitted to visit other armies, and take part in foreign campaigns.

Köller-Banner, after this, left the country and went to Vienna and the Austrian army, but returned at the beginning of 1777 to Copenhagen, where he was again most graciously received by the old queen. Soon afterwards, however, he was mixed up in a scandalous affair with the magistracy about a child an actress had given birth to. The excitement caused by this was so general, that he received his full discharge from the military service. But the protection which the hero of January 17th still enjoyed was so great, that his 4,400 dollars were left him as a life pension.

When Köller went to take leave of his powerful patroness, Queen Juliana Maria, he requested, as a last proof of her favour, that she should inform him who it really was who had calumniated him so greatly to her and the hereditary prince, and promised, at the same time, to make no use of the information. The queen then acknowledged to him that it was Admiral von Kaas.

"Is it possible!" Köller-Banner exclaimed, in the utmost surprise. "That is the greatest insult that could be offered me! The unworthy wretch--a man who has dishonoured the Danish flag--a man whose wickedness is only comparable with his stupidity--has been able to overthrow a faithful and zealous servant of the royal house by his calumnies! I never could have believed that my hostile destiny would prepare such a humiliation for me."

Köller-Banner returned to his native land of Pomerania, but could not stand it long there, and selected as his last residence the very city where Struensee's memory was honoured. In this city, Altona, the conspirator died in 1811, utterly forgotten, and avoided and detested by everybody.

The Pomeranian knight of the Dannebrog, Hans Henry von Eickstedt, held his ground the longest. In 1773, this utterly ignorant soldier was entrusted with the supervision of the education of the crown prince by a royal letter, which was at the same time a grand panegyric of the nominee. The king, we read in it, had appointed him chief governor of his beloved son, because he could trust to the general's faithful devotedness, Danish heart, and judicious care. But this selection was so bad a one, that the excellent son of Caroline Matilda frequently complained loudly in his maturer years that he had been purposely kept from learning anything. It was the design of the queen and Guldberg to keep the crown prince a minor as long as possible, and the best means for this unscrupulous object were certainly to allow the heir to the throne to grow up in ignorance, to imbue him with an immoderate preference for everything Danish, and to divert his inclinations to unimportant state-matters, such as playing at soldiers. Although the two leaders of the conspiracy succeeded in this treacherous design, the country yet had the consolation and satisfaction that King Frederick VI. inherited the clear natural intellect of his unfortunate mother, and thus made up for his deficiency of knowledge, even though his neglected education entailed other consequences.

In November, 1783, Eickstedt was given the order of the Elephant; and when, in 1784, the education of the crown prince was said to be finished, he was appointed his first chamberlain; but on the very next day after the crown prince attained the government as regent, Eickstedt received from his royal pupil his dismissal as member of the privy council and commandant of the Horse Guards, with a pension of 5,000 dollars, which was some time after raised to 7,000. This terrible fall so greatly insulted the arrogant chamberlain, that he at once left the court and retired to his estate of Boltinggaard, in the island of Fühnen, where he died in the year 1801, in seclusion, and forgotten by the world.

Beringskjold could not endure the loss of his chamberlain's dignity and his banishment to the island of Möen, which I have already described, for it was asking this ambitious man to resign half his life. Hence he left the island secretly a little while after, and went to Sweden. What he undertook there remains a mystery; but it is known that he ordered his wife during his absence to send in a petition for his pardon, and compensation for the losses he had sustained by being deprived of his domain of Nygaard. As no resolution to this effect was issued, he, in the following year, requested, through the same intercessor, pardon and permission to return to his native land. This request had a better result, for he was not only allowed to return to Möen, but the chamberlain's key was also restored him. He received a letter from the king himself, in which his disobedience was graciously forgiven, and he was requested to remain quietly in Möen, or, if he preferred it, somewhere in Jütland, Fühnen, or the duchies, and there enjoy his guaranteed pension of 2,000 dollars. At the same time, however, he was prohibited from travelling again to Sweden, or carrying on a secret correspondence with that country, or leaving Denmark at all; and for his own good he was recommended not to show himself at Copenhagen, or any place where the court was residing. This indulgence toward the accomplices of 1772 was further shown in the fact that, in 1780, Beringskjold's son, who was a page of the bed-chamber, was appointed a conferenz-rath, and the other, who was a captain, a chamberlain. But all this but little satisfied the restless father. He next asked leave to reside at least in the same island where the court was; and when this was granted him, he bought, in a mysterious way, three considerable estates, situate in the southern part of Seeland: Rönnebeksholm, Sparresholm, and Sortebrödre, and selected the first as his residence. When the court was staying at Fredensborg in the summer, he went repeatedly to Elsinore, which was only ten miles from the palace, and thence sent letter after letter, first to one, then to the other of the persons belonging to the king's immediate _entourage_, in order to obtain further favours; but all these efforts proved unsuccessful.

