3 1 8 Norway and the Norwegians 



eye by England, and when, in 1800, Eussia, Prussia, 

 and Sweden, seemed inclined to adopt the same attitude, 

 and made overtures to Denmark to form a league with 

 them, England determined to strike the latter country 

 at once, and to destroy its fleet. This led to the cele- 

 brated battle of Copenhagen (a.d. 1801), Nelson's first 

 great naval victory, and one of the hardest he ever gained; 

 one too, it must be said, of the least justifiable acts that 

 England ever committed. Bad, however, as this was, 

 it was not so blameworthy as the bombardment of 

 Copenhagen, and the seizure of the Danish fleet by 

 England again, in 1807, on the mere suspicion that 

 the country was going to form an alliance with 

 France. 



This simply threw Frederick vi., the King of Den- 

 mark, into the arms of Napoleon. The Danish king 

 had no force at his command for the defence of his 

 country, which Sweden was once more threatening. 

 Wherefore Napoleon despatched to Denmark General 

 Bernadotte with an army of 30,000 men. But these 

 troops did nothing for the defence of the country, and 

 Denmark found herself obliged by the Treaty of Kiel 

 to cede Norway to Sweden, then the ally of England. 



Sweden had left the French alliance. That same 

 Marshal Bernadotte, Napoleon's general, had been 

 selected as a successor to the reigning king of the 

 country, and received into the royal family. The 

 choice was made to flatter the susceptibilities of 

 Napoleon. But the latter soon became jealous of his 

 late subordinate, and even proposed to the English and 

 the German powers the dismemberment of Sweden. 



When, by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, Norway was 



