The reign of Frederick V. was, like that of his father, peaceful, although a war with Russia seemed very imminent, when one of the Holstein-Gottorp princes, Charles Peter Ulrik, had ascended the throne of Russia, under the title of Peter III., and laid claim to a part of the duchy of Schleswig. A Russian army was sent into Mecklenburg with orders to advance on Holstein, where an army of 70,000 Danish and Norwegian soldiers had been drawn together. The armies lay within a few miles of each other, when the conflict was suddenly averted by the news that Peter III. had been deposed, and, shortly afterward, murdered by his wife (July, 1762). The empress, Catherine II., who succeeded her husband, had always been averse to the war, and a treaty of peace was concluded with her, principally as the result of the able diplomacy of the king’s adviser, Count Johan Hartvig Bernstorf.
The great preparations for this threatened conflict had, however, necessitated an increase of taxation. The so-called “extra-tax” was felt as a great burden; every person above twelve years of age had to pay a tax of one Rigsdaler (about fifty-five cents) per year. This was especially felt as a burden by the common people in the districts around Bergen, where the fisheries had been a failure, and a revolt was the result. About 4,000 peasants armed themselves and made an assault upon the city, maltreated the magistrates, and plundered about 8,000 Rigsdalers of the public means. Quiet was soon restored, and the participants in the revolt were punished. A few years afterward the “extra-tax” was abolished.
A great deal was done during this reign for the promotion of science and art, trade, manufactures and agriculture. At Kongsberg a mineral school was established and two hundred German experts employed as teachers. The bishop at Throndhjem, Johan Gunnerus, Rector Gerhard Schöning, and the Danish scholar, Peter Suhm (who had married the daughter of a merchant at Throndhjem), established the Royal Academy of Sciences in Throndhjem. A free school of mathematics, afterward reorganized as the Norwegian Military Academy, was founded in Christiania.
Frederick V., who shortened his life by all kinds of excesses, died in his forty-third year, January 14, 1766. He left a public debt of about twenty millions. By his first wife he had one son, Christian, and three daughters; his second wife became the mother of Prince Frederick.
CHAPTER LII
Christian VII. (1766-1808)
AT the death of Frederick V., his son Christian, who was hardly seventeen years of age, ascended the throne; and, shortly afterward, married the fifteen year old Caroline Mathilde, a sister of the English king, George III. Christian led a most dissipated life, eventually resulting in insanity. In 1768 the king made a journey abroad, during which his body physician, the German free-thinker, Johan Frederick Struensee, became his dearest favorite, and got him completely under his influence. Upon their return the king’s old counsellors, including the experienced and deserving Bernstorf, were discharged and replaced by a privy council, in which the strong and ambitious Struensee soon became the real master. By the influence which he had gained over the debilitated, and at times insane, king, and the queen, he succeeded [Pg 287]in reaching the highest positions. He was made a count and prime minister and became an almost absolute ruler, the cabinet orders being given the force of royal commands simply by being signed by Struensee. His power lasted only sixteen months; but during this time he introduced many reforms, which were in themselves commendable, but, in many cases, came too abruptly and without preparation. On account of the violent changes, and his contempt for the Danish language and customs, he soon had many enemies, chief among whom was the queen-dowager, Juliana Maria, who wished to get her son, the king’s half-brother, Prince Frederick, into power. With the aid of the prince’s teacher, the learned Ove Hoeg Guldberg, she formed a conspiracy against Struensee and obtained the signature of the insane king to an order for his arrest, together with that of others. On the night of January 17, 1772, after a ball at the palace, Queen Caroline Mathilde, Struensee, Count Brandt, and others, were arrested. The queen was imprisoned at Kronborg, and afterward at Celle, Hanover, where she died in her twenty-fourth year (1775). The others were accused of high treason and condemned to death. Struensee was cruelly executed, April 28, 1772.
During the following twelve years (1772-1784) Prince Frederick’s teacher, Ove Guldberg, virtually conducted the government, and this period has therefore been called the Guldberg period. A great many of Struensee’s reforms were revoked, and former rules were re-established. The liberty of the press, which Struensee had granted, was curtailed and a censorship again introduced. The plan of establishing a university in Norway, which had been promised, was given up. Everything was now to be “Danish,” even Norway. Guldberg even wished to abolish the very name of Norwegian, and wrote: “No Norwegian exists; all are citizens of the Danish state.”
Many of the strong men, whom Struensee had made use of, were removed, and mediocrity was again raised to dignity. In spite of the large revenues which flowed into the treasury during the flourishing commercial period, the public debt, which had been reduced to sixteen millions, rose to twenty-nine millions. Still, there are some things to the credit of the Guldberg ministry. Thus the foreign minister, Andreas Bernstorf, by his negotiations, succeeded in removing any cause for conflict with the powerful Russia, when the Russian grand-duke, Paul, relinquished his part of Holstein to the king of Denmark, in return for Oldenborg and Delmenhorst. On February 15, 1776, the so-called native right was published, an ordinance providing that hereafter only native citizens could be appointed to office under the government. Finally, it was ordained that the Danish language should be used both in the army and as a business language.
During the long period of peace (since 1720) Norway had made great progress in commerce, shipping and population. The population, which, in 1660, was only 450,000, had reached about 723,000 in 1767, and the merchant marine had grown from fifty to 1,150 ships, many of them large and engaged in trade with distant countries. The peasant class had advanced considerably, as a consequence of the sale of the estates of the crown in order to raise revenue; the number of freeholders was now nearly double that of the tenant farmers. The officials sent their sons to be educated at the University of Copenhagen, so that the country was gradually furnished with a native class of officials, who could replace the Danish and advocate the cause of their countrymen.