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See also:GRIFFENFELDT, PEDER, See also:COUNT (Peder See also:Schumacher) (1635-1699) , Danish statesman, was See also:born at See also:Copenhagen on the 24th of See also:August 1633, of a wealthy trading See also:family connected with the leading civic, clerical and learned circles in the Danish See also:capital. His See also:tutor, Jens Vorde, who prepared him in his See also:eleventh See also:year for the university, praises his extraordinary gifts, his mastery
The brilliant way in which he sustained his preliminary examination won him the friendship of the examiner, See also:Bishop See also:Jasper Brokman, at whose See also:palace he first met See also:Frederick III. The See also: A romantic friendship with the king's See also:bastard, Count Ulric Frederick Gyldenlove, consolidated his position. In 1665 Schumacher obtained his first See also:political See also:post as the king's secretary, and the same year composed the memorable Kongelov (see DENMARK, See also:History). He was now a personage at See also:court, where he won all See also:hearts by his amiability and gaiety; and in political matters also his See also:influence was beginning to be See also:felt. On the death of Frederick III. (See also:February 9th, 167o) Schumacher was the most trusted of all the royal counsellors. He alone was aware of the existence of the new See also:throne of See also:walrus See also:ivory embellished with three See also:silver See also:life-sizelions, and of the new See also:regalia, both of which treasures he had, by the king's command, concealed in a vault beneath the royal See also:castle. Frederick III. had also confided to him a sealed packet containing the Kongelov, which was to be delivered to his successor alone. Schumacher had been recommended to his son by Frederick III. on his death= See also:bed. "Make him a See also:great man, but do it slowly !" said Frederick, who thoroughly understood the characters of his son and of his See also:minister. See also:Christian V. was, moreover, deeply impressed by the confidence which his See also:father had ever shown to Schumacher. When, on the 9th of February 167o, Schumacher delivered the Kongelov to Christian V., the king bade all those about him withdraw, and after being closeted a See also:good See also:hour with Schumacher, appointed him his " Obergeheimesekreter." His promotion was now almost disquietingly rapid. In May 167o he received the titles of See also:excellency and privy councillor; in See also:July of the same year he was ennobled under the name of Griffenfeldt, deriving his See also:title from the See also:gold See also:griffin with outspread wings which surmounted his See also:escutcheon; in See also:November 1673 he was created a count, a See also:knight of the See also:Elephant and, finally, imperial See also:chancellor. In the course of the next few months he gathered into his hands every See also:branch of the See also:government: he had reached the apogee of his See also:short-lived greatness. But if his offices were manifold, so also were his talents. Seldom has any man See also:united so many and such various gifts in his own See also:person and carried them so easily—a playful wit, a vivid See also:imagination, oratorical and See also:literary eloquence and, above all, a profound knowledge of human nature both male and See also:female, of every class and See also:rank, from the king to the meanest See also:citizen. He had captivated the accomplished Frederick III. by his literary See also:graces and ingenious speculations; he won the obtuse and ignorant Christian V. by saving him trouble, by acting and thinking for him, and at the same See also:time making him believe that he was thinking and acting for himself. Moreover, his commanding qualities were coupled with an organizing See also:talent which made itself felt in every See also:department of the See also:state, and with a marvellous adaptability which made him an ideal diplomatist. On the 25th of May 1671 the dignities of count and See also:baron were introduced into Denmark " to give lustre to the court "; a few months later the See also:order of the Danebrog was instituted as a fresh means of winning adherents by marks of favour. Griffenfeldt was the originator of these new institutions. To him monarchy was the ideal See also:form of government. But he had also a political See also:object. The aristocracy of See also:birth, despite its reverses, still remained the elite of society; and Griffenfeldt, the son of a See also:burgess as well as the protagonist of monarchy, was its most determined enemy. The new baronies and countships, owing their existence entirely to the See also:crown, introduced a strong solvent into aristocratic circles. Griffenfeldt saw that, in future, the first at court would be