For the sake of his nation the king must demand this. The inhabitants of Denmark and Norway have sworn fidelity, obedience, and allegiance to the descendants of Frederick III., and all our progeny will do so after us. But would we or our posterity so submissively subject ourselves to descendants of Queen Caroline Matilda, who are not at the same time scions of Christian VII.? What a source of troubles! Hence, his Majesty, as husband in his house, as first of his sex, and as king in his land, has appointed this commission. His personal right, the honour of his house, and the security of the nation, simultaneously demand that the justice and strictest loyalty, which alone animate this commission, should, in accordance with the laws of God, of nature, and of this country, dissolve the marriage tie which bound her Majesty Caroline Matilda to our Christian VII.
I will not speak in this affair, but allow her Majesty herself to speak: I will let the person speak, who, by her Majesty's confession has uttered the truth; I will let facts, and lastly witnesses, speak.
On March 9 last, her Majesty at Kronborg Castle, replied to the three questions submitted to her by the plenipotentiaries appointed by her lord the king. To question 2, her Majesty acknowledged that she had broken the marriage vow which she made to his Majesty; and to question 3, her Majesty acknowledged that she had thus forfeited her marriage rights.
Count Struensee, on February 21 last, replied, after long reflection and with great agitation, to question 239 laid before him by the commission, whether the intimacy between Queen Caroline Matilda and himself had gone as far as it can go between two persons of different sexes—
"As all the circumstances are so incriminating that even if the greatest intimacy had not existed, still appearances would prove it, he confessed that it was difficult to resist opportunity and the natural weakness of women, but he begged the commission, in consideration of his mental emotion, to spare him more detailed reminiscences."
Count Struensee repeated this confession on February 25 with more ample details, and then signed it with his own hand.
Count Struensee's full confession was laid before her Majesty on March 9, and its truth acknowledged by her.
These confessions, so ample and concordant, made in the presence of the royal commissioners, might in themselves be regarded as sufficient proof in accordance with the article of the law that "it is not sufficient that the accused person herself should confess her guilt, because it is often found that many persons make false statements, in order that the one may get away from the other, and injure him or her, with whom he or she confesses to have sinned."
The quoted presumption, that the one might wish to get rid of the other, cannot be applied to her Majesty, and the same is the case with the second part of the article, "in order to injure the person with whom the sin has been committed;" therefore, the entire supposition of the law, that the accused might bear false witness against him, or her, self, is not applicable. As, moreover, all the circumstances which were in this case stated in Count Struensee's confession, and acknowledged by the queen, have been proved by clear evidence and numerous other data, which are always the precedents, companions, and results of such an illicit intercourse, it is my most humble duty to lay all these things before the commission.
Thus, the answers of Count Struensee to questions 3, 4, and 5, relating to the time and way in which he entered the queen's apartments, the ensuing warnings and short abstinence are proved by the evidence of witnesses. The wives of Councillors Blechinberg and Schiötte, who were at that time maids of honour to her Majesty, and bed-chamber woman, Anna Petersen, declare that in the winter of 1769 and the beginning of 1770 they formed suspicions from Struensee's repeated and long visits to the queen, and maid Petersen more especially noticed that the door of the dark passage, which leads from the queen's bed-chamber to the hermitage (Mezzanine floor), was opened on some nights and merely left ajar; and the deceased lackey Hansen also remarked how he had heard this door opened at night. After talking together, and consulting Councillor Blechinberg and the deceased Hansen, they sought to acquire a certainty in the matter, more especially as they knew that no one but the queen could open this door, as none else except a bed-chamber woman had a key to it. With this object they put wax in the keyhole, and bits of paper between the hinges, and at the same time placed wax in the wards of the key, which lay on the queen's toilette table. They then found on each occasion next morning that the wax had fallen both out of the keyhole and the wards, and the paper slipped out of the hinges on to the floor, and thus acquired a certainty that the door had been opened during the night. The waiting maid also strewed powder on the boards of the dark passage in the evening, and on the next morning all the witnesses saw marks of large feet in the powder up to the door of the queen's bedroom, and thence to the bed. In the morning, when such footsteps were found in front of the bed, maid Petersen and maid Bruhn, now Councilloress Blechinberg, came in to make the queen's bed, and called in maid Horn, now Councilloress Schiötte.[72]