SCnLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. 



823 



The duchy of Schleswig has an area of 167 

 geographical square miles, witli a population, 

 in 1855, of 409,970 ; Holste'm has an area of 

 155 geographical square miles, with a popula- 

 tion of 544,419 inhabitants. Holstein is exclu- 

 sively inhabited by Germans, and is a member 

 of the German Confederacy. Schleswig is in- 

 habited by a mixed population, consisting of 

 Germans, Danes, and Frisians. The statistics 

 of these three different nationalities are differ- 

 ently estimated; according to the Almanac de 

 Gotha for 1864, they were as follows: 146,500 

 inhabitants speak German as their native lan- 

 guage, 135,000 Danish, 85,000 Danish and Ger- 

 man, and 33,000 Frisians. The little duchy 

 of Lauenburg which is, like Holstein, exclu- 

 sively inhabited by Germans, and belongs like- 

 wise to the German Confederacy, has a popula- 

 tion of 50.147 inhabitants. Together the three 

 duchies have an area of 341 geographical 

 square miles, against 696 of Denmark Proper, 

 and an aggregate population of 1,004,473, 

 against 1,600,551 of Denmark Proper. 



Schleswig does not belong to the German 

 Confederacy ; but, according to the fundamen- 

 tal law of the duchies, it is inseparably con- 

 nected with Holstein. This fundamental law 

 dates from the year 1460 when, Adolphus VIIL, 

 Count of Holstein and Duke of Schleswig, hav- 

 ing died without direct issue, the estates of both 

 united countries elected, after prolonged nego- 

 tiations, King Christian I. of Denmark, of the 

 house of Oldenburg, their duke and lord on 

 these principal conditions: 1. That they elect- 

 ed him not in his quality as King of Denmark, 

 but as Duke and Lord of Schleswig and Hol- 

 stein. 2. That the estates and people of Schles- 

 wig-Holstein be free in future to elect their 

 ruler from among his heirs, under certain safe- 

 guards. 3. That Schleswig and Holstein should 

 remain forever undivided and inseparably 

 united. All the following king-dukes of Den- 

 mark and Schleswig-Holstein, up to Frederic 

 VII., deceased m 1863, confirmed this Magna 

 Charta of the two duchies. In 1616 the es- 

 tates of the two duchies consented to renounce 

 their elective franchise in favor of the right of 

 primogeniture. By a family statute of both the 

 branches, into which the house of Oldenburg 

 had divided in the 16th century, the law of 

 male primogeniture and agnatic (male) lineal 

 succession was finally substituted for the former 

 system of election. Since 1660, only the male 

 line of the house of Oldenburg was entitled to 

 succession in the duchies. A different order 

 of succession, however, was established in the 

 kingdom of Denmark, by the Lex Regia, pub- 

 lished by King Frederic III. in 1665. Accord- 

 ing to this law the cognatic (female) descendants 

 of King Frederick were to succeed in Denmark, 

 in case his male line should fail. The same 

 king had already, in 1658, dissolved the feudal 

 connection between Denmark and Schleswig, 

 and declared the latter an independent state. 

 Holstein had always been a fief of the German 

 empire, and, in 1815, became an independent 



state of the restored German Confederacy. As, 

 at the beginning of the present century, it be- 

 came apparent that the male line of King 

 Frederick HI. was likely soon to fail, the kings 

 of Denmark made great efforts to secure, in 

 such an event, the integrity of the Danish 

 monarchy. King Christian VIIL, by his fa- 

 mous Letters Patent of July 8th, 1846, declared 

 that the validity of the cognatic succession in 

 the duchies of Schleswig and Lauenburg was 

 unquestionable, but that in regard to some 

 parts of the duchy of Holstein there existed 

 certain facts militating against an equally pos- 

 itive opinion concerning the rights of inherit- 

 ance of all his royal hereditary successors in 

 that duchy. The estates of Holstein (on Au- 

 gust 3d) applied to the German Diet for pro- 

 tection. The king, in reply (September 7th), 

 declared that it had never entered his rnind to 

 violate the independence of Holstein, its con- 

 stitution, and its union with Schleswig, and 

 that it was not his object to infringe upon well 

 established rights of the agnates. Still the ef- 

 forts, both for dissolving the connection be- 

 tween Schleswig and Holstein, and for securing 

 the integrity of the monarchy, were not aban- 

 doned. On March 24th, 1848, King Frederic 

 VII. declared, by royal proclamation, that 

 Denmark and Schleswig were henceforth to 

 form an inseparable union under the same con- 

 stitution, thus dissolving the ancient union be- 

 tween Schleswig and Holstein. This procla- 

 mation led to a three years' war between the 

 people of the duchies, who regarded the pro- 

 clamation as an abolition of their independence, 

 and the Government of Denmark. The Ger- 

 man Diet sent auxiliary troops to assist Hol- 

 stein, but in 1851 peace was restored on the 

 basis of the state of things before the war. The 

 people of the duchies complained, however, that 

 the Danish Government persistently continued 

 to violate their constitutional rights. Against 

 some of these measures complained of, not only 

 the states of the German Confederacy, but also 

 the Governments of England and Russia re- 

 monstrated. On November 18th, 1863, the 

 present king of Denmark, Christian IX., signed 

 a new constitution, under which Schleswig was 

 again incorporated in the kingdom of Denmark. 

 The German Diet, and, particularly, the Gov- 

 ernments of Austria and Prussia declared this 

 to be a violation of the constitutional rights of 

 the duchies, and by order of the Federal Diet, 

 troops of Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Han- 

 over, were called out to prevent the execution 

 of the new Danish Constitution. But the peo- 

 ple of the two duchies, who were supported by 

 the almost unanimous voice of the people of all 

 the German States, and by several German 

 Governments, asserted that all and every con- 

 nection between the duchies and Denmark had 

 ceased forever with the extinction of the last 

 prince of the royal line of Oldenburg, on the 

 15th of November, 1863, and that, in accord- 

 ance with the law of succession, Prince Fred- 

 erick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Au- 



