You’ve taught healthy women to use their legs.
Struensee also advised the Queen that it was bad for her to remain so much alone. She must have amusement, surround herself with cheerful people and join in the court festivities. He hinted that it was advisable for her to take a more prominent part in these ceremonials, not only because of her health, but because it was incumbent upon her position as the reigning Queen, which, he added discreetly, some people about the court did not seem to respect as they should do. Matilda, who was not very wise, rose to the bait, and before long confided to her physician the mortification and annoyance she suffered from Holck and his following. Struensee listened sympathetically, and told the Queen that though he had not ventured to mention the matter before, he had noticed with amazement and indignation the scant consideration paid to her at her own court. The desire of his heart, he said, was to serve her, and if she would only listen to him, he would improve this state of affairs as surely as he had improved her health. Here the doctor obviously stepped outside his province, but the Queen, far from rebuking him, encouraged him to proceed. Struensee then said deferentially that, since all power and authority came from the King, the Queen would be well advised to court his favour. This advice was not so palatable to Matilda as the other he had given her, especially at this juncture. She could not forget in a moment how cruelly she had been wronged, and she hesitated. Then Struensee changed his note and urged the Queen’s own interest. He spoke to her plainly of the King’s failing mental powers, and declared that henceforth he must always be ruled by some one. It were better, therefore, that the Queen should rule him than another, for by doing so she would gather the regal power into her own hands and so confound her enemies. The King was anxious to repair the past; it was for the Queen to meet him half-way.
The Queen suspiciously asked the doctor what was his object in striving to mediate between her and the King. Struensee replied, with every appearance of frankness, that he was studying his own interests quite as much as those of the King and Queen. The King had been pleased to show him especial marks of his favour, and he wished to remain in his present position. He had noticed that all the preceding favourites of the King had striven to promote disunion between Christian and his consort, and they had, one after another, fallen out of favour and been banished from court. Their fate was a warning to him, and an instinct of self-preservation prompted him to bring about a union between the King and Queen, because by so doing he was convinced that he would inevitably strengthen his own position.
After some hesitation Matilda proceeded to act on this advice also, and, short of admitting the King to intimacy, she sought in every way to please him. The King, also prompted by Struensee, responded with alacrity to his wife’s overtures, and came to lean upon the Queen more and more. Before long Matilda’s influence over her husband became obvious to all. The young Queen delighted in the deference and homage which the time-serving courtiers now rendered to her. Holck’s star was on the wane; he still filled the post of Master of the Ceremonies, but it was the Queen who commanded the revels, and changed, or countermanded, Holck’s programme as she pleased.
Struensee was now surely gaining ground. Both the King and the Queen placed their confidence in him, with the result, as he predicted, that he stood on a firmer footing than any former favourite. The Queen gave him audience every day, and the conversations between them became more intimate and more prolonged. There was nothing, however, at first to show that the Queen had anything more than a liking for the clever doctor, whose society amused and interested her, and whose zeal in her service was apparently heart-whole. Everything so far had succeeded exactly as Struensee foretold, and the vision of future happiness and power, which he portrayed in eloquent terms, dazzled the young Queen’s imagination, while his homage and devotion flattered her vanity.
Struensee’s appearance and manner were such as to impress any woman. He was thirty-two years of age, tall and broad shouldered, and in the full strength of manhood. Though not really handsome, he appeared to be so in a dashing way, and he made the most of all his points and dressed with consummate taste. He had light brown hair, flashing eyes, an aquiline nose and a high forehead. He carried himself well, and there was about him a suggestion of reserved strength, both mental and physical. His manner to the Queen was a combination of deference and easy assurance, which pleased her mightily. By the end of January, 1770, the Queen no longer needed medical advice, but she required Struensee’s services in other ways, and the more she saw of him the more she became attracted to him. Soon a further mark of the royal favour was shown to the doctor, and a handsome suite of rooms was given him in the Christiansborg Palace.
Holck was the first to take alarm at the growing influence of the new favourite, and came to regard him as a rival who would ultimately drive him from court. Struensee looked upon Holck with contempt, and was indifferent whether he went or stayed. But the Queen insisted that he must go at the first opportunity, and Struensee promised that her wishes should be obeyed in this, as in all things—in a little time. Holck confided his fears to Bernstorff, warned him that the doctor was playing for high stakes, and advised him to remove Struensee from the King’s person before it was too late. To the aristocratic Bernstorff, however, it seemed impossible that a man of the doctor’s birth and antecedents could be any real danger, and he laughed at Holck’s warning. This is the more surprising, as both the Russian and English envoys spoke to the Prime Minister about the sudden rise of Struensee, and advised him to watch it well. The Russian minister, Filosofow, went further, and presumed to make some remarks to the King on the subject, which Christian ignored at the time, but afterwards repeated to Struensee and the Queen.
This interference on the part of Filosofow was no new thing. For some years the Russian envoy had practically dictated to the Danish King whom he should appoint and whom he should dismiss from his service. He even presumed to meddle in the private affairs of the Danish court, no doubt at the instigation of his mistress, Catherine the Great. The Danish King and Government submitted to this bondage until the treaty was signed, by which Russia exchanged her claims on Schleswig-Holstein for the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. As this exchange was eagerly desired by Denmark, the mere threat of stopping it threw the King and his ministers into alarm, and made Russia mistress of the situation. Curiously enough Filosofow, who was a very astute diplomatist, did not realise the changed state of affairs, and continued to dictate to the King as before. The haughty Russian did not consider Struensee to be of any account from a political point of view, but personally he objected to meeting him on terms of equality. He had also, it was said, a grievance against Struensee, because he had outrivalled him in the affections of a beautiful lady of the Danish court. For some time he fretted at the royal favour shown to the upstart doctor, and at last he showed his contempt for him by a public act of insolence.
It chanced in this wise. Wishing to conciliate the Danish monarch, Filosofow gave a splendid entertainment to the King and Queen at the Russian embassy. It consisted of an Italian opera, composed for the occasion, and performed by persons of fashion about the court,[120] and was followed by a banquet. Struensee, who was now invited to the court entertainments, as a member of the third class, was present, and so marked was the favour shown him by the King and Queen that he was admitted to the box where the royal personages were. Filosofow, in his capacity of host, was also in the box, and he was so much irritated at the presence of the doctor that he showed his disgust by spitting on his coat. Struensee, with great self-control, treated the insult as though it were an accident, wiped his coat, and said nothing. Filosofow immediately insulted him again in the same way. This time the action was so unmistakable that Struensee withdrew from the royal box, and later demanded satisfaction of Filosofow. The Russian treated the challenge with contempt. He said that in his country an ambassador did not fight a duel with a common doctor, but he would take his revenge in another way, and give him a sound thrashing with his cane. Whether he carried out his threat is uncertain, but it is certain that Struensee never forgave the insult. The Queen also resented the flouting of her favourite, and, despite the attempted mediation of Bernstorff, she ignored Filosofow at court, and spoke with dislike of him and his mistress, the Empress Catherine, who, she thought, was responsible for her envoy’s meddlesome policy. A few months before it would have mattered little what the Queen thought, or did not think, but now her influence with the King was growing every day.
[120] Vide Gunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, March 31, 1770. Ibid., April 24, 1770.