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See also:STRUENSEE, JOHAN See also:FREDERICK (1731-1772) , Danish See also:political philosopher, was See also:born at See also:Halle in 1731. His See also:father, subsequently See also:superintendent-See also:general of See also:Schleswig-See also:Holstein, was a rigid pietist; but See also:young Struensee, who settled down in the 'sixties as a See also:doctor at See also:Altona, where his See also:superior intelligence and elegant See also:manners soon made him fashionable, revolted against the narrowness of his father's creed, became a fanatical propagandist of the See also:atheism associated with the Encyclopadie, and scandalized his contemporaries by his See also:frank licentiousness. But he was a See also:clever doctor, and, having somewhat restored the See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king's See also:health, and gained his See also:affection, was retained as See also:court physician, accompanied See also:Christian VII. on a See also:foreign tour and returned with him to See also:Copenhagen. It had always been Struensee's ambition to See also:play a See also:great See also:part in the See also:world and realize his See also:dream of reform. He had gathered from various Danish See also:friends, most of them involuntary exiles of doubtful See also:character, that the crazy, old-fashioned Dano-See also:Norwegian See also:state, misruled by an idiot, was the fittest subject in the world for the experiments of a See also:man of superior ingenuity like himself; and he proceeded to See also:worm his way to See also:power with considerable astuteness.
First he reconciled the king and See also:queen, for he calculated, shrewdly enough, that if the king was to be his See also:tool he must needs make the queen his friend. At first Carolina See also:Matilda disliked Struensee, but the unfortunate girl (she was scarce eighteen) could not fail to be deeply impressed by the highly gifted young doctor, who speedily and completely won her See also:heart. By See also:January 1770 he was notoriously her See also:lover; a. successful See also:vaccination of the baby See also:crown See also:prince in May still further increased his See also:influence; and when, in the course of the See also:year, the king sank into a See also:condition of See also:mental torpor, Struensee'sauthority became See also:paramount. Previously to this, the capable See also:minister of foreign affairs, J. H. E. See also:Bernstorff (q.v.), was got rid of by a royal See also:letter of the 13th of See also:September 1770, and Struensee's disreputable friend, the exiled See also:Count Rantzau-Ascheburg, was recalled to court; and with him came another Altona acquaintance of Struensee's, Enevold Brandt, who had also been living abroad under a See also:cloud.
For a See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time Struensee kept himself discreetly in the back-ground, though from henceforth he was the wirepuller of the whole political See also:machine. But he soon See also:grew impatient of his puppets. In See also:December the See also:council of state was abolished; and Struensee appointed himself maitre de requetes. It was now his See also:official See also:duty to See also:present to the king all the reports from the various departments of state; and, Christian VII. being scarcely responsible for his actions, Struensee dictated whatever answers he pleased. His next proceeding was to dismiss all the heads of departments, and to abolish the Norwegian stadholderships. Henceforth the See also:cabinet, with himself as its See also:motive power, was to be the one supreme authority in the state. Unfortunately, he had made up his mind to regenerate the benighted Danish and Norwegian nations on purely abstract principles, without the slightest regard for native customs and predilections, which in his eyes were prejudices. He was hampered, moreover, by not knowing a word of Danish. Many of his reforms, such, for instance, as the See also:establishment of foundling hospitals, the abolition of See also:capital See also:punishment for See also:theft and of the employment of See also:torture in judicial See also:process, the doing away with such demoralizing abuses as perquisites, and of " lackeyism," or the See also:appointment of great men's domestics to lucrative public posts, were distinctly beneficial if not See also:original. Unfortunately reform was not as much a principle as a See also:mania with Struensee. The See also:mere fact that a See also:- VENERABLE (Lat. venerabilis, worthy of reverence, venerari, to reverence, to worship, allied to Venus, love; the Indo-Germ. root is wen-, to desire, whence Eng. " win, properly to struggle for, hence to gain)
venerable institution still existed was a sufficient See also:reason, in his eyes, for doing away with it. Changes which a prudent. minister might have effected in a See also:generation he rushed through in less than a fortnight. Between the 29th of See also:March 1771 and the 16th of January 1772—the ten months during which he held See also:absolute sway—he issued no fewer than 1069 cabinet orders, or more than three a See also:day In See also:- ORDER
- ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
- ORDER, HOLY
order to be sure of obedience he dismissed wholesale without See also:pension or See also:compensation the staffs of all the public departments, substituting for old and experienced officials nominees of his own, in many cases untried men who knew -little or nothing of the See also:country they were supposed to govern.
The See also:dictator's manners were even worse than his morals. He habitually adopted a See also:tone of insulting superiority, all the more irritating as coming from an See also:ill-informed foreigner; and sometimes he seemed deliberately to go out of his way to, See also:shock the most sacred feelings of the respectable See also:people. Nor was this all. His See also:system of See also:retrenchment, on which he particularly prided himself, was in the last degree immoral and hypocritical, for while reducing the number of the public officials, or clipping down their salaries to See also:starvation points, he squandered thousands upon balls, masquerades, and other amusements of the court, and induced the See also:imbecile king to present him and his friend Brandt with 6o,000 See also:rix-dollars apiece.
