636 



DENMARK. 



Disputes 

 between 

 Frederic 

 airi ihe no 

 bufry. 



History, people were indignant at this declaration, and they im- 

 — — v~— • mediately proposed, in order to be revenged on the 

 nobles, that all the fiefs of the crown should be let to 

 the highest bidder, and that all classes should be deem- 

 ed capable of holding them. Before this the crown 

 lands had been rented exclusively by the nobility, who 

 moreover paid for them only a very slight considera- 

 tion. The nobles exclaimed most loudly and violently 

 against the proposal, but the other orders were firm ; 

 and the friends of the king perceived that the moment 

 was arrived for raising his prerogative and power firm- 

 ly and permanently above those of the nobility. In 

 this predicament the nobles acted with the utmost im- 

 prudence, ; and the violent and overbearing conduct 

 of one of them in particular, accomplished their ruin, 

 and brought the plan of the king to maturity. In these 

 diets, the nobility sat in a separate apartment from the 

 clergy and the commons ; but as it was necessary in 

 discussing the nature and amount of the taxes, that a 

 deputation from these two orders should attend the 

 nobles, the bishop of Zealand, another clergyman, and 

 the deputies of Copenhagen, were desired to attend ; 

 several others of the commons accompanied them un- 

 asked and unexpected : with this one of the senators, 

 a proud and violent man, was offended, and he com- 

 manded all to leave the hall who had not been sent 

 for. This behaviour increased their mutual jealousy 

 and antipathy ; and the clergy and commons determin- 

 ed no longer to communicate their plans or wishes re- 

 specting the subjects on which the diet was convoked, 

 to the king through the senate, as had always been the 

 custom, but directly to the sovereign himself. Frede- 

 ric perceived immediately the advantage he might de- 

 rive from this resolution, and he accordingly received 

 the deputies of the clergy and commons in the most 

 gracious and condescending manner. The nobility 

 still persevered in their imprudent and rash line of con- 

 duct, and farther irritated the other orders, by material- 

 ly altering a tax bill which had been sent to them. The 

 bishop of Copenhagen, who was upon the alert to serve 

 the king, immediately proposed to his order to sign 

 a declaration, making the crown hereditary in the royal 

 family. This proposal was readily accepted ; the decla- 

 ration was signed by the clergy, sent to the represen- 

 tatives of the people, who as readily gave their sanction 

 to it, and on the very same day transmitted to the 

 speaker of the nobles to have the concurrence of that 

 order. The nobility were now alarmed and suspicious. 

 They perceived that it was absolutely necessary to yield 

 some points to the king, and by this reluctant yielding, 

 they hoped to satisfy him ; they, therefore, proposed to 

 Frederic, that the crown should be hereditary in the 

 male line only ; but as the king was acquainted with 

 the declaration that had been passed by the clergy and 

 commons, he rejected the proposal of the nobles. On 

 the next day, this order found itself under the necessi- 

 ty of acceding to the declaration, and a committee of 

 the three orders was appointed by the king to carry 

 the declaration into effect, by giving it the form and 

 authority of a law. When this committee met, one of 

 the members observed, that in all countries where the 

 crown was hereditary, fundamental laws were establish- 

 ed ; and that as Denmark now was in that predicament, 

 the committee ought to direct their attention to the 

 passing of the necessary fundamental laws. This ob- 

 servation alarmed the friends of the king, whose object 

 and wish it was undoubtedly to crush the power of the 

 nobility, but not to limit the prerogatives of the crown. 



The deputy, therefore, who moved the observation, History. 

 was informed, that his future attendance on the com- *— — v~— ' 

 mittee would be dispensed with. The first point that 

 occupied the committee, respected the capitulation 

 which the Danish kings signed when they ascended the 

 throne. As the constitution was about to be changed, 

 it was necessary also to alter the articles of the capitu- 

 lation. All agreed that certain articles should be omit- 

 ted, and that others should be materially altered ; but 

 there was much difference of opinion, respecting the sub- 

 stitution of new articles, so that the capitulation might 

 still be in fact a species of contract between the king 

 and the people, and might define and limit his power : 

 the nobles concluded, that their peculiar interests should 

 be specified and confirmed in the capitulation ; the cler- 

 gy, on the other hand, not only objected to the claims 

 of the nobility, but put in claims of their own. In the The Dd- 

 midst of the clamorous debates to which this difference nish crows 

 of opinion gave rise, the Bishop of Zealand suddenly m * de he " 

 proposed, that the crown should be made hereditary, re ltary ' 

 without any stipulation or condition ; this was agreed 

 to, with a trifling and unimportant exception, that the 

 right of primogeniture, and the indivisibility of the mo- 

 narchy, should be guarded. The capitulation which 

 Frederic had signed at his accession, and which limited 

 his authority, was restored to him, and the following 

 day all the orders took a new oath of fidelity ; but the 

 three orders did not sign a separate act, consenting that 

 the crown should be hereditary, investing the sovereign 

 with absolute power, and giving him the right to regu- 

 late the succession and the regency, till the 10th of 

 January 1661 : and ever after this the new constitu- 

 tion was not explained or sanctioned by any promulgated 

 law, till the accession of Christian V. in 1670. It was 

 drawn up by the Bishop of Zealand and the count Grif- 

 fenfeld, and received the king's sanction on the 14th 

 November 1665, but was kept in the royal archives till 

 the period above mentioned. The royal law, as it is ltoyat law. 

 called, consists of forty articles, of which the following 

 are the most important : The hereditary kings of Den- 

 mark are above all human laws, and in all affairs, ec- 

 clesiastical or civil, they do not acknowledge any supe- 

 rior judge but God alone ; the king alone possesses the 

 right to make, repeal, change, and interpret all laws, 

 except the royal law, which is irrevocable ; the king 

 shall be deemed of age at fourteen, and from that time 

 he shall have no master or guardian ; from the aera of 

 the royal law, the kings of Denmark, so long as any 

 branch of the royal family shall exist, will be born such, 

 without having any occasion for an election ; he shall 

 not be obliged to take any oath, or enter into any en- 

 gagement whatsoever respecting the monarchy, seeing 

 that, as a free and absolute sovereign, his subjects can 

 neither impose upon him the necessity of an oath, nor 

 prescribe any conditions to him which shall limit his 

 authority. The princes and princesses of the blood 

 shall not appear before any inferior judge, because the 

 king himself is then - judge in the first and last instance. 

 The 26th article is very long and very express on the 

 subject of absolute monarchy : it declares, that every 

 thing which may be said and written to the advantage 

 of an absolute and hereditary Christian king, should alsa 

 be understood in the most favourable sense of the here- 

 ditary king of Denmar 1 *; and it directs all his succes- 

 sors " to take very particular care to defend their here- 

 ditary right and absolute dominion, and not to suffer it 

 to be called in question upon any condition whatever ;" 

 ■and if any person shall obtain apy thing contrary to 