the first everywhere. Much was also done to promote See also:trade and See also:industry, notably by the revival of the Kammer Kellegium, or See also:board of trade, and the abolition of some of the most harmful monopolies. Both the higher and the provincial administrations were thoroughly reformed with the view of making them more centralized and efficient; and the positions and duties of the various magistrates, who now also received fixed salaries, were for the first time exactly defined. But what Griffenfeldt could create, Griffenfeldt could dispense with, and it was not See also:long before he began to encroach upon the See also:jurisdiction of the new departments of state by private conferences with their chiefs. Nevertheless it is indisputable that, under the single direction of this See also:master-mind, the Danish state was now able, for a time, to utilize all its resources as it had never done before. In the last three years of his See also:administration, Griffenfeldt gave himself entirely to the conduct of the See also:foreign policy of Denmark. It is difficult to form a clear See also:idea of this, first, because his influence was perpetually traversed by opposite tendencies; in the second See also:place, because the force of circumstances compelled him, again and again, to shift his standpoint; and finally because See also:personal considerations largely intermingled with his foreign policy, and made it more elusive and ambiguous than it need have been. Briefly, Griffenfeldt aimed at restoring Denmark to the rank of a great power. He proposed to accomplish this by carefully See also:nursing her resources, and in the meantime securing and enriching her by alliances, which would bring in large subsidies while imposing a minimum of obligations. Such a conditional and 'tentative policy, on the See also:part of a second-See also:rate power, in a See also:period of universal tension and turmoil, was most difficult; but Griffenfeldt did not regard it as impossible. The first postulate of such a policy was See also:peace, especially peace with Denmark's most dangerous See also:neighbour, See also:Sweden. The second postulate was a See also:sound See also:financial basis, which he expected the See also:wealth of France to See also:supply in the shape of subsidies to be spent on armaments. Above all things Denmark was to beware of making enemies of France and Sweden at the same time. An See also:alliance, on fairly equal terms, between the three See also:powers, would, in these circumstances, be the consummation of Griffenfeldt's " See also:system "; an alliance with France to the exclusion of Sweden would be the next best policy; but an alliance between France and Sweden, without the See also:admission of Denmark, was to be avoided at all hazards. Had Griffenfeldt's policy succeeded, Denmark might have recovered her See also:ancient possessions to the See also:south and See also:east comparatively cheaply. But again and again he was overruled. Despite his open protests and subterraneous See also:counter-See also:mining, See also:war was actually declared against Sweden in 1675, and his subsequent policy seemed so obscure and hazardous to those who did not possess the See also:clue to the perhaps purposely tangled skein, that the numerous enemies whom his arroganceand superciliousness had raised up against him, resolved to destroy him.
On the lrth of See also: The See also:primary offence of the ex-chancellor was the taking of bribes, which no twisting of the See also:law could convert into a capital offence, while the See also:charge of treason had not been substantiated. Griffenfeldt was pardoned on the See also:scaffold, at the very moment when the See also:axe was about to descend. On See also:hearing that the sentence was commuted to life-long imprisonment, he declared that the See also:pardon was harder than the See also:punishment, and vainly petitioned for leave to serve his king for the See also:rest of his life as a See also:common soldier. For the next two and twenty years Denmark's greatest statesman lingered out his life in a lonely state-See also:prison, first in the fortress of Copenhagen, and finally at Munkholm on See also:Trondhjem fiord. He died at Trondhjem on the 12th of March 1699. Griffenfeldt married Kitty See also:Nansen, the granddaughter of the great Burgomaster Hans Nansen, who brought him See also:half a million See also:rix-dollars. She died in 1672, after bearing him a daughter. See Danmark's Riges Histoire, vol. v. (Copenhagen, 1897—19o5); Jorgenson, See also:Peter Schumacher-Griffenfeldt (Copenhagen, 1893–1894); 0. Vaupell, Rigskansler Grev Griffenfeldt (Copenhagen, 1880–1882); See also:Bain, Scandinavia, cap. x. (Cambri ge, 1905). (R. N. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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