AFTER the final defeat of Napoleon, the allied powers, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and England, granted the request of Charles John and promised to urge Norway to accept the supremacy of Sweden. The special envoys of the powers arrived in Christiania, June 30, 1814, bringing with them, besides their instructions from their respective governments, a letter from the Danish king to Christian Frederick, in which the latter was again commanded, under pain of being disinherited and otherwise punished, to abdicate and return to Denmark. The day after their arrival the commissioners had an audience with King Christian Frederick and acquainted him with the intention of the powers to demand the acceptance of the provisions in the treaty of Kiel. The king declared himself willing to convene the Storthing (Parliament) in extra session, in order to open negotiations for a peaceable union, if, in the meantime, the powers would guarantee an armistice and allow the free importation of breadstuffs; but when the commissioners demanded that the Norwegians should surrender to the mercy of the Swedish king, and allow the forts to be occupied by Swedish soldiers, the king declined to accept their propositions, and war commenced. The Norwegian army, which stood along the frontier, was [Pg 307]poorly equipped and ill-provided with clothing and provisions. The king himself was no great soldier, and the information that all the foreign powers were against Norway had considerably lessened his courage. The Swedish fleet, under the personal command of Charles XIII., took up a position outside of Fredericksstad, which was insufficiently defended and was compelled to surrender, August 4. About the same time, the main Swedish army, under Charles John, crossed the frontier south of Frederickshald. One division of it laid siege to the fortress of Frederickssteen, which was bravely defended by General Ohme. The Norwegian army was eager for a general action; but the king, who thought this would be unwise, ordered a retreat across the Glommen River. North in Soloer, where Lieutenant-Colonel Krebs had the command, the Norwegian forces were much more successful. A Swedish force, under General Gahn, crossed the frontier and marched in the direction of Kongsvinger, but was defeated by the Norwegians at Lier, August 2. The Norwegians, under Col. Krebs, afterward attacked the Swedes at Matrand and drove them back across the frontier, August 5. The battle at Matrand was the most bloody encounter during this war. General Gahn’s loss, in killed, wounded, or captured, was sixteen officers, seven non-commissioned officers and three hundred and twelve men. The Norwegian loss, in killed, wounded or captured, was five officers, four non-commissioned officers and one hundred and thirty men. The number of dead was about equal on both sides, about fifty men; of the wounded there was sixty-four on the Norwegian, and one hundred and twenty-six on the Swedish side.
On August 5, Charles John took steps to communicate with the Norwegians with a view to the arrangement of an armistice, offering to recognize the Norwegian Constitution of May 17, if Norway would agree to a union with Sweden. The result at these negotiations was the Convention signed at Moss, August 14, by which Christian Frederick promised to call an extra session at the Storthing to negotiate with the Swedish king through commissioners appointed by him; he also solemnly agreed to surrender the executive power intrusted to him into the hands of the nation; in the meantime the country east of the river Glommen and the fortress of Frederickssteen were to be occupied by Swedish troops. According to a secret agreement Christian Frederick was, under some pretext, to immediately transfer the executive power to the ministers, who were to conduct the necessary functions of the government until the Storthing had definitely decided upon the future form of government. This ended the war, which had not been a very bloody one. The loss, in killed, wounded, and captured, was about equal on both sides; namely, about four hundred dead and wounded and three hundred prisoners.
On the 16th day of August Christian Frederick issued a proclamation ordering elections to an extraordinary Storthing to be opened at Christiania, October 7, and on August 19 he ordered the cabinet to take charge of the executive power, signing all executive acts “by high command.” The Storthing met at the time designated, the number of representatives being eighty, of whom about twenty had been members of the diet at Eidsvold. The Storthing was solemnly opened by the oldest minister in the name of King Christian Frederick. Two days later a committee of the Storthing, at the request of the king, had an audience with him at his residence on Bygdö, when he surrendered the Norwegian crown into the hands of the people, and for himself and his descendants relinquished all rights to the country. On the same day he went on board a ship and sailed from Norway.[14] The Storthing now, under the presidency of Judge Christie, began negotiations with the commissioners of the Swedish king, and on the 20th day of October it was decided, by seventy-two votes in the affirmative to five in the negative, that Norway as an independent state, upon certain conditions, was to be united with Sweden under the same king. The changes in the Constitution made necessary by reason of the union with Sweden were then made and finally ratified, November 4, 1814, and, on the same day, Charles XIII. was unanimously elected king of Norway.
A committee of the Storthing, headed by Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, was sent to Crown Prince Charles John at Frederickshald, to inform him of the action of the Storthing; whereupon Charles John and his son, Prince Oscar, proceeded to Christiania and delivered to the Storthing the king’s written oath to the Constitution. As soon as the report of the action of the Norwegian Storthing had reached Stockholm, the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lars von Engeström, despatched a circular to each of the Swedish representatives at the foreign courts, informing them of the union of Norway and Sweden. In this circular the minister said:
“The Norwegian Storthing having, of its own accord and by a free election, chosen his Swedish majesty as king of Norway, it is plain that it is not to the provisions of the treaty of Kiel, but to the confidence of the Norwegian people, that we owe the Union of Norway with Sweden.”
CHAPTER LVII
The Union With Sweden
THE first Storthing (Parliament), after the union had been accomplished, remained in session a year, and together with the Swedish Diet adopted the “Act of Union,” or Rigsakt (1815), based upon the Norwegian Constitution and defining the terms of the union. At the same time the Supreme Court of Norway was established in Christiania. The Bank of Norway was established at Throndhjem in 1816. At the death of Charles XIII., in 1818, Charles John ascended the throne of both countries as Charles XIV. John.
On several occasions there was friction between the king and the Norwegian Storthing. At the treaty of Kiel, Charles John had promised that Norway would assume a part of the Norwegian-Danish public debt; but as the Norwegians had never acknowledged this treaty, they held that it was not their duty to pay any part of the debt, and declared besides that Norway was not able to do so. But as the powers had agreed to help Denmark to enforce her claims, a compromise was effected in 1821, by which the Storthing agreed to pay three million dollars, the king relinquishing his civil list for a certain number of years. The same Storthing adopted the law abolishing the nobility in Norway. This step was also strongly opposed by Charles John, but as it had been adopted by three successive Storthings, the act under the Constitution became a law in spite of any veto. It was believed by many that the manœuvres of Norwegian and Swedish troops and the Swedish fleet, which was collected at Christiania at the time that these matters were under consideration, had been called together by the king in order to intimidate the Storthing.
For a number of years there existed a want of confidence between the king and the Norwegian people. The king did not like the democratic spirit of the Norwegians, and the reactionary tendencies of his European allies had quite an influence upon his actions. In 1821 he proposed ten amendments to the Constitution, looking to an increase of the royal power, among which was one giving the king an absolute instead of a suspensive veto; another giving him the right to appoint the presidents of the Storthing, and a third authorizing him to dissolve the Storthing at any time. But these amendments met the most ardent opposition in the Storthing, especially from the former cabinet-minister, Christian Krogh, and were unanimously rejected by the Storthing in 1824. The king renewed these propositions before several successive Storthings, but they were each time rejected.