When Beringskjold saw himself thus passed over, he formed a plan for overthrowing the government, and laid his treacherous scheme before a near relative of the royal family; but one of his own sons, the chamberlain, betrayed his father's designs.

On June 4, 1781, a royal cabinet order was sent to Bailiff von Bielcke, Bürgomaster Wulf, and Regimental Quartermaster Schiött, all of Nestved, to seize Chamberlain von Beringskjold, on whom a strong suspicion rested of carrying on a very treasonable correspondence, and sequestrate his papers. These gentlemen enticed the chamberlain, by a business pretext, to the town, read him the king's order, and the bürgomaster at once conveyed him under escort to Copenhagen, where he was handed over to the commandant of the citadel, who locked him up, and informed him that a dollar a day was allowed for his maintenance. In the meanwhile, the two other commissioners went to the prisoner's estate, packed up all the papers they found there in a trunk, sealed it up, and the quartermaster immediately started with it for Fredensborg, where the court was residing at the time. Simultaneously with the order of arrest, the postmasters of Nestved and Ringstedt received instructions, during the next eight days, to stop all letters addressed to Rönnebeksholm, and send them to the royal cabinet. A similar order was sent to Bürgomaster thor Straten and the postmaster of Flensburg, concerning all letters arriving for, or despatched by, a certain Comptroller Wildgaard.

On June 9, Bailiff von Bielcke and his fellow-commissioners were instructed to restore to Frau von Beringskjold all the papers not retained from the trunk which had been examined at Fredensborg, and to give her and her sons, in the king's name, the assurance of his Majesty's lasting favour. Frau von Beringskjold was allowed to remain on her estate, and was only advised, in all future affairs, to consult with her son, Conferenz-rath von Beringskjold.

After a survey of the sequestrated papers had proved the "continued bad designs of this man"--such were the royal words about Beringskjold--a commission of inquiry was appointed on November 13, 1781. In order that this affair which, owing to its nature, demanded the greatest secrecy, should be discussed with all due justice, the king selected those men as judges of whose insight and integrity he and the whole country were convinced, namely, the Justiciary of the Supreme Court, Privy Councillor of Conferences von Rosenörn, the Director and Attorney-General of the General Chancery, Privy Councillor Carstens, the Minister of Finances, Privy Councillor von Stemann, and the Professor of Law, Etats-rath Colbjörnsen.

The commissioners were ordered to assemble, after giving a solemn pledge of secrecy, and, in accordance with the royal instructions, form an opinion, from the papers laid before them, whether Chamberlain von Beringskjold had not proved himself one of those restless subjects who ought to spend the rest of their lives in imprisonment.

The choice of the commission in itself proved what weight was attached to Beringskjold's detected conspiracy. It was a peculiar circumstance, too, that secret instructions were given to the Hamburg post-office, which led to the tolerably correct supposition, that the person related to the royal house was no other than the king's brother-in-law. As early as 1773, Juliana Maria had felt alarm about Christian VII.'s sister, and was very glad at that time that the latter consented to accompany her husband, when appointed generalissimo of Norway, to that distant country.[61] At the period when the conspiracy was detected, Prince Charles was a highly esteemed volunteer in the Prussian army, so that he must naturally have been consulted by letters which must go _viâ_ Flensburg, after passing through Schleswig and Louisenlund. The result of the investigation was, however, carefully kept private, and it is, up to the present day, one of the state secrets of the Danish archives.

In the Beringskjold affair, a great number of witnesses was examined who had been connected with the prisoner of state, and even persons who had dined with him were asked what their host had said about the government at dinner. After the witnesses had all been examined, the prisoner's turn arrived, and his crimes, among which a conspiracy against the government was the chief, were brought before him, and he learned for the first time that his own son had denounced him. Beringskjold handed in his counter-declaration, and requested, during the trial, the assistance of Advocate Colbjörnsen, brother of the commissioner.

Finally, when all the regulations of the law, so far as the peculiar nature of the affair allowed it, had been exhausted in the examination, the commission sent in, on December 31, 1781, their opinion upon the point laid before them by the king, which was to the effect, that Chamberlain von Beringskjold was proved to be a restless man, and dangerous to the general welfare and public order, and, as such, ought to be imprisoned for life under a strict guard, according to the law.

