[151] "Authentische Aufklärungen."
[152] She was the mother of Christian Augustus, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein Sonderburg Augustenburg, who was deprived of his rights by the London treaty of 1852; of Prince Frederick of Noër; and of the Dowager Queen Amelia, widow of Christian VIII., King of Denmark.
[153] "Annual Register, 1771."
[154] This law, drawn up by the unfortunate Griffenfeldt, and signed on November 14, 1665, by Frederick III., the first absolute king of Denmark and Sweden, but not published till after his death in 1709, raises the king above the law, and makes him responsible to God alone for his actions as regent. The only condition imposed on him was, that he should belong to the Protestant religion, according to the Augsburg Confession. The Lex Regia remained in force till June 5, 1849, the day on which the late King of Denmark, Frederick VII., signed the democratic constitution of Denmark.
[155] Struensee, the liberal reformer, who made the nobility feel his sarcasm on every occasion, was yet weak enough to have this absurdity painted on his coach panels, to dress his servants in red and white liveries, and to have his coat of arms fastened on their caps. When his valet appeared for the first time in this livery—so La Mothe, the queen's chamber-woman, tells us—he stumbled on the palace stairs, his cap fell off his head and broke the badge, and the blood that flowed from his nose thoroughly ruined the new livery. On Struensee being told of this, he only gave his ordinary answer when anything disagreeable to him happened "As God pleases." On this occasion, though, it may have contained a deeper meaning.
[156] After Struensee's downfall, this system was introduced again under the title of the Commission of Inquisition. It was finally abolished, together with running the gauntlet in the army, by Frederick VI.
[157] The clergy protested against the marriage of cousins-german being allowed, although the king had given the example of such an alliance, and a dispensation had always hitherto been granted. Nothing can be urged, however, in favour of Struensee's permission for a man to marry his wife's niece, or even sister.
[158] This charge against Struensee can hardly be repeated too often. The breach between Dane and German, which produced such a terrible catastrophe in his case, has never since been healed, and it is in great measure owing to thin jealousy, that the inhabitants of the duchies have had cause to complain of their treatment by the triumphant, and, I fear, dictatorial, minority.
[159] Bernstorff mentioned this fact to Reverdil on the very day before his death, and Rantzau said to the Swiss, shortly after the negociation had been broken off, "Bernstorff would be here now if he could have trusted to me."
[160] Brandt and Rantzau.