A firm friend of Bernstorff and of the English alliance was Prince Charles of Hesse.[47] This Prince was Christian VII.’s first cousin, and, like him, had an English mother—Princess Mary, daughter of George II. This Princess married the Landgrave Frederick of Hesse, who after his marriage became a Roman Catholic. His sons were then taken away from his guardianship, and sent, for the greater security of their Protestantism, to Copenhagen, where they grew up under the protection of Frederick V. Prince Charles was much loved by King Frederick, who betrothed him to his daughter the Princess Louise. Prince Charles was good-looking, clever and high principled, but he was almost penniless, and the proposed alliance was considered a poor one for the Danish Princess. They, however, were very much in love with one another, and Christian VII. approved of the betrothal quite as much as the late King.
[47] Prince Charles of Hesse, afterwards Landgrave, left behind him a manuscript entitled Mémoires de mon Temps. After nearly a century it was ordered to be printed by King Frederick VII. of Denmark for private circulation. It is the authority for many passages in this book.
Prince Charles was at this time a great favourite with his royal cousin, who often sought his advice. The young King had need of a disinterested counsellor who was not afraid to speak, for before long the bright hopes entertained concerning him began to fade. The tactics of his ministers in seeking to blunt the edge of the King’s interest in state affairs had been only too successful. They wished him not to interfere, or take the initiative in any way, but they wanted him to be diligent in doing what they told him, and punctual in the discharge of routine duties. But Christian VII. soon developed a distaste for all work, and showed an inclination to shirk the most formal duty. He rarely attended a council, and would leave the necessary papers unsigned for days.[48]
[48] “The late ministry,” wrote Gunning after the fall of Bernstorff’s Government in 1770, “are said to have neglected no means of presenting all business to His Majesty’s youthful eye through the terrifying medium of labour and drudgery. They used many efforts (and at length they succeeded) to inspire him with a thorough distaste for everything but ease and dissipation, with the sole design of maintaining their own power and consequence. They equally diverted his application from civil or military business, the former with a view of managing it themselves, the latter in order to prevent any great exertion of the natural power of an arbitrary government, which without an army is a mere chimæra.” (Gunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, April 4, 1771.)
KING CHRISTIAN VII.
From the Painting by P. Wichman, 1766.
In other ways, too, Christian showed signs of change, not for the better. For a few months after his accession he spent his evenings in the circle of the royal family, with his sisters and stepbrother, the Hereditary Prince Frederick. He by turns visited the two Dowager-Queens, Juliana Maria and Sophia Magdalena. Juliana Maria treated him with great friendliness, and his grandmother, Sophia Magdalena, was genuinely fond of him. But the company of the two dowagers was not lively, and it was made worse by the stiff etiquette that prevailed in their circles. It pleased the King’s wayward humour to outrage all these laws of etiquette, and even to descend to the level of practical jokes, sheltering himself against retaliation by his position. On one occasion he blew a cup of scalding tea into a lady’s face when she was in the act of drinking it; on another he exposed his august grandmother to derision by powdering her hair with sugar. In addition to the two Dowager-Queens there was another old princess at the Danish court, the King’s aunt, Charlotte Amelia, who lived only for religious practices and charity. Even the halo of sanctity which surrounded this royal spinster did not protect her from insult. She was constantly tormented by the King and jeered at before the courtiers. At first Charlotte Amelia treated this insolence as boyish fun, but at last things became so bad that she withdrew from court. Her limit of endurance was reached when one of the King’s pages crawled under the dining-table on all fours, disguised as a savage, and nearly frightened her to death. She retired to the Amalienborg and could never be persuaded to return to court. The King’s practical joke cost him dear, for the Princess Charlotte Amelia revoked her will, and left her large fortune away from her nephew to the poor.
When he was weary of tormenting old ladies Christian VII. introduced the custom of retiring to his own apartments after dinner, and there, surrounded by a chosen circle of his intimates, he would lay aside his kingly dignity and make merry with his friends. No doubt these evening gatherings were in imitation of those of his exemplar, Frederick the Great, where ceremonial and etiquette were banished and the Prussian King and his friends engaged in intellectual conversation and social enjoyment. Unfortunately for the parallel, Christian’s clique consisted of foolish and dissipated young courtiers, and their conversation mainly turned upon current scandals, or risqué French novels were read and commented on. When in turn the King was wearied of these diversions, he conceived the idea of prowling about his capital at night, disguised like another Haroun al Raschid, but from a very different motive to that which guided the enlightened Caliph, and with very different results. Soon strange rumours were heard of these nocturnal expeditions, of wild sallies and adventures, of street fights, breaking of windows and conflicts with the watchmen. In these excursions Kirschoff and Sperling accompanied the King, and aided and abetted him in his wildest extravagancies. The sober Danes began to take fright lest their young monarch should be thoroughly corrupted by his evil companions. He was already earning the title, which the English ladies gave him later, of “The Northern Scamp”. The British minister, who at first had nothing but praise for Christian VII., now writes:—
“As this young gentleman [Sperling] is not eminently qualified to be of any particular use or amusement to his Sovereign, otherwise than by assisting him in the gratification of irregular passions, people are alarmed at such a connection, and the greatest care will be taken to prevent the evil effects which are naturally to be apprehended from it”.[49]
[49] Titley’s despatch, February 4, 1766.