FREDERICK VII., THE REPUBLICAN KING.
A KING has just departed life of whom it may well be said XX that his crown was uneasy on his head. The late monarch of Denmark was not born to the throne, and not brought up for the throne, and all his life long he wished nothing better than to de- wend from the throne which chance had given him, but for which he felt little love. Frederick VII, was born October 6, 1808: twelve months after the bombardment of Copenhagen by the British fleet, at a time when the crown of Denmark did not seem to be worth many years' purchase. His father, too, was but the cousin of the reigning King, who had two daughters, and being only forty years of age, had hopes of still possessing male offspring. Under these circumstances, the prospects of young Prince Frederick ap- peared to be not particularly brilliant; and his father being a proud though singularly unostentatious man, he was left almost entirely to himself, and permitted to grow up among peasants, sailors, and soldiers, from whom he imbibed strongly democratic tastes. When only four years of age, a great misfortune befell the poor boy. His parents, after several years of unhappinees, were separated by a divorce, which decreed that he should be torn from his affec- tionate mother and be left under the care of strangers. Among strangers accordingly he grew up, the father being so entirely engrossed by political affairs, in the course of which the crown of Norway was placed on his head for four short months, as almost to forget the existence of his son. A new marriage, which gave Frederick a stepmother, estranged the paternal feelings still more, and the young prince was glad enough when at the age of sixteen he was permitted to leave Denmark on travels through Europe, nominally to complete his education, in reality to begin it. He duly made the then customary tour de l'Europe, and then settled down for several years at Geneva. Here, in the country of Jean Jacques Rousseau, he imbibed ultra-republican principles, for the reception of which his previous training, or absence of training, had already well fitted him. The splendid dreams of La feline Suisse, of the liberty, equality, and fraternity of all man- kind, took deep root within his mind, and, years after., were reproduced in his last public speech. Kingship, his republican
friends taught him—as they had taught Alexander of Russia before—was not incompatible with strong democratic leanings ; only the King must be the hereditary chief of the lower classes, the ill-used and oppressed "people." With these ideas Prince Frederick went back to Denmark, at the age of twenty.
Things, meanwhile, had changed at the Danish Court in regard to the Enecession to the throne. The reigning King, now sixty years old, had given up all hopes of having male offspring, and Frederick's father, Prince Christian, cousin of the monarch, had become heir apparent to the crown. The aged King was exceed- ingly anxious to marry off his two daughters, the eldest already past thirty; and no suitor coming from abroad, he offered them to the only disposable male relations at home—the one, the young man just returned from Geneva ; and the other, his uncle, Prince Ferdinand. The young republican Prince would fain have de- clined the honour of being united to a King's daughter ; but a refusal was not permitted to him, and by orders of his father and the King he was married, under strong military escort, to his cousin, Princess Wilhelmina, on the 1st of November, 1828. What might have been foreseen occurred immediately after. Frederick took from the first a strong dislike to his wife, who was somewhat his senior in age, which was greatly increased in time by her haughty disposition, utterly foreign to his own habits, acquired at Geneva, as well as his principles and way of thinking. Before long he left his royal spouse altogether, taking refuge at a man- sion, distant from the capital, among his old friends and humble companions. He here made the acquaintance, for the first time, of Louise Rasmussen, a sprightly little damsel of sixteen, the daughter of a poor tradesman, but with some education and more grace and mother-wit. Such society was altogether more to his tastes than that of the stiff Court of Copenhagen, at which he did not make his appearance for a long time. It was in vain that the irritated King summoned him back to his wife ; the delinquent seemed decided to follow his inclinations more than his duty, and at length brought upon himself condign punishment. By a royal decree of September 10, 1837, Prince Frederick was banished to the fortress of Frederida, in Jutland, where, in the midst of an immense marsh, he had time to philosophize upon royalty, and democracy, and the advantage of marrying a king's daughter. Old soldier and sailor friends were not allowed on visit to Fredericia, and even little Louise Rasmussen could not firid her way to the fortress, but with many tears, on the order of her parents, set out on a journey to Paris, where she became an ornament to the corps de ballet. A few days after Frederick's arrival at the place of his banishment, a decree of divorce between him and Princess Willielmina was issued at Copenhagen. However, the King's daughter did not remain long a lonely divorced wife, for in leas than eight months after, on the 19th May, 1838, she gave her hand to another distant cousin, Prince Charles of Sonderburg- Gliicksburg.