When the king was on the point of confirming the sentence or opinion of the commissioners, but at the same time of granting the accused a considerable sum for his maintenance, the discovery was made that the prisoner, in spite of his strict arrest, had carried on a secret correspondence, and undertaken "another attempt at his old wickedness." After such "mad disobedience of all royal orders,"--so says the royal re-script of February 20, 1782,--all the proofs against the prisoner were to be gathered, and laid before the commission for a final judicial sentence.

On March 3, the sentence of the commissioners was made known, which decreed the highest criminal penalty against Chamberlain von Beringskjold, that is, like Struensee and Brandt, loss of honour, life, and property.

The king resolved on this that Beringskjold, although he had added more than one offence to his original crimes, should be spared the extreme penalty, but as a dangerous criminal remain in secure arrest; be degraded from his dignity as chamberlain; and be told that, on the slightest attempt to renew his designs, he would suffer death. This penalty, however, was in no way intended to degrade or humiliate his innocent wife or her sons.

On April 9, the convict was informed of the royal pardon, and the chamberlain's key taken from him for the second time. He was left in the citadel under arrest, but no one was allowed access to him but Dean Thybring. For all that, early in May he found means to write a letter to his wife, which really reached its destination. In this letter he complains of the "incredible godless treatment he had endured;" dropped hints about the charges brought against him; and gave instructions for further correspondence; stating, in conclusion, that he had already written twice, for which purpose paper and pens were given him by special orders of the commandant.

When Frau von Beringskjold received this letter, she was so affected by its contents, that she was attacked by a mortal disease. In her dying moments, however, she handed the letter to Quartermaster Schiött, who at once forwarded a copy to Eickstedt, and shortly after, by the general's orders, the original to Guldberg.

Beringskjold was now removed to Munkholm, where he took the place of Falckenskjold, who had been overthrown by his machinations, and was kept in the strictest arrest in the rock fortress. When, two years later, the government passed into other hands, Beringskjold fancied that the hour of his deliverance had arrived. He therefore hastened to send a petition to Copenhagen, in which he requested a revision of his trial, but naturally gained no hearing from the son of Caroline Matilda. However, the gentle young prince allowed the originator of the conspiracy of 1772 to walk about the fortress and pay visits, and his sons were ordered to give him a portion of what they had inherited from their mother.

A few years later, Beringskjold obtained his removal to the fortress of Bergenhuus, where he remained as a prisoner till 1795, but lived in incessant contention with the commandant, Major-General de Mothe, and the officers. In the last-named year he obtained the regent's permission to end his days in the unfortified town of Stavanger, in Southern Norway, where he was placed under the supervision of the bailiff. He lived here eight years, and died in 1803, at the great age of upwards of eighty years.

Count von der Osten, who became minister of foreign affairs through the palace revolution of 1772, did not occupy his post long, but was banished to Jütland in 1774, when, on the recommendation of Landgrave Charles, Count Bernstorff's nephew, the afterwards so celebrated Peter Andreas Bernstorff, was summoned to Denmark, and the foreign affairs were entrusted to him. A few years after, however, Von der Osten was recalled from his bailiff's post in Aalborg, and appointed president of the Supreme Court; a little later, chief president of Copenhagen; and, shortly before the downfall of the usurping government, was decorated with the order of the Elephant. This participator in the conspiracy also attained an age of upwards of eighty years, and died in 1797.

All that is left now is to describe the fate of the fifth principal conspirator and actual manager of the palace revolution, Cabinet Secretary Guldberg, after whom the misgovernment, from January 17, 1772, to April 14, 1784, has been called the Guldberg Ministry.

Always keeping behind the scenes so long as he had any one to fear who might contend with him for the supreme power, Guldberg accepted no seat in the privy council established immediately after Struensee's fall, but temporarily contented himself with his position as cabinet secretary to the hereditary prince and intimate adviser of the queen dowager, though he at the same time decided everything. But when the younger Bernstorff undertook the foreign ministry in 1774, and Guldberg was alarmed at the influence of this respected man, he effected his own appointment to the hitherto vacant post of privy cabinet secretary to the king, which ensued on the birthday of the hereditary prince. In this way, the cabinet government, which had been charged as the highest crime against Struensee, was re-established, and Guldberg granted official interference in all higher affairs of state. External dignities speedily followed; for the king, in 1777, raised him to the Danish nobility, with precedence from January 29, 1773, the king's birthday, and granted him the name of Höegh-Guldberg. In his new post of honour, he very soon made Bernstorff tired of his ministerial functions;[62] so that the latter sent in his resignation in 1780, and it was accepted. Immediately after, Höegh-Guldberg was appointed a privy councillor, and it was at the same time published that the king had also selected him as a member of the privy council of state.