Still, in spite of all his blunders and brutalities, it is dear that, for a' See also:short time at least, See also:middle-class See also:opinion was, on the whole, favourable to him; and, had he been See also:wise, he might perhaps have been able to defy any hostile See also:combination. But such was his contempt for the Danish people that he cared not a jot whether they approved or disapproved of his reforms. What incensed the people most against him was the way ' in which he put the king completely on one See also:side; and this feeling was all the stronger as, outside a very narrow court circle, nobody seems to have believed that Christian VII. was really mad, but only that his will had been weakened by habitual ill usage; and this opinion was confirmed by the 'publication of the cabinet order of the 14th of See also:July 1771, appointing Struensee " gehejme kabinetsminister," with authority to issue cabinet orders which were to have the force of royal ordinances, even if unprovided with the royal sign-See also:manual.
Nor were Struensee's relations with the queen less offensive to a nation which had a traditional veneration for the royal See also:house of See also:Oldenburg, while See also:Caroline Matilda's shameless conduct in public brought the Crown into contempt. The society which daily gathered See also:round the king and queen excited the derision of the foreign ambassadors. The unhappy king was little more than the See also:butt of his environment, and once, when he threatened his keeper, Brandt, with a flogging for some impertinence, Brandt, encouraged by Struensee and the queen, actually locked him in his See also:room and See also:beat him with his fists till he begged for See also:mercy. Things were at their worst during the See also:winter of 1771. Struensee, who had, in the meantime, created himself a count, now gave full See also:rein to his licentiousness and brutality. If, as we are assured, he publicly snubbed the queen, we may readily imagine how he treated See also:common folk. Before See also:long the people had an opportunity of expressing their disgust openly. In the summer of 1771 Caroline Matilda was delivered of a daughter, who was christened Louisa See also:Augusta; and a See also:proclamation commanded that a " Te Deum " in See also:honour of the event should be sung in all the churches; but so universal was the belief that the See also:child was Struensee's that, at the end of the See also:ordinary services, the See also:congregation See also:rose and departed en masse. -
The general ill will against Struensee, which had been smouldering all through the autumn of 1771, found expression at last in a See also:secret See also:conspiracy against him, headed by Rantzau-Ascheburg and others, in the name of the queen-See also:dowager Juliana Maria. See also:Early in the See also:morning of the 17th of January 1772 Struensee, Brandt and the queen were arrested in their respective See also:bed-rooms, and " the liberation of the king," who was driven round Copenhagen by his deliverers in a See also:gold See also:carriage, was received with universal rejoicing. The See also:chief See also:charge against Struensee was that he had usurped the royal authority in contravention of the Kongelov. He defended himself with considerable ability and, at first, confident that the See also:prosecution would not dare to See also:lay hands on the queen, he denied that their liaison had ever been criminal. But, on See also:hearing that she was also a prisoner of state, his courage evaporated, and he was See also:base enough to betray her, though she did all in her power to See also:shield him. On the 25th of See also:April Struensee ,and Brandt were condemned first to lose their right hands and then to be beheaded; their bodies were afterwards to be See also:drawn and quartered. See also:Sentence of See also:death was the least that Struensee had to expect. He had undoubtedly been guilty of lese-majeste and See also:gross usurpation of the royal authority, both capital offences according to pars. 7 and 26 of the Kongelov. The sentences were carried out on the 28th of April, Brandt suffering first.
See See also:Elie Salomon See also:Francois Reverdil, Struensee et la tour de Copenhague 176o-1772 (See also:Paris, 1858) ; Karl Wittich, Struensee (See also:Leipzig, 1879) ; See also:- PETER
- PETER (Lat. Petrus from Gr. irfpos, a rock, Ital. Pietro, Piero, Pier, Fr. Pierre, Span. Pedro, Ger. Peter, Russ. Petr)
- PETER (PEDRO)
- PETER, EPISTLES OF
- PETER, ST
Peter See also:Edward Holm, Danmark-Norges Historie, vol. iv. (Copenhagen, 1897-19o5); Gustave Bascle De Lagrbbze, La Reine Caroline-Mathilde et le See also:Comte Struensee (Paris, 1887) ; See also:Robert Nisbet See also:Bain, Scandinavia, cap. xv. (See also:Cambridge, 1905); See also:- WILLIAM
- WILLIAM (1143-1214)
- WILLIAM (1227-1256)
- WILLIAM (1J33-1584)
- WILLIAM (A.S. Wilhelm, O. Norse Vilhidlmr; O. H. Ger. Willahelm, Willahalm, M. H. Ger. Willehelm, Willehalm, Mod.Ger. Wilhelm; Du. Willem; O. Fr. Villalme, Mod. Fr. Guillaume; from " will," Goth. vilja, and " helm," Goth. hilms, Old Norse hidlmr, meaning
- WILLIAM (c. 1130-C. 1190)
- WILLIAM, 13TH
William See also:- HENRY
- HENRY (1129-1195)
- HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
- HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
- HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng. home, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
- HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
- HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
- HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
- HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
- HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
- HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
- HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
- HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
- HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)
Henry See also:Wilkins, A Queen of Tears (See also:London, 19o4) ; Georg See also:Friedrich von Jenssen-Tusch, See also:Die Verschworung gegen die Konigin Karoline Mathilde and die Grafen Struensee and Brandt, each bisher ungedruckten Originaiakten (Leipzig, 1864). (R. N.
End of Article: STRUENSEE, JOHAN FREDERICK (1731-1772)
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