After three years' working in the dark, the cabinet secretary, who occupied Struensee's post, had thus acquired the governmental authority. The revolution was ostensibly undertaken with the object of bringing the sovereign power again into the hands of the king alone; but as the mental condition of Christian VII. did not permit this, Queen Juliana Maria assumed Struensee's part, though only indirectly, and through the medium of her other self, Guldberg, as her sex did not permit her to preside in person over the council of state. For the hereditary prince, who held this presidency, was regarded in public as a mere puppet, and, according to the testimony of an eye-witness, valet Franz Goos, passed most of the sessions in sleeping. Höegh-Guldberg, however, did not carry on so aristocratic a rule as Struensee, but cleverly left the current affairs of the administration to the several colleges. But the higher affairs of state were entrusted entirely to his guidance.
Advancing gently, he contrived, by his defence of the principle of nationality, to acquire some degree of respect among his countrymen, and in this way concealed his utter want of statesman-like talent. In this respect the introduction of what is called the Indigenate law of January 15, 1776, remains a lasting merit of his, for he was the concipient and proposer of this law, even though he asked the advice of the two learned brothers Colbjörnsen. By virtue of this law only natives could henceforth hold office, though the king could naturalise deserving foreigners. The motive for the law was so attractive as to gain its concipient great praise. Justice demanded, the introduction said, that natives should eat the bread of the country. The experience of all ages had proved that in countries where the education of youth was attended to, there was never any lack of useful people, if the regent sought them. In this respect, the history of the country might be referred to with pleasure, which could display men of all classes who had served the country, maintained and saved its honour, and, with noble courage, sacrificed themselves for their kings.
The consequences of this regulation led to a perfect Danish administration in both kingdoms, so that every failing Struensee had committed in this respect was removed. If this was just, however, it did not compensate for the errors which constantly brought the state nearer to ruin in other points, as all Struensee's beneficial arrangements were revoked through sheer hatred of him, in so far as too evident proofs of their value did not prevent the reactionary party from doing so. The final sanction of the exchange of territory, by which the former Russian share of Holstein was acquired by Denmark, was not Guldberg, but Bernstorff's merit. On the other hand, the former deserves praise for having effected the liberation of Falckenskjold.
In the meanwhile, the crown prince grew up; but his education was so neglected under the coarse hands of Eickstedt and by the over-learned Sporon, that, in truth, he only acquired a decided preference for the Danish language, but never even learned to write it correctly. Although the kings of Denmark are declared to be capable of governing at the commencement of their fourteenth year, the confirmation of the crown prince was deferred till his seventeenth year, and was only then performed in the palace chapel on April 4, 1784,[63] because it could not be delayed any longer. To this was joined the entrance of the crown prince into the council of state, but the precaution was taken of appointing, on April 6, Minister of Finance von Stemann and Secretary of State Höegh-Guldberg, state ministers and members of the privy council, so that these faithful adherents of the queen might check any possible influence of the young crown prince. But the reckoning had been made without the host.
The crown prince, who was endowed with sound sense and a strong will, had already formed his resolution. As early as autumn, 1781, he had suffered an insult from Guldberg, which he never forgot. He had expressed himself in terms of dissatisfaction about the cabinet orders re-introduced by Guldberg, which had been regarded as a crime in Struensee. Guldberg observed to him, in reply, that the cabinet orders were the sole sign of the sovereignty, as without them there would soon be as many kings as there were colleges in the land, and then told him, through the tutor Sporon, that, were it not for the cabinet decrees, he, the prince, would himself be not worth more than the cat of Slangerup. The brutal Eickstedt even forced the prince to make Guldberg an apology in writing. From this moment, the crown prince formed the fixed resolution to render himself independent, ere long, both of Guldberg and the other holders of the power.
After carrying on a secret correspondence with Bernstorff, who had retired to his estate of Borstel, near Hamburg, and receiving his ready assurance that he would resume his ministerial functions in the event of a change of government, the knowledge of the queen's ambitious plans induced the prince to confide in other trustworthy opponents of the Guldberg ministry, especially Privy Councillors Schack Rathlau and Stampe, General Huth, and Count Reventlow, and arrange with them the execution of his plan.
