DENIS DENMARK. 



639 



of the academy, with a salary of 1200 Prussian dol- 

 lars. He liad several conversations with Frederic 

 the Great, an account of whose life and reign he af- 

 terwards wrote. He also published La Prusse lit- 

 teraire sous Frederic II. (3 volumes). In 1791, he 

 made a journey to Piedmont, and published, on his 

 return to Berlin, the Guide litteraire. As early as 

 1760, his Discorso sopra le J'icende delta Litteratura 

 appeared in Berlin. It is a valuable contribution to 

 the history of literature, and has been translated into 

 German and French. Most of his works were writ- 

 ten at Berlin ; as, for instance, his History of Pied- 

 mont and of the other Sardinian States ; Political and 

 Literary History of Greece ; and Letters from Bran- 

 denburg. After the battle of Marengo, the council 

 of administration appointed him librarian at the 

 university of Turin. Before he entered upon this 

 office, he wrote his Clef des Langues, ou Observations, 

 etc., which he dedicated to the first consul. He re- 

 ceived, in return, an honourable letter and a gold 

 snuff-box, through Duroc. Thts favour was follow- 

 ed by the offer of the place of librarian to the empe- 

 ror, upon which he repaired to Paris. In 1805, ap- 

 peared his Historico-statistical Picture of Upper Italy. 

 He died in 1813. 



DENIS or DENYS, ST., ABBEY OF; a French 

 church celebrated in history. The saint (Dionysius) 

 to whom it is consecrated, having been sent from 

 Rome into Gaul to preach the gospel, died by the 

 hand of the public executioner, anout the end of the 

 third century. Catulla, a heathen lady, affected by 

 the martyr's constancy, obtained his body, which had 

 been thrown into the Seine, buried it in her garden, 

 became a Christian, and erected a small chapel over 

 his tomb, which was afterwards rebuilt on a more 

 extensive plan, by St Genevieve, and became, in the 

 sixth century, one of the most flourishing abbeys. 

 This large edifice is still standing, a noble structure, 

 the oldest Christian church in France. On the left 

 was the principal entrance, a large door with two 

 small doors at the sides, ornamented with statues of 

 the ancient saints and French kings, carved in stone. 

 The interior of the church was enriched with pious 

 offerings and works of art. In the large vaults 

 under the choir reposed the remains of several kings 

 of the first and second races, and all the rulers of the 

 third race, from Hugh Capet to Louis XVI. At 

 present, the heads of all the saints and kings at the 

 entrance are wanting, and the vaults are vacant, all 

 the bodies having been removed during the revolu- 

 tion. Oct. 16, 1793, at the time when the queen was 

 beheaded in Paris, the coffin of Louis XV. was taken 

 out of the vaults of St Denis, and, after a stormy 

 debate, it was decided to throw the remains of all 

 the kings, even those of Henry IV. and Louis XIV., 

 which were yet, in a good degree, preserved entire, 

 and recognised with perfect certainty, into a pit, to 

 melt down their leaden coffins on the spot, and to 

 take away and melt into bullets whatever lead there 

 was besides in the church (the whole roof, for ex- 

 ample). Napoleon's decree of the 20th February, 

 1806, made St Denis again the burial-place of the 

 reigning family of France; the church was repaired 

 and ornamented, and marked with the emblems of 

 the new dynasty, particularly the large N. Napoleon 

 had selected a vaulted room for the tomb of himself 

 and his consort. Louis XVIII. obliterated from St 

 Denis all traces of Napoleon's rule, buried whatever 

 bones of his ancestors could be found, especially the 

 relics of Louis XVI. and his family, in the ancient 

 sepulchre of the kings, and instituted canons, whose 

 duty it is to protect the tombs within. These canons 

 of St Denis are the most distinguished in France, and 

 form a convent, the abbot of which is a bishop. 



DENIZEN. In England, a denizen is an alien 



i born, who has obtained letters patent whereby he is 

 constituted a British subject. A denizen is in a 

 middle state between an alien and a natural born 01 

 naturalized subject, partaking of the nature of both. 

 He may take lands by purchase, or derive a title by 

 descent through his parents or any ancestor, though 

 they be aliens. 



DENMARK; the smallest of the Northern Euro- 

 pean kingdoms. 



History. The oldest inhabitants of Denmark were 

 Germans, brave and spirited men, who gained their 

 support from the sea. The Cimbri, who derived 

 their origin from them, dwelt in the peninsula of 

 Jutland, the Chersonesus Cimbrica of the Romans, 

 They first struck terror into the Romans by their in- 

 cursion, with the Teutones, into the rich provinces 

 of Gaul. After this, led by the mysterious Odin, the 

 Goths broke into Scandinavia, and appointed chiefs 

 from their own nation over Denmark, Norway, and 

 Sweden. Skiold is said to have been the first ruler 

 of Denmark. His history, however, and that of his 

 posterity is involved in fable. All we know with 

 certainty is, that Denmark was divided, at this time,, 

 into many small states, that the inhabitants gained 

 their subsistence by piracy, and spread terror through 

 every sea, and along every coast to which they came. 



When the power of the Romans began to decline, 

 the Danes and Normans became conspicuous in the 

 South by their incursions upon the shores, which 

 were formerly protected by the guard-ships of the 

 Romans. The Normans (comprehending the people 

 of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) landed in Eng- 

 land A. D. 832, and established there two kingdoms. 

 Under Hollo, in 911, they made a descent on the 

 French coasts hi Normandy, occupied the Faroe 

 isles, the Orcades, the Shetland isles, Iceland, and a 

 part of Ireland, and thence proceeded to Spain, Italy, 

 and Sicily. Wherever they came, they spread terror 

 by their valour, ferocity, and rapacity. These ex- 

 peditions made little change in their national govern- 

 ment : it still continued a federative system of many 

 clans or tribes, each of which had its own head, and 

 ah 1 were united under one sovereign. When the 

 German kings of the Carlovingian race attempted to 

 interfere with then- domestic affairs, the tribes en- 

 tered into a closer union, and the Norwegians and 

 Danes formed two separate states. Gorm the Old 

 first subdued Jutland, in 863, and united all the 

 small Danish states under his sceptre till 920. His 

 grandson Sweyn, a warlike prince, subdued a part 

 of Norway hi 1000, and England in 1014. His son 

 Canute, in 1010, not only completed the conquest of 

 England, but also subdued a part of Scotland, and, 

 in 1030, all Norway. Under him the power of 

 Denmark reached its highest pitch. Political mo- 

 tives led him to embrace the Cliristian religion, and 

 to introduce it into Denmark ; upon which a great 

 change took place in the character of the people. 

 Canute died in 1036, and left a powerful kingdom to 

 his successors, who, in 1042, lost England, and, in 

 1047, Norway. 



The Danish kingdom was, after this, very much 

 weakened by intestine broils. Sweyn Magnus Es- 

 tritson ascended the throne in 1047, and established 

 a new dynasty ; but the feudal system, introduced 

 by the wars of Sweyn and Canute, robbed the 

 kingdom of all its strength, under this dynasty, 

 which furnished n&t a single worthy prince except 

 the great Waldemar, left the princes dependent on 

 the choice of the bishops and nobility, plunged the 

 peasants into bondage, caused the decay of agri- 

 culture, and abandoned commerce to the Hanse 

 towns of Germany. With Waldemar III., in 1376, 

 the male line of the family of Estritson became ex- 

 tinct His politic daughter Margaret, after the 



