FOOTNOTES:
[1] To form an idea of the pretended denunciation made by the king to the commission, it is only necessary to observe that page Schack, who was the intermediary, received for this gratifications and an employment whose appointments amounted to 4,000 crowns a-year.—Mémoires de Falckenskjold, p. 214.
[2] An allusion to King Frederick III., who was fond of the bowl, and in his orgies permitted a general fraternity. In reference to this remark of the advocate, Mr. Wraxall says (in his "Northern Tour"): "This seems more like the speech of an Englishman than a Dane, and breathes a manly and unfettered spirit."
[3] This letter no longer exists, and was, in all probability, suppressed by the commission.
[4] On this point Reverdil writes: "The bailiwick of Bramstedt, bordering that held by M. Brandt the elder, was situated in the southernmost province of the kingdom, and near Hamburg. This remote province, consequently, suited him better than any other, and what he solicited as an exile, and to some extent as the equivalent of a capital punishment, would have been to any other person a very considerable recompense, and the end desired by some old servant of the state for a life usefully devoted to the advantage of the country."
[5] This is translated verbatim from the original, published in 1772, a copy of which was forwarded me from the Danish Foreign Office.
[6] These adherents who aided in the suppression of the privy council were Rantzau and Köller, that is to say, the men who figured among the principal enemies and accusers of Struensee. It was Rantzau who invented the decree that suppressed this council.—Falckenskjold, p. 205.
[7] Did they forget that the constitution which governs Denmark gives the king absolute power? Could not the king dismiss one of his officers without form of trial or the intervention of justice? Remember, that those who brought this charge against Struensee also removed from office persons who displeased them, and even deprived them of their liberty and property. What I personally experienced certainly places me in the position to judge.—Falckenskjold, p. 205.
[8] A reference to the sieges of Charles X. in 1658 and 1659, and more especially to the violent assault by the Swedes on the night of February 11, 1659, which was repulsed by the citizens, and to the conduct of the Copenhageners at the Diet of 1660, when the sovereignty was handed over to Frederick III., and the previous electoral kingdom was converted into an agnatic-cognatic Denmark-Norway, exclusive of the German Duchies and counties.
[9] This accusation is devoid of truth. Brandt could not always be about his Majesty. The truth is, that the king was no more difficult to approach under Struensee's administration than he had been under the previous ministry. He was frequently alone, and I saw him arrive thus at Gripsholm. It was after the fall of Struensee that the king, being closely watched, was only accessible as far as pleased the dominant party.—Falckenskjold, p. 205.
[10] I may remark that Struensee had a salary of 1,500 crowns as secretary to the cabinet; that he afterwards had 3,000 in his quality of councillor; that he lived inexpensively and dressed plainly; that only a few days before his fall he set up his carriage, the magnificence of which was imputed as a crime—it was a carriage in the English style, without gilding or painting, lined with straw-coloured cloth. Guldberg, who charged him with avidity, afterwards thought proper to accept a gratification of 100,000 crowns in one sum, by a note signed by the king.—Falckenskjold, p. 208.
[11] If Struensee's enemies had not been his accusers and judges, they would not have compared a small present made to the queen with what the king gave to simple private persons without fortune, whom he had summoned and admitted to his familiarity. They would not have pretended to be ignorant why Struensee wrote the accounts of May, 1771, and did not write the following accounts when he had ceased to be cabinet secretary.—Falckenskjold, p. 206.
[12] Struensee had no more power on this account than when he was merely master of requests and private secretary to the king. The great reforms were effected while he occupied those two posts. Besides, according to the royal law, "the king can appoint any minister under such title and with such power as he pleases." It was no contravention of the law to accept an office which the king could give and revoke at his pleasure; but, with such a law as that of Denmark, weight may be attached to any sort of accusation. Count de St. Germain was accused of infringing the royal law, because he proposed to raze the useless fortresses and dress the army in blue. The first Bernstorff was also accused of contravention of the Lex Regia when he was dismissed. The persons who condemned Struensee to death for having encroached on the absolute power of the king, issued the following decree on February 13, 1772, or while the trial was going on:—
"All orders shall be drawn up by the council and through the council. No order given directly by the king shall be carried into effect, unless the bearer of it has made application to the department which it concerns, and this department has acknowledged the said order."—Falckenskjold, p. 208.
[13] It was, on the contrary, Struensee's principle to purge the army and civil service of foreigners, and only to leave natives; the reform had already been effected in this way in the regiment of Seeland Dragoons. Braëm, one of the commissioners to try Struensee, was well aware of this, as he was a member of the War Department.—Falckenskjold, p. 209.
