| Frederick VII | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Portrait byAugust Schiøtt,c. 1850 | |||||
| King of Denmark (more...) | |||||
| Reign | 20 January 1848 – 15 November 1863 | ||||
| Predecessor | Christian VIII | ||||
| Successor | Christian IX | ||||
| Born | (1808-10-06)6 October 1808 Copenhagen, Denmark | ||||
| Died | 15 November 1863(1863-11-15) (aged 55) Glücksburg,Duchy of Holstein | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouses | |||||
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| House | Oldenburg | ||||
| Father | Christian VIII of Denmark | ||||
| Mother | Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin | ||||
| Religion | Church of Denmark | ||||
| Signature |  | ||||
Frederick VII (Frederik Carl Christian; 6 October 1808 – 15 November 1863) wasKing of Denmark from 1848 to 1863. He was the last Danish monarch of the older Royal branch of theHouse of Oldenburg and the lastking ofDenmark to rule as an absolute monarch. During his reign, he signed aconstitution that established a Danish parliament and made the country aconstitutional monarchy. Frederick'smotto wasFolkets Kærlighed, min Styrke (Danish forthe People's Love, my Strength).[1]
The future King Frederick VII was born at 11 a.m. on 6 October 1808 at his parents' residenceLevetzau's Palace, an 18th-century palace which forms part of theAmalienborg Palace complex in centralCopenhagen.[2] Born into theHouse of Oldenburg, theroyal house which had ruled Denmark since its foundation there in the 15th century, he was the second, but eldest surviving, child to the thenPrince Christian Frederick of Denmark, the future King Christian VIII, and his first wifeDuchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His maternal grandparents wereFriedrich Franz I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, andLuise,Duchess ofSaxe-Gotha.
The young prince was baptised on 17 October by the royalconfessorNicolai Edinger Balle,Bishop of Zealand, with the namesFrederik Carl Christian.[2] To his mother, he was always known asFritz.
The king's first two marriages both ended in scandal and divorce. He was first married inCopenhagen on 1 November 1828 to his second cousinPrincess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark, a daughter of KingFrederick VI of Denmark. They separated in 1834 and divorced in 1837. On 10 June 1841 he married for a second time to DuchessCaroline Charlotte Mariane of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he divorced in 1846.On 7 August 1850 inFrederiksborg Palace, hemorganatically marriedLouise Christina Rasmussen, whom he createdLensgrevinde Danner in 1850, amilliner and formerballet dancer who had for many years been hisacquaintance ormistress, the natural daughter of Gotthilf L. Køppen and of Juliane Caroline Rasmussen. This marriage seems to have been happy, although it aroused great moral indignation among the nobility and thebourgeoisie. Rasmussen was denounced as a vulgargold digger by her enemies, but viewed as an unaffected daughter of the people by her admirers and seems to have had a stabilizing effect on him. She also worked at maintaining his popularity by letting him meet the people of the provinces.[citation needed]
The expectation that Frederick would not likely produce offspring, despite numerous affairs, was widespread, but sources rarely state the reasons. Some speculate that Frederick was infertile. During the reign of Frederick's father,Christian VIII, the succession question was already being brought forward.(See below:Succession crisis)
It has been claimed that Frederick did indeed father a son, Frederik Carl Christian Poulsen, born on 21 November 1843, as a result of his relationship with Else Maria Guldborg Pedersen (also referred to as Marie Poulsen), which took place after his first two unhappy marriages. This was first asserted in 1994. In 2009, a Danish woman, Else Margrethe ('Gete') Bondo Oldenborg Maaløe claimed to be the great-granddaughter of Frederik VII through Frederik Carl. Maaloe possesses four letters from Frederick to Marie Poulsen acknowledging paternity; these are quoted in her book, published in 2009.[3][4] In all cases, however, extramarital offspring were and still are barred from theline of succession.
It has been claimed Frederick had a same-sex relationship with his friend,Carl Berling (1812–1871),publisher and owner of the newspaperBerlingske Tidende. Thebisexual Berling had an illegitimate child with Louise Rasmussen,Carl Christian (1841–1908). Carl Christian was much liked by the King, to the extent that he insisted on signing the new constitution on Carl Christian's 8th birthday on 5 June 1849. To retain a tinge of decency, the King married Louise Rasmussen and the trio then moved into the royal castle, where Berling was appointedChamberlain and remained until 1861. The public indignation within higher circles over Frederick's morganatic marriage is well-known, but reasons have rarely been explained in detail.[5][6]
Frederick, who was the last king of the older branch of theOldenburg dynasty, had a rather neglected childhood after the divorce of his parents. His youth was marked by private scandals and for many years he appeared as the problem child of the royal family.When he succeeded to the throne in January 1848, he was almost at once met by the demands for a constitution. The Schleswig-Holsteiners wanted an independent state while the Danes wished to maintain South Jutland as a Danish area. The king soon yielded to the Danish demands, and in March he accepted the end ofabsolutism, which resulted in the June Constitution of 1849. During theFirst War of Schleswig against the German powers in 1848–51, Frederick appeared as ”the national leader" and was regarded almost as a war hero, despite having never taken any active part in the struggles.