After three years' working in the dark, the cabinet secretary, who occupied Struensee's post, had thus acquired the governmental authority. The revolution was ostensibly undertaken with the object of bringing the sovereign power again into the hands of the king alone; but as the mental condition of Christian VII. did not permit this, Queen Juliana Maria assumed Struensee's part, though only indirectly, and through the medium of her other self, Guldberg, as her sex did not permit her to preside in person over the council of state. For the hereditary prince, who held this presidency, was regarded in public as a mere puppet, and, according to the testimony of an eye-witness, valet Franz Goos, passed most of the sessions in sleeping. Höegh-Guldberg, however, did not carry on so aristocratic a rule as Struensee, but cleverly left the current affairs of the administration to the several colleges. But the higher affairs of state were entrusted entirely to his guidance.

Advancing gently, he contrived, by his defence of the principle of nationality, to acquire some degree of respect among his countrymen, and in this way concealed his utter want of statesman-like talent. In this respect the introduction of what is called the Indigenate law of January 15, 1776, remains a lasting merit of his, for he was the concipient and proposer of this law, even though he asked the advice of the two learned brothers Colbjörnsen. By virtue of this law only natives could henceforth hold office, though the king could naturalise deserving foreigners. The motive for the law was so attractive as to gain its concipient great praise. Justice demanded, the introduction said, that natives should eat the bread of the country. The experience of all ages had proved that in countries where the education of youth was attended to, there was never any lack of useful people, if the regent sought them. In this respect, the history of the country might be referred to with pleasure, which could display men of all classes who had served the country, maintained and saved its honour, and, with noble courage, sacrificed themselves for their kings.

The consequences of this regulation led to a perfect Danish administration in both kingdoms, so that every failing Struensee had committed in this respect was removed. If this was just, however, it did not compensate for the errors which constantly brought the state nearer to ruin in other points, as all Struensee's beneficial arrangements were revoked through sheer hatred of him, in so far as too evident proofs of their value did not prevent the reactionary party from doing so. The final sanction of the exchange of territory, by which the former Russian share of Holstein was acquired by Denmark, was not Guldberg, but Bernstorff's merit. On the other hand, the former deserves praise for having effected the liberation of Falckenskjold.

In the meanwhile, the crown prince grew up; but his education was so neglected under the coarse hands of Eickstedt and by the over-learned Sporon, that, in truth, he only acquired a decided preference for the Danish language, but never even learned to write it correctly. Although the kings of Denmark are declared to be capable of governing at the commencement of their fourteenth year, the confirmation of the crown prince was deferred till his seventeenth year, and was only then performed in the palace chapel on April 4, 1784,[63] because it could not be delayed any longer. To this was joined the entrance of the crown prince into the council of state, but the precaution was taken of appointing, on April 6, Minister of Finance von Stemann and Secretary of State Höegh-Guldberg, state ministers and members of the privy council, so that these faithful adherents of the queen might check any possible influence of the young crown prince. But the reckoning had been made without the host.

The crown prince, who was endowed with sound sense and a strong will, had already formed his resolution. As early as autumn, 1781, he had suffered an insult from Guldberg, which he never forgot. He had expressed himself in terms of dissatisfaction about the cabinet orders re-introduced by Guldberg, which had been regarded as a crime in Struensee. Guldberg observed to him, in reply, that the cabinet orders were the sole sign of the sovereignty, as without them there would soon be as many kings as there were colleges in the land, and then told him, through the tutor Sporon, that, were it not for the cabinet decrees, he, the prince, would himself be not worth more than the cat of Slangerup. The brutal Eickstedt even forced the prince to make Guldberg an apology in writing. From this moment, the crown prince formed the fixed resolution to render himself independent, ere long, both of Guldberg and the other holders of the power.

After carrying on a secret correspondence with Bernstorff, who had retired to his estate of Borstel, near Hamburg, and receiving his ready assurance that he would resume his ministerial functions in the event of a change of government, the knowledge of the queen's ambitious plans induced the prince to confide in other trustworthy opponents of the Guldberg ministry, especially Privy Councillors Schack Rathlau and Stampe, General Huth, and Count Reventlow, and arrange with them the execution of his plan.