[14] The order concerning this reform is the only one which Struensee was accused of having issued without the king's privity. The War Department, of which I was a member, received on December 21 the Minutes of this order for the disbandment of the Foot Guards; it made no protest; it did not ask that the minute should be signed by the king, which was not necessary; the patent was immediately drawn up, and addressed, according to custom, to the king, that it might receive his signature and seal; the king signed this patent on December 23; such is the exact truth. How could it be stated in the sentence that the king had no cognizance on December 21 of a minute the patent of which he ratified on the 23rd by his signature? How could he be ignorant on December 24 of an order he had signed on the 23rd?—Falckenskjold, p. 209.
[15] Struensee denied this: there were no proofs, and it is well known that this minister only gave orders in writing.
[16] It is a curious fact that Brandt's having given Prince Frederick a separate box was made a capital crime; that Baron de Bülow, the king's equerry, was exiled for giving a separate stable to the horses of Prince Frederick; and that I was cruelly prosecuted for having allowed the band to play at a place which Prince Frederick was passing.—Falckenskjold, p. 222.
[17] Reverdil, p. 422.
[18] Reverdil is the only writer who produces this curious document.
[19] Gespräch im Reiche der Todten.
[20] Gespräch im Reiche der Todten.
[21] Struensee's skull was eventually stolen by four English sailors, belonging to a Russian man-of-war commanded by Admiral Greig.
[22] It has been said that Juliana Maria expressed a regret at not seeing the decapitated corpse of Caroline Matilda by the side of that of her accomplices. But such language would be quite contrary to the reserve, prudence, and dissimulation of which she furnished so many proofs during the whole of her life.
[23] The Commission of Inquiry has received orders to consider in what manner the persons employed in convicting the prisoners of state should be rewarded; in consequence of which it was allotted that Dr. Hee and Dr. Münter should each receive 300 rix dollars; but the court was of a different opinion, and judged it most proper to make presents to these ecclesiastics. The two civil officers who drew up the protocol each received 150 Danish ducats.—Annual Register for 1772.
[24] This letter I have found in Raumer's "Beiträge zur neueren Geschichte," vol. i.
[25] "Authentische Aufklärungen," p. 246.
[26] "Mémoires de Falckenskjold," p. 252.
[27] The judges could not have brought forward a greater proof of their ill-will than this. For even the usurping faction did not dare upset this regulation, which was so useful for the cultivation of desolate districts in Norway.
[28] Reverdil, p. 437.
[29] The judges evidently acted on the principle that if they threw mud enough, some of it would be sure to stick.
[30] The royal promise to grant him a pension of 3,000 dollars when he retired from active service.
[31] Struensee's younger brother, the lieutenant in Falckenskjold's regiment, also obtained employment in Prussia.
[32] Canute the Great, A.D. 1028, founded on Munkholm a Monastery of Benedictines, the first of that order established in Norway; a low round tower is all that remains of it, and this is within the walls of the fortress. It was in a small gloomy chamber in this tower that the Staats minister of Denmark, Graf von Griffenfeldt, was immured from 1680 to 1698. He was originally, Peter Schumacker. This dungeon is no longer shown; but it is said that he had worn a deep channel in the pavement in walking up and down, and indented the stone table where he had rested his hand in passing it. This fortress has ceased to be used for state prisoners, but it is still the dark and solitary rock which Victor Hugo has described in his "Hans of Iceland," looking more like a prison-house than a fortress.—Murray's Handbook for Denmark, &c.
[33] A small fort built by King Christian IV., more than 200 years ago, as a protection for the Danish fisheries, and to guard against Russian encroachments in the Varanger Fjord.—Murray's Handbook for Denmark, &c.
[34] De Flaux: "Du Danemarc."
[35] "Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen," p. 94.
[36] General Evening Post, May 14.
[37] "Walpole's Journal of the Reign of George III.," vol. i. pp. 89-91.
[38] Sir R. M. Keith's "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 287.
[39] Coxe's "Travels," vol. v. p. 113.
[40] "Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen," p. 98.
[41] "Authentische Aufklärungen," p. 252.
[42] The following interesting account, which I have found in a pamphlet published under the title of "Sittliche Frage," was not sufficiently authenticated to be embodied in my text. Still I do not think it should be passed over, as it affords an idea of the sentiments of the queen's party.