During his reign, Frederick on the whole behaved as a constitutional monarch. He did not, however, quite give up interfering in politics. In 1854, he contributed to the fall of the strongly conservativeØrsted cabinet, and in 1859–60, he accepted a liberal government appointed on the initiative of his wife. During the crisis in the Duchies in 1862–63, shortly before his death, he spoke openly for an inter-Scandinavian military co-operation. Those minor crises created frictions and maintained some permanent insecurity, but did not damage his general popularity. In some of these affairs, he overstepped the mark beyond any doubt; on the other hand, the first Danish constitution was somewhat vague as regards to the limits of royal power.
Frederick's rule also witnessed the heyday of theNational Liberal Party, which was in office from 1854. This period was marked by some political and economic reforms, such as the beginning of the demolition of the walls around Copenhagen and, in 1857, the introduction offree trade. The constant quarrels with the opposition regarding theSchleswig-Holstein Question and German demands that Denmark not try to unite with Schleswig (South Jutland) led to some changes to the constitution in order to fit the foreign political situation, which created frustration in Denmark. The National Liberals therefore at last favored a more resistant course against the Germans, which led to theSecond War of Schleswig in 1864. The king wholeheartedly supported this course and just before his sudden death he was prepared to sign a new special constitution for Denmark and Schleswig (the so-calledNovember Constitution).
Frederick was married three times, but he produced no legitimate issue. The fact that he reached middle age without producing an heir meant that his second cousin Prince Christian of Glücksburg (1818–1906), the paternal descendant ofChristian III, was chosen as hisheir-presumptive in 1852. When Frederick died in 1863, Christian took the throne asChristian IX.
Nationalism in the German-speaking parts ofSchleswig-Holstein meant that there was no consensus to keep the duchies united under the Danish crown, internationally or within the duchies themselves. The duchies were inherited according toSalic law among the descendants of a past heiress,Hedvig of Holstein, whose heir according to primogeniture after King Frederick VII wasFrederick,Duke of Augustenburg (who proclaimed himselfDuke of Schleswig-Holstein after Frederick VII's death). This Frederick of Augustenburg had become the symbol of thenationalist German independence movement inSchleswig-Holstein since the time that his father, in exchange for compensation, had renounced his claims as first in line to inherit the twin Duchies ofSchleswig andHolstein following theLondon Protocol of 8 May 1852, which concluded theFirst War of Schleswig. Because of his father's renunciation, Frederick was regarded as ineligible to succeed.
Denmark was (up until1953) also under Salic Law, but only among descendants ofFrederick III (who was the firsthereditary monarch of Denmark; previously the kingdom had been, officially, elective). But Frederick VII was the last of Frederick III's male line, therefore, his nearest kinsmen in the male-line, the Schleswig-Holstein ducal lines of Augustenborg and Glücksburg (cadet branches of Denmark's earlier, non-hereditary kings), were not entitled to succeed to Denmark's throne, although they retained hereditary claims to the duchies ofSchleswig andHolstein. Upon Frederick VII's death, Denmark's throne could devolve to or through a female heir according to "semi-Salic" succession. There were, however, conflicting interpretations of that provision and of Denmark's claim to its applicability to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, held theretofore inpersonal union by the kings of Denmark. The question was solved by an election and a separate law to confirm Denmark's new successor.
The closest female relatives of Frederick VII were the issue of his paternal aunt,Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark, who had married a cadetHessian prince. However, they were not male-line descendants of Helwig of Schauenburg, and thus were not eligible to succeed in Holstein, and had disputed claims on Schleswig. The semi-Salic heiresses of Frederick VII werePrincess Caroline of Denmark and Frederick VII's divorced wife Vilhelmine (both childless daughters of the late King Frederick VI). They were followed in the line of succession byPrincess Louise Auguste of Denmark, sister of Frederick VI, who had married Frederick, Duke of Augustenburg, Salic heir to Schleswig and Holstein after Frederick VII, but whose wife's claim to Denmark would only come into effect after the deaths of Caroline and Vilhelmine, both still living in 1863.
Some rights also belonged to the Glücksburg line, a more junior branch of the royal clan. They were also semi-Salic heirs of Frederick III through a daughter ofFrederick V of Denmark's, and they were more junior agnatic heirs eligible to succeed in Schleswig-Holstein. These dynasts were Christian of Glücksburg (1818–1906) and his two elder brothers, the younger of whom had sons and daughters.
Prince Christian of Glücksburg (1818–1906) had been a foster grandson of the sonless royal coupleFrederick VI andQueen Marie Sophie, and he thus was well known at the royal court. Prince Christian was a nephew of Queen Marie Sophie's and descended from a first cousin of Frederick VI. He was brought up as a Dane, having lived in Danish-speaking lands of the royal dynasty, and he never bore arms for German interests against Denmark, as had other princes of theHouse of Glücksburg and theHouse of Augustenburg. This made him a relatively attractive royal candidate from the Danish viewpoint since, as a descendant of Frederick III, he was eligible to succeed in Denmark, although not first in line. He was also, but separately, eligible to inherit the dual duchies, but was not first in line either. Christian of Glücksburg also had married PrincessLouise of Hesse-Kassel, second-eldest daughter of the closest female relative of Frederick VII's. Louise's mother and brothers, princes of Hesse in Germany, renounced their rights in favor of Louise and her husband. Prince Christian's wife thereby became the closest female heiress of Frederick VII's. The thorny question of the application ofsemi-Salic provision in the succession of Denmark was at that point resolved by legislation, through which Prince Christian of Glücksburg was chosen in 1852 to succeed Frederick VII in Denmark.
Frederick VII died inGlücksburg in 1863 following an attack oferysipelas[8] and wasinterred inRoskilde Cathedral. Christian took the throne asChristian IX.
In November 1863, Frederick of Augustenborg claimed the twin-duchies insuccession to Frederick VII of Denmark, who also was the last king of Denmark who, by primogeniture, was also sovereignDuke of Schleswig and Holstein, but whose death extinguished thepatriline of Denmark's hereditary Oldenburg kings. The resulting divergence of hereditary claims to the duchies eventually developed into theSecond War of Schleswig.
Frederick VII managed to make himself one of the most beloved Danish kings of recent times.[citation needed] This was probably due partially to his relinquishment ofabsolutism and partially to his personality. In spite of many weaknesses documented by his contemporaries — drinking, eccentric behavior, etc. — he also possessed something of a gift as an actor. He could be both folksy and genuinely hearty, able to appear as a "simple, yet dignified monarch". During his many travels throughout Denmark, he cultivated contacts with ordinary subjects. He was also a keenantiquarian and according to the later DanisharchaeologistP.V. Glob, it was "he, more than anyone else, [who] helped to arouse the wide interest in Danish antiquities".[9]
Ascanian duchies:Grand Cross of Albert the Bear,17 December 1840[12]
Austrian Empire:Grand Cross of St. Stephen,1849[13]
Belgium: Grand Cordon of theOrder of Leopold,20 March 1857[14]
Empire of Brazil: Grand Cross of theOrder of Pedro I
French Empire: Grand Cross of theLegion of Honour
Kingdom of Hanover:[15]
Electorate of Hesse:Knight of the Golden Lion
Kingdom of Italy:Knight of the Annunciation,25 August 1861[16]
Netherlands: Grand Cross of theMilitary William Order,21 June 1849[17]
Oldenburg:Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig, with Golden Crown,10 February 1848[18]
Kingdom of Portugal: Grand Cross of theSash of the Three Orders[19]
Kingdom of Prussia:
Russian Empire:
Spain:Knight of the Golden Fleece,25 February 1848[21]
Sweden-Norway:
Beylik of Tunis: Husainid Family Order[24]
Two Sicilies:Knight of St. Januarius,1848[25]| Ancestors of Frederick VII of Denmark |
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Frederick VII Born: 6 October 1808 Died: 15 November 1863 | ||
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| Preceded by | King of Denmark Duke of Schleswig, Holstein andSaxe-Lauenburg 1848–1863 | Succeeded by |
The generations are numbered from the implementation of hereditary monarchy byFrederick III in 1660. | ||
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1 Also prince of Norway 2 Also prince of Greece 3 Also prince of Iceland 4 Also prince of the United Kingdom 5 Not Danish prince by birth, but created prince of Denmark Princes that lost their title are shown in italics | ||
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