MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 265 



seem as much the result of birth and breeding as the product of the 

 most carefully conducted racing stable? 



Evidence from Denmark. 



The royal house of Oldenburg from which the kings of Denmark 

 are descended covers, from Frederick II. to the daughter of Frederick 

 IV., three centuries and ten generations. Including in each genera- 

 tion not only the reigning sovereign, but also his brothers and sisters, 

 the number of names brought into this family is thirty-seven. In 

 order to get the necessary material for heredity study, there have been 

 added in each generation all the ancestors of every child back to the 

 great-grandparents, so the number brought together in this group is 

 raised by 132, or 169 represents the total. 



With the exception of the first two kings, this period of Danish 

 history covers what is known as the 'Age of Absolutism,' 1670-1848. 

 A good idea of the sovereign rights at this time and the general char- 

 acteristics of the rulers may be gathered from the following quotation : 



Although the Royal Law conferred so absolute a power on the king, a 

 power such as was perhaps not vested in any other sovereign in Europe, the 

 autocrats of the Oldenburg dynasty good-natured, upright and not more than 

 ordinarily gifted as they were exercised the prerogative, on the whole, with 

 moderation and leniency, and the country had often reason to be thankful 

 for the advantages secured to it during this period, especially when among 

 the royal councillors were to be found men of talent and capacity. 



Good-natured, upright and not more than ordinarily gifted is a 

 fair estimate for our thirty-seven members of the Oldenburg family 

 taken as a whole. There are not more than three or four exceptions 

 to this among them all. In other words, the Oldenburgs show no 

 great mental and moral variations. Do the characteristics of the 

 other 132, who, united with the male line, are the formers of the 

 breed, warrant us in saying that this result is only what we might 

 expect from the direct inheritance of the traits of these progenitors? 

 It will be seen that the characteristics of these outsiders who represent 

 the maternal side amply bear out such a belief. 



In the pedigree of the Oldenburgs there is no Hapsburg, Bourbon 

 or Romanhof insanity, or moral depravity. There is no Orange or 

 Hohenzollern genius. In searching out the quality of the maternal 

 blood as it was introduced all down the line, one finds no distinguished 

 ancestry and few peculiar characters of any sort. Two of the queens 

 had brilliant gifts of mind, one being also extremely unprincipled in 

 her political actions. Aside from this there is little of interest in 

 the ancestry. Frederick II., 15341588, was a headstrong and arbi- 

 trary ruler with too great a fondness for strong drink, but otherwise 

 was not strange in any way and is not a striking figure in Danish 