Keith laid before the king the letter of separation for his signature, which the king was about to sign without reading. "No, no, your Majesty," the envoy said, "read it first. It concerns you. It is the separation between yourself and your consort, which the court of England solicits for the reasons given." The king cried in confusion, "What! I am to lose my wife? State it even in writing? No, I cannot. I love and long for her again. Where are Struensee and Brandt? I long for them too." "Your Majesty," Keith replied, "they have been quartered, your Majesty signed their sentences yourself, and as it is also wished to condemn the queen to death, my court demands her back." The king became inconsolable. He asked for the queen and his two counts, and dismissed the envoy.
That England imposed weighty points on the Danish court, and demanded all possible satisfaction for the trick played the queen regnant, is evident from the following facts:—The queen is still called Queen of Denmark, even by the Danish court; her children by the king are brought up royally, and called the crown prince of the Danish kingdom and the king's daughter. When she set out from Kronborg for Celle, all royal honours were granted (which could not have been the case had the fabulous intercourse been true), and a pension of 30,000 rix-dollars is to be paid her annually.
The king now lives very sadly, and his days pass away in melancholy. He still exclaims, "My wife, my wife! she has been torn from me. I ask for her again. My ministers, my Struensee and Brandt, where are they? They have been condemned to death. They have passed over into eternity, and I am left desolate."
[43] They write from Hanover that the Hereditary Princess of Brunswick has been at Goerde, accompanied, contrary to expectation, by her husband, which is looked upon as a convincing proof that a perfect harmony subsists between these two illustrious personages. They stayed four days with Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, who was overjoyed to see her sister. It is since reported that the queen may possibly soon make a tour to Brunswick.—Annual Register for 1772.
[44] I am indebted for this account to the "Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen," and it the more confirms my opinion that the book was written by some one immediately about her Majesty's person.
[45] "Memoirs of Sir R. M. Keith," vol. i., p. 304.
[46] I have, perhaps, dwelt more fully on this subject than it deserves; but I have also suffered from this iniquitous system. My agent in Germany wrote me some months ago that he had made an invaluable trouvaille—no less than an apology for Caroline Matilda, written by herself. Of course, I at once secured it; but was rather disappointed to find that it was translated from the English. On reading, I found many discrepancies, but did not give up all hope of being able to make use of the pamphlet. I had the British Museum searched for the original, but in vain; and I began to think that the alleged translation was only intended to add value to a document which might have been drawn up by a German from expressions which had fallen from the queen. Imagine my disgust when, as the reward of all my trouble, I found in the list of pamphlets in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1772, the following:—
"The Queen of Denmark's own Account of the late Revolution in Denmark: Written while her Majesty was a Prisoner in the Castle of Cronenburgh, and now first published from the Original Manuscript sent to a noble Earl." 8vo., 1s. 6d. Wheble.
The publisher and the title were quite sufficient to convince me that the pamphlet issued from the great officina of Grub Street.
[47] Eldest sister of H.R.H. Caroline, Princess of Wales.
[48] I found this anecdote carefully preserved among my grandfather's papers. The person who wrote it down for him, added, "Tout cœur capable de sentiment, pourra imaginer combien dans la situation de la jeune Reine, si digne d'un meilleur sort, des scènes pareilles devoient être attendrissantes, et à quel point on devoit être touché et pénétré d'admiration, en voyant que ce n'étoit pas le Faste, les grandeurs, ce trône, l'objet de l'ambition, même des plus grands heros: mais l'éloignement de sa famille royale, et ses retours sur la situation de celle ci, qui étoient la source de cette douleur et de ces larmes d'autant plus amères qu'elle les cachait avec le plus grand soin." This opinion my readers will assuredly endorse.
[49] My narrative is made up from the "Private Journal" already mentioned, and a MS. entitled an "Historical Narrative of the Attempt to Restore the Queen." In the former, my grandfather gives the following account of the proposition:—"A momentary astonishment covered me, but it neither altered my cheek nor faltered on my tongue. I felt in the most unbounded degree where it might lead. I was conscious where it must lead. I felt myself born for the achievement, and I ardently embraced it. 'Yes,' I said in reply, 'I am the man you seek; give me the commission; I am ready in a day, an hour, a minute. My life, my labour,—dispose of them as your own. Enthusiasm I shall not want in such a cause so noble, so honourable to me.' 'It is well,' he said. 'I am satisfied; wait till this evening, or, at latest, to-morrow. You shall see and talk with this person. At the Comédie Française we meet this night. Adieu.'"
