394 DANISH CROWN MADE HEREDITARY. [CHAP. XXXVIII. footing with them with regard to tolls and taxes, the quartering of troops, the accession to public offices, and the like. The Queen of Denmark,1 who had distinguished herself by her intrepidity during the war, and who was as enterprising and intriguing as Frederick was mild and gentle, took a more active part than the King in bringing about the revolution which was to overthrow the oligarchical party. It was necessary that so fundamental a change should be effected by the body of the nation; and in spite of the opposition of the Council and the nobles, a general assembly of the States was opened at Copenhagen, September 10th, 1660. It consisted of three Chambers: the first composed of the members of the Council and landed proprietors of noble birth; the second of bishops and delegates from the clergy: the third of deputies from the commercial towns. A proposal for raising a tax to meet the debts and burdens of the nation was the signal for contention. The nobles wished to preserve their ancient immunity from taxation; but the two other Chambers declared that they would consent to the tax proposed, only on condition that it should be paid by every Dane without distinction. Conferences now followed between the Chambers, in which the nobles, and especially the High Chamberlain, Otto Krag, made matters worse by their pride and insolence. The clergy and citizens, instead of appealing to the Council, as they had hitherto done, now applied directly to the King, and made propositions wholly incompatible with the existence of the nobility: and especially they required that the domains and revenues of the crown, hitherto entirely at the disposal of that order, should henceforth be leased to the highest bidders. The nobles denounced this proposition as an attack upon their property, and a violation of the 46th article of the Capitulation, signed by the King on his election, which secured to them the exclusive possession of the royal fiefs. As the King naturally felt reluctant to annul the Capitulation to which he had sworn, a plan was adopted to obviate this difficulty. Suane, Bishop of Zealand, Nansen, Burgomaster of Copenhagen, together with Marshal Schack, the commandant of the city, Hannibal Sehestädt, formerly Viceroy of Norway, and other creatures of the Queen, placed a guard at the gates of the city, which nobody was permitted to leave without a passport from the Burgomaster. The nobles thus shut up, and having no means of resistance, found themselves compelled, after much delay and reluctance, to agree to a resolution passed by the other two J Sophia Amelia, a Hanoverian princess. CHAP. XXXVIII.] REVOLUTION IN SWEDEN. 395 estates, declaring the crown hereditary both in the King's male and female issue. By this change from an elective into an hereditary monarchy, the Capitulation fell of itself to the ground, and it therefore became necessary to found a new constitution; a task which was intrusted to eight members of the Council and Upper Chamber, and twelve members of the clergy and commons. It was agreed that the Capitulation should be given back into the King's hands; and on the 18th October it was solemnly destroyed with great pomp and ceremony, and on the same day an oath of homage was taken to Frederick, containing only the usual general and empty promises. On the following day the Council was dissolved; a new ministry was installed, and the administration was intrusted to certain colleges, or bureaux, the members of which could be appointed or dismissed at the King's pleasure. The establishment of this autocracy, as absolute as that of the Sultan, rested ostensibly on the consent of the people. The new constitution was submitted for signature to the clergy, to all landed proprietors and municipal magistrates, but its maintenance was secured by a standing army of 24,000 men. The despotic power thus intrusted to the King was, however, seldom abused, and proved much more advantageous to the kingdom than the previous irresponsible oligarchy. The new constitution was embodied by Peter Schuhmacher, a German jurist, in the celebrated KONGELov (Lex Regia or Royal Law); which established the unlimited power of the King, and the order of succession to the crown. Schuhmacher also made several changes regarding the nobles, which finally resulted in the extinction of the ancient houses. He introduced the German distinction of a higher and lower nobility, and created by royal letters patent Barons, Counts, &c., titles never before heard of in Denmark. In Sweden, on the contrary, the consequences of the war increased the power of the nobles. By calling a national assembly (1660) that order found means to overthrow the Regency which Charles X. had appointed by his will during the minority of his son Charles XI., and to establish a government consisting of the Queen-Mother, Peter Brahe, the Lord High Constable, Charles Gustavus Wrangel, High Admiral, Count Magnus de la Gardie, High Chancellor, and Gustavus Bonde, Treasurer. As the Queen had no political influence, this oligarchy, with their relatives and dependents, administered, or rather abused for their own purposes, during the minority of Charles XI., the royal domains and national 396 WAR BETWEEN SWEDEN AND BRANDENBURG. [CHAP. XXXVIII. revenues; a state of things, however, which ultimately produced that counter-revolution in favour of the kingly power which we shall have to relate in the sequel. For several years after the Peace of Copenhagen the annals of the Scandinavian kingdoms present little worth relating. In the war which broke out between England and the United Netherlands in 1665, Sweden concluded an alliance with England, but afforded her no substantial assistance; whilst Denmark made a treaty with the Dutch, and engaged to exclude British ships from the Baltic, so long as the war should continue. During the War of Devolution, Sweden, as we have seen, abandoned France, her ancient ally, and joined the Maritime Powers in the Triple Alliance which produced the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. But this deviation from her usual policy was only temporary, and in 1672 she entered into a treaty with Louis XIV. to support him in his war against the Dutch, as we have before related. It was this treaty that disturbed the peace of Northern Europe by lighting up a war between Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburg, in which Denmark also ultimately took part; the origin of which we shall now proceed to relate. The Elector of Brandenburg, after forming in July, 1674, the alliance with the Emperor, the Dutch States, and Spain, recorded in the preceding chapter,' had proceeded in October to join the Imperial army on the Rhine, then commanded by the Duke of Bournonville. But the dilatory proceedings of that commander awakened the same suspicions which Frederick William had before conceived of the sincerity of Montecuculi. As these suspicions were strengthened by Bournonville's retreat over the Rhine after his battle with Turenne at Türkheim (January 5th, 1675), in which the French had suffered more than the Germans," the Elector separated from his allies, and took up his winter quarters in Franconia. Meanwhile his own dominions had beer invaded by the Swedes. After the treaty of Vossem, Frederick William being still uneasy respecting the intentions of Louis XIV.. who had neglected to pay him the money stipulated in the treaty, had endeavoured to form with Sweden a third party, in order to impose a peace upon the belligerents; and with this view he had , renewed for ten years his ancient alliance with that Power (December 1st, 1673). By a secret article it was agreed that if they should fail in establishing a peace, either Power should be free to p. 360. 1 Above, 3 Puffendorf, Frid. Wilh. lib. xii. § 48 sqq. CHAP. XXXVIII.] THE SWEDES INVADE BRANDENBURG. 3 397 engage in the war, but not without first informing the other of his intentions; yet the Elector had entered into the alliance against France without giving notice to the Swedish Government-a step, indeed, which he excused by pleading that, as war had been declared by the Empire, he was bound ipso facto to take up arms, and had provided for such a contingency in the treaty of Vossem ;* nor would he arrest his march towards the Rhine in the autumn of 1674, although the Swedes sent a special ambassador to persuade him to maintain a neutral position, in conformity with the treaty between them. The French now declared that they would pay the Swedes no more subsidies unless they compelled the Elector to withdraw his troops from the allies. The young King Charles XI. having in vain endeavoured to divert Frederick William from his purpose, the Swedes, under Field-Marshal Charles Gustavus Wrangel, prepared to enter the March of Brandenburg; and even as this step did not induce the Elector to return, Wrangel gave notice that he should be obliged to take up his winter quarters in the March, which was accordingly done. The Swedes behaved at first in a quiet, orderly manner, but by degrees they began to levy contributions, to raise troops, and to fortify themselves in defensive positions. At length, incited by the , French, they proceeded to acts of open violence and hostility. They forcibly seized several small towns, and allowed their troops. every licence of plunder and outrage. The Elector bore all this very quietly; nay, he probably rejoiced that the conduct of the Swedes might offer him an opportunity to regain that part of Pomerania which he had been formerly compelled to relinquish. Dissembling the injury he had received, he sounded the disposition of his allies, but found small hopes of succour. The Emperor and the princes of the Empire, jealous of the Elector and of one another, stood aloof. The King of Denmark, though by the Treaty of the Hague, July 10th, 1674, he had engaged to employ an army of 16,000 men against those who should take part with the enemies of the allies,' yet, being desirous, it is said, of marrying his sister to Charles XI., excused himself from not declaring openly against that monarch. The States-General alone, after much persuasion, and when the Elector's troops were already in motion, declared war against Charles XI., unless he evacuated the March." 1 Ibid. § 13-19. 2 Above, p. 369. 3 Stenzel. Gesch. des preuss. Staats, Th. ii. S. 338. On the whole matter, see Temple's Memoirs (Works, vol. ii. p. 283 sqq. ed. 1757). Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 269. 5 Puffendorf, lib. xiii. § 23 sqq. 398 BATTLE OF FEHRBELLIN. [CHAP. XXXVIII. Frederick William was thus reduced to rely upon his own efforts. Early in June, 1675, he led his army, increased by new levies to 15,000 men, through the Thuringian forest towards Magdeburg, which he reached on the 21st. By a rapid march, the Swedes cantoned on the right bank of the Havel, carelessly secure and ignorant of the approach of an enemy, were surprised and beaten at Rathenow (June 25th). A few days after (28th), the Elector gained a decisive victory at FEHRBELLIN over the main body of the Swedish army. This affair, which This affair, which gave the Elector a place among the great captains of the age, was the more honourable to the Brandenburgers as the first general engagement which they had ever fought and won proprio marte, and that too with smaller numbers, over some of the best troops of the North. The Swedes were in consequence compelled hastily to evacuate the electoral dominions. The victory of Fehrbellin induced the King of Denmark to declare himself. Frederick III. had died in 1670, and the throne was now filled by his son Christian V. Christian, like his father, was at first guided by the counsels of Schuhmacher, who had been elevated to the new nobility which he had created, with the title of Count Greifenfeld. The first act of the Danish King was directed against his relative and neighbour, the Duke of HolsteinGottorp, who was suspected of having formed an alliance with Charles XI. Questions respecting the division of the revenues of Sleswick, the bishopric of Lübeck, and, more recently, the succession of the last Count of Oldenburg, to whom both the Duke of Holstein and the King of Denmark were related, supplied materials for dissension. If Christian should be involved in a war with the Swedes, the Duke of Holstein, who was connected with Charles XI. both by treaties and kinship, might prove a very troublesome neighbour, and Christian therefore resolved to secure him. This was effected in the most treacherous manner. The Queen Dowager of Denmark enticed her daughter, the Duchess of Holstein, to Copenhagen, while the King invited the Duke Christian Albert to an interview at Rendsborg. Here he was arrested, and, after five days' confinement, compelled to sign the Convention of Rendsborg (July 10th, 1675), by which, among other things, he consented to receive a Danish garrison in Gottorp, Tonningen, and Stapelholm, to transfer the troops of Hol stein to the Danish service, to restore everything to the footing on which it stood before the year 1658, and to renounce the sovereignty of Sleswick and the Isle of Fehmern, with which he |