Thus arrived April 14, 1784, on which day the crown prince was to enter the council of state. When the members assembled, and the king had taken his presidential seat,[64] the two excellencies, Höegh-Guldberg and Von Stemann, appointed ministers of state on April 7, and Count Rosencrone, who had been granted a vote in the privy council, advanced, in order to hand to the king the formulary of the oath, signed by themselves; but the crown prince prevented them, and calmly requested them to desist until his Majesty had most graciously permitted him to make a proposition. As all remained silent in expectation, the crown prince produced a paper, and read from it that he gratefully recognised the favour shown him by the king, in his appointment as member of the privy council, but requested his father to dissolve the cabinet, by which the intention expressed in the declaration of February 13, 1772, would be fulfilled. He also begged that two hitherto pensioned men--Privy Councilors von Rosenkrantz and Von Bernstorff--might be recalled to the council of state; and, further, Lieutenant-General von Huth and Privy Councillor Stampe be appointed councillors of state.

After reading this proposal, the crown prince laid the paper for signature before the king, who at once seized a pen, in order to fulfil his son's wish; but the hereditary prince tried to prevent him, by saying that the king must not be allowed to act with precipitation. Christian did not allow himself to be checked by this objection, and tried to complete his signature; but ere he could manage it, the pen fell from his fingers. The crown prince handed it to him again directly, and the king not merely completed his signature, but added his sanction, on his son saying, "Will not my gracious father show me the affection of writing 'approved,' here?" When this was done, the hereditary prince attempted to seize the paper; but the crown prince was too quick for him, and put it in his pocket. Startled by this scene, the king hurried to his apartment, whither the hereditary prince followed him with equal speed and shot the bolt, so that the crown prince could not gain access to his father. Embittered by this, the heir to the throne turned to the four privy councillors, Moltke, Höegh-Guldberg, Stemann, and Rosencrone, with the declaration that the king no longer required their services, and at the same time announced the dismissal of the Supreme Marshal von Schack, Conferenz-rath Jacobi, and Cabinet Secretary Sporon; and added, that the first of them must not show himself before the king again.

After this, the crown prince retired in order to reach his father by another route, but found that also barred against him. He was about to have the door opened by force, when his companion, Marshal von Bülow, contrived to appease him, and immediately after the door opened, and the hereditary prince appeared, leading the king by the hand, and trying, as it seemed against his wish, to conduct him to the queen. The crown prince leaped forward, seized the king's other hand, and most earnestly begged him to return to his apartment, and feel convinced that nothing should be done without his gracious sanction, and only that be effected which would prove to the advantage of the subjects and the country. As the weak king was more inclined to respond to his son's wishes than go with the hereditary prince, the latter so greatly lost his self-command as to seize hold of the crown prince's collar and try to tear him away from the king by force. But the son held his father so tightly with the left hand, and used his right so energetically against the hereditary prince, that the uncle was soon obliged to yield, especially when the crown prince laid his hand on his sword for the purpose of driving him back. The crown prince's page of the bed-chamber, Von Mösting, afterwards so well known as minister of finances, ran up, however, and ere the hereditary prince knew what was being done to him, he found himself at the other end of the corridor. The terrified king took advantage of this moment to fly to his apartment, and thus the victory of the palace revolution of April 14, 1784, was decided. For, if the hereditary prince had succeeded in carrying the king to his step-mother, the recently approved ordinance would certainly have been revoked, and the humiliating announcement which the queen had made to the crown prince just before he entered the privy council, that henceforth Guldberg would report to him the king's orders, would have become a truth.

We can imagine into what a fury Juliana Maria was thrown when her beloved son told her of what had occurred in the council of state, and the treatment he had undergone. She raved, wished to go to the king even if it cost her life, called Count Reventlow, who threw himself at her feet and implored her to be calm, a traitor, and said to the crown prince that he was a treacherous gentleman, who always had honey in his lips but poison in his heart, and that it was his intention to kill his father. The hereditary prince, however, had so thoroughly lost all courage for further resistance, that he wished himself dead. If we take into consideration the energy of the intriguing lady, and the nimbus of sovereignty which had surrounded her for twelve years, we must applaud the precaution that the artillery under General Huth, and the palace guard, were held in readiness, in case any further resistance should be offered to the downfall of the late government, or the refusal of the king to sign the order, had rendered the proclamation of the crown prince as regent, which had been fully decided on, necessary. Still, all ended with the fury and passion of the deposed Juliana Maria, and she had rendered herself so odious to the nation, that the change of government was greeted with universal joy, and the crown prince everywhere received with applause. But the fury of the angry lady also became appeased when the crown prince threatened serious measures and arrest.