[50] In the "Private Journal" I find: "We conversed most closely, most familiarly, most unreservedly, more than an hour. Her graciousness and goodness knew no bounds. She described (as to an equal) the king, and her sister, the Princess of Brunswick, especially the last. Her dress was very simple and plain. It could scarce be more so." From the minutes of this conversation, I also find that the queen told my grandfather that three emissaries had reached her from Copenhagen. The first was a Dane of the name of Guldenstern, about a year and a half previously; the second mentioned the name of Count Holstein; he was a musician, and named some of the bourgeoisie, whom she had never heard of. The third came about a year before, but his communication was nothing.
[51] The "Private Journal" adds:—"Toward eleven at night, as we had finished business, our discourse took another turn, and fell on the Danish affairs. The baron gave me a most interesting and masterly account of Struensee's administration, his character, and his history. He explained the manner in which he acquired his Majesty's graces, and how he kept possession of them. He gave me the relation of the plot for massacring them all at the "Bœuf roti," and how they escaped it. He passed to the fatal night when the two counts were arrested, and the wonderful incident of the tea-party, which Madame de Schimmelmann broke off by her refusal. He ended with his own arrest and honorary exile. 'Twas a relation to listen to; and I devoured his words. They are inerasable from my memory."
[52] George III., it must be borne in mind, considered his public duties as superior to private feelings. In 1775, he, though overwhelmed with grief at his sister's death, obtained from Christian VII. a decree that the Danes were to give no sort of assistance to the American rebels.
[53] The admirers of cryptography will find a specimen of the baron's letters in the Appendix. To the same dreary limbo I have also consigned my grandfather's letters to his father relating to this affair, solely through a fear that I might be charged with giving him undue prominence in a work purporting to be the life of Caroline Matilda.
[54] Seckendorf.
[55] Baron von Bülow and his friends nobly kept their word, and constantly urged George III., through Lichtenstein, to reward my grandfather for his great exertions on behalf of Caroline Matilda. It was not, however, till 1781, or when Mr. Wraxall had a seat in the House of Commons, and a useful vote, that Lord North brought up the subject. My grandfather then received 1,000 guineas for his services, and the promise of a seat at the Board of Green Cloth. The promise was not kept; for what reason he shall tell us himself:—
"In November, 1783, on the meeting of Parliament, the memorable East India Bill was introduced by Mr. Fox. Upon the first division that took place on the bill, I quitted Lord North, notwithstanding the motives I had to adhere to him; rather choosing to abandon my expectations, however near their accomplishment, than give my support to a measure which I considered to be pregnant with mischief to the country and constitution. I joined Mr. Pitt in opposition, and was one of the one hundred and twenty members who formed the minority on that evening against a majority of two hundred and twenty-nine in favour of the bill."
[56] Mantel's own words to Mr. Wraxall in 1777. He added, however, "I neither believe the body could communicate any infection, nor that she stayed long enough, had there been any, to receive it. Whether it might have made any deep or injurious impression on her mind, I cannot say; but I cannot in any degree attribute her consequent illness and death to this accident."
[57] Lehzen's "Die Letzten Stunden der Königinn von Danemark."
[58] It is a strange coincidence that the body of Caroline Matilda should be deposited close to that of her unhappy ancestress, Sophia Dorothea, whose fate was in so many respects like her own. Both have been bespattered for many years by calumny, but Dr. Doran took up the cause of Sophia Dorothea, and amply proved her innocence. My only hope is that I may have been equally successful in the cause of Caroline Matilda.
[59] The authenticity of this letter is incontestable. It has reached me through the Duchess of Augustenburg, who was allowed to take a copy by the late King of Hanover.
[60] "Mémoires de mon Temps."
[61] "Mémoires de mon Temps."
[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.
[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.
[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."
[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.
Transcriber Notes:
P. [109]. 'prfoessional men.', changed 'prfoessional' to 'professional'.
Changed all instances of 'negociation' to 'negotiation'.
P. [313]. Changed 'verry' to 'very', in 'I congratulate you very'.
P. [318]. Changed 'shokking' and 'childern' to 'shocking' and 'children', in 'a shocking bloodshed between children'.
P. [320]. Changed 'scilence' to 'silence', in 'so long a silence'.
P. [324]. Added 'a' to 'wishes you a great deal of good'.
P. [325]. Changed 'monts' to 'months', in 'two or three months'.
P. [329]. Index: Arnim, Her, changed 'Her' to 'Herr'.
P. [334]. Index: Schack, added 'from' to 'and expelled from the court'.
Index: Struensee, his important reforms--added page number '39'.
Add [18]: 'Breakinig and training', changed 'Breakinig' to 'Breaking'.
Corrected various punctuation.