Thus arrived April 14, 1784, on which day the crown prince was to enter the council of state. When the members assembled, and the king had taken his presidential seat,[64] the two excellencies, Höegh-Guldberg and Von Stemann, appointed ministers of state on April 7, and Count Rosencrone, who had been granted a vote in the privy council, advanced, in order to hand to the king the formulary of the oath, signed by themselves; but the crown prince prevented them, and calmly requested them to desist until his Majesty had most graciously permitted him to make a proposition. As all remained silent in expectation, the crown prince produced a paper, and read from it that he gratefully recognised the favour shown him by the king, in his appointment as member of the privy council, but requested his father to dissolve the cabinet, by which the intention expressed in the declaration of February 13, 1772, would be fulfilled. He also begged that two hitherto pensioned men—Privy Councilors von Rosenkrantz and Von Bernstorff—might be recalled to the council of state; and, further, Lieutenant-General von Huth and Privy Councillor Stampe be appointed councillors of state.
After reading this proposal, the crown prince laid the paper for signature before the king, who at once seized a pen, in order to fulfil his son's wish; but the hereditary prince tried to prevent him, by saying that the king must not be allowed to act with precipitation. Christian did not allow himself to be checked by this objection, and tried to complete his signature; but ere he could manage it, the pen fell from his fingers. The crown prince handed it to him again directly, and the king not merely completed his signature, but added his sanction, on his son saying, "Will not my gracious father show me the affection of writing 'approved,' here?" When this was done, the hereditary prince attempted to seize the paper; but the crown prince was too quick for him, and put it in his pocket. Startled by this scene, the king hurried to his apartment, whither the hereditary prince followed him with equal speed and shot the bolt, so that the crown prince could not gain access to his father. Embittered by this, the heir to the throne turned to the four privy councillors, Moltke, Höegh-Guldberg, Stemann, and Rosencrone, with the declaration that the king no longer required their services, and at the same time announced the dismissal of the Supreme Marshal von Schack, Conferenz-rath Jacobi, and Cabinet Secretary Sporon; and added, that the first of them must not show himself before the king again.
After this, the crown prince retired in order to reach his father by another route, but found that also barred against him. He was about to have the door opened by force, when his companion, Marshal von Bülow, contrived to appease him, and immediately after the door opened, and the hereditary prince appeared, leading the king by the hand, and trying, as it seemed against his wish, to conduct him to the queen. The crown prince leaped forward, seized the king's other hand, and most earnestly begged him to return to his apartment, and feel convinced that nothing should be done without his gracious sanction, and only that be effected which would prove to the advantage of the subjects and the country. As the weak king was more inclined to respond to his son's wishes than go with the hereditary prince, the latter so greatly lost his self-command as to seize hold of the crown prince's collar and try to tear him away from the king by force. But the son held his father so tightly with the left hand, and used his right so energetically against the hereditary prince, that the uncle was soon obliged to yield, especially when the crown prince laid his hand on his sword for the purpose of driving him back. The crown prince's page of the bed-chamber, Von Mösting, afterwards so well known as minister of finances, ran up, however, and ere the hereditary prince knew what was being done to him, he found himself at the other end of the corridor. The terrified king took advantage of this moment to fly to his apartment, and thus the victory of the palace revolution of April 14, 1784, was decided. For, if the hereditary prince had succeeded in carrying the king to his step-mother, the recently approved ordinance would certainly have been revoked, and the humiliating announcement which the queen had made to the crown prince just before he entered the privy council, that henceforth Guldberg would report to him the king's orders, would have become a truth.
We can imagine into what a fury Juliana Maria was thrown when her beloved son told her of what had occurred in the council of state, and the treatment he had undergone. She raved, wished to go to the king even if it cost her life, called Count Reventlow, who threw himself at her feet and implored her to be calm, a traitor, and said to the crown prince that he was a treacherous gentleman, who always had honey in his lips but poison in his heart, and that it was his intention to kill his father. The hereditary prince, however, had so thoroughly lost all courage for further resistance, that he wished himself dead. If we take into consideration the energy of the intriguing lady, and the nimbus of sovereignty which had surrounded her for twelve years, we must applaud the precaution that the artillery under General Huth, and the palace guard, were held in readiness, in case any further resistance should be offered to the downfall of the late government, or the refusal of the king to sign the order, had rendered the proclamation of the crown prince as regent, which had been fully decided on, necessary. Still, all ended with the fury and passion of the deposed Juliana Maria, and she had rendered herself so odious to the nation, that the change of government was greeted with universal joy, and the crown prince everywhere received with applause. But the fury of the angry lady also became appeased when the crown prince threatened serious measures and arrest.