In the meanwhile, the king's commands had been sent to the colleges and courts, and Bernstorff invited by the crown prince to return immediately.[65] Early in May, the future foreign minister and president of the German Chancery arrived in Copenhagen. His practised diplomatic pen communicated to foreign courts the overthrow of the Guldberg ministry, and of the rule of Juliana Maria, with the postscript that the government firm would still remain that of Christian VII., but the government of the crown prince as regent had commenced on April 14, 1784.

Höegh-Guldberg was called on to pacify the old queen, and the regent considered the deposed secretary of state's merit in effecting this so great, that he contented himself with sending this concoctor of the conspiracy against his mother, into the usual banishment in Jütland, as bailiff of Aarhuus. The sudden removal from dignities held so long, and from the sovereign authority, demanded resignation. The God-fearing Höegh-Guldberg displayed it, at least externally, and retained his post up to the year 1802, when he was dismissed, and retired to the fine estate of Hald, near Viborg, which he had purchased, and where he died in 1806. He did not venture to present an order on the Treasury for 100,000 dollars given him as a reward by the queen dowager, possibly because, as a judge of Struensee, he felt his conscience prick him too strongly; and when, after his death, his sons had the courage to bring forward this claim on the government, the crown prince laughingly referred their impudent demands to the Greek Calends.

The enlightened statesman, Bernstorff, who afterwards acquired world-renown by his decree of neutrality, was, from this time forth up to his death in 1797, the adviser of the young, inexperienced, and, unfortunately, poorly-educated crown prince. As such, he opposed all odious measures in a reactionary sense, and it was to this mild conduct that the queen dowager and Prince Frederick owed their security as members of the royal house, though they were entirely excluded from all participation in affairs of state. When the fire of 1794 completely destroyed the splendid Christiansborg Palace, these two royal conspirators against Struensee and Caroline Matilda were left without a roof in the capital, and were obliged to seek shelter with private persons until their future abode was prepared for them in the Amalienborg Palace. Here, mother and son lived quietly till their death: the former, engaged with penances, for which her crimes against her own daughter-in-law and an innocent minister were sufficient reason; the latter, more honourably, in promoting the arts and sciences, for which the appanage of 12,000 dollars, granted him on the exchange of territory for resigning the coadjutorship of the principality of Lübeck, afforded him the means. By his consort, a princess of Mecklenburg, he had two sons and two daughters; of the latter, the youngest, the grandmother of ALEXANDRA, PRINCESS OF WALES, is, in spite of her great age, still remarkable for her beauty and grace.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 60: "Mémoires de mon Temps."]

[Footnote 61: "Mémoires de mon Temps."]

[Footnote 62: "Frederick II. of Prussia had, by means of his cousin the queen dowager, gradually acquired an almost absolute sway in the cabinet of Denmark, and directed the foreign affairs in subserviency to the views of the French court, and in opposition to the interests of England. Count Bernstorff being the only person in the Danish ministry who ventured in any degree to oppose the French and Prussian policy, his dismissal was resolved on in the cabinets of Versailles and Berlin; and his conduct with regard to the armed neutrality offered an opportunity to effect their purpose."--_Coxe's Travels_, vol. v.]

[Footnote 63: "The examination continued above an hour, and the prince replied in a very sensible manner, sufficiently proving, from the readiness and perspicuity of his answers, that the reports of his incapacity were unfounded. He spoke in a loud, clear, manly voice, with a dignity and propriety which astonished the assembly; and when he repeated the oath, by which he swore to continue true to the Established Church, he did it in so feeling a manner as absolutely to draw tears from the eyes of many who were present."--_Coxe's Travels_, vol. v.]

[Footnote 64: During the early part of Juliana's regency--a French tourist tells us--the king, in one of his lucid intervals, signed a state paper in the following terms:--"Christian VII., by the grace of God, King of Denmark, &c., in company with Juliana Maria and others, by grace of the devil."]

[Footnote 65: The only foreigner who is supposed to have had any knowledge of the transaction, was Mr. Elliot, who had left Berlin to come to Copenhagen, in the capacity of British envoy: and the king of Great Britain was the first sovereign to whom the prince-royal communicated his success.--_Coxe's Travels_, vol. v.]