The death of the King and the accession of his father to the throne released Prince Frederick from prison at the end of little more than two years, and he was then appointed governor of the Island of Funen. But being inclined to fall again into his old ways of living, his royal father soon after insisted that he should marry once more, and after some negotiations, Princess Caroline of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was chosen to be the second wife. In the full bloom of youth, very pretty, and highly accomplished, it was hoped that she would wean Prince Frederick from his low-born companions, and bring him back to Court and to a sense of his crown-princely duties. But this the young princess signally failed to do. Frederick, although he acknowledged her to be prettier, thought her 'as proud as his first wife, and before long absented himself more than ever from the Court and his new home. What, probably, greatly contributed to this estrangement was an accidental meeting with an old friend of his youth, Louise Rasmussen. Poor Louise had seen hard times since she left Denmark for France. Though an ornament, for some years, of the Paris corps de ballet, she was soon shelved on the appearance of greater ornaments, and had to content herself with becoming a member of a wandering troupe of actors, disseminating dramatic art through the little towns of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia. The speculation, with all its hardships and miseries, proved very unsatisfactory in a pecuniary sense, and Louise Rasmaksen was glad to drop off the stage at a destitute Hanoverian village, and to proceed on foot to Hamburg. The wealthy merchant city gave her new friends, among whom she sojourned for another couple of years, and then returned to Copenhagen. Getting to the dangerous boundary of thirty, Miss Rasmussen now resolved to become steady, and accordingly settled down as milliner and dressmaker, working for the shops and for any procurable private customers. One evening, coming home late from her work, she was arrested—at least this is the Copenhagen story—by the sight of a fire, and. with wonted energy ranged herself among the human chain of assistants whose hands passed the pails of water from the canal to the fire-engine. She had not been there long when she perceived that a gentleman opposite, likewise busy in handing pails, stared very hard at her, as if trying to recognize an acquaintance. She recognized him at once; it was his Royal Highness Prince Frederick, heir to the throne of Denmark. The conflagration being subdued, Prince Frederick gallantly offered his arm to accompany Miss Rasmussen to her humble lodgings, and a few months after, she found her- self installed in a pretty little villa on the island of Amager, from which, at the end of a year, she migrated to a larger mansion, with numerous servants about her. Here she had the satisfaction of learning the divorce of Prince Frederick from his second wife, after a union of five years. .Princess Caroline returned to Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and Louise Rasmussen was declared favorite en titre.
King Christian VIII. died on the 20th January, 1848, and the same day his son amended the throne as Frederick VII One of his first acts was to elevate Louise Rasmussen to the rank of Baroness Danner, which title was advanced soon after to that of Countess. The matter created some discontent at first among the people ; but was judged less severely when it was found that the royal favourite used whatever influence she possessed for the benefit of the nation. Besides, the King loudly declared more than once that he would prefer a thousand times giving up his throne than separation from his friend. The abdication seemed near when the news of the French Revolution arrived at Copenhagen. A large mob, composed of ultra-radicals and members of the Scandinavian party, filed before the palace of the King, crying for reform and threatening insurrection. They were disarmed by the solemn response of Frederick VII. that he was perfectly ready to lay down his crown at the bidding of the people, and either become President of a Danish Republic, or retire altogether from power. This was not what the leaders of the movement wanted, and they, therefore, became quiet again, and accepted with thanks the new constitution granted by the King. The latter, nevertheless, thought seriously of abdicating, and was restrained only by the strong persuasion of Countess Danner. She now became almost his sole adviser, and her influence grew to such an extent that she was able to persuade the King to make her his lawful wife. The mere announcement of the intention created a storm of indignation throughout the country, leading to protests on all parts, and to strong remonstrances from the Ministers ; nevertheless, Frederick VII. was not to be shaken in his purpose, and on the 7th of August, 1850, he gave his hand, in the church of Fredericks- borg, to Louise Rasmussen. A short while after the King, with his consort, visited the southern provinces of Denmark, and being rather coldly received at one place, his Majesty made a very frank speech at a banquet given in his honour. He told the guests that though a king, he had by no means given up his privileges as a man to marry the woman he loved best, and that, in the place in which he stood, he looked upon his present wife as the only true friend he possessed in the world. The speech, repeated from mouth to mouth, created a pro- found sensation, and gradually extinguished the ill-feeling against the Countess. At a later period she was again censured for giving
herself too much the airs of a real Queen ; but the reproach was deemed venial, in view of what was generally acknowledged—that she was, indeed, the devoted friend and consort of her royal hus-
band. She alone succeeded in chasing the spirit of profound dejection, which settled upon the King in the later years of his life, under the burden of physical and mental sufferings, as well as political cares. Frederick VII. was thus enabled to become what even his personal enemies do not dispute—the best monarch Den- mark has had these hundred years.
With considerable intellectual power, he possessed what in the peculiar circumstances of Denmark was a source of unbounded strength —an honest contempt for the throne. If he could benefit his people, abdication would be simply a relief, and he was able, therefore, to work for Denmark without any considerations of self, and to form those resolutions before which kings usually quail. He was always ready to risk his throne for the independ- ence of his country, always ready to concede any form of consti- tution his people might demand ; and at last stood forward to tell Europe, that if batten by his gigantic neighbour in the unjust war that neighbour was provoking, he would declare Denmark a
republic, and leave the thrones to cope with the moral strength of that example. There was a strong manliness in the man which his people, amid the unfavourable circumstances of his career, recog- nized at last, and the crowd who in 1848 howled disgust under his windows, received the news of his death with regret and con- sternation. His successor, Prince Christian, nominated by the Powers over the heads of his own elder brothers, ascends the throne at a stormy time, and may live to regret the illness which he now probably deems so fortunate for himself.
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