240 CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE SWEDISH COURT. [CHAP. L. During his short tenure of office he is said to have issued no fewer than 600 reformatory decrees, many of which were highly salutary. He abolished the censorship of the Press; suppressed the many honorary titles which had crept in to an absurd extent during the preceding reign; abolished monopolies and reversions to vacated offices; reformed the relations between the peasants and landed nobles, as well as municipal corporations, the magistracy, the universities, courts of law, &c. He made debts recoverable by legal process from the highest noble as well as from the meanest citizen. He introduced economy into the military service by reducing the royal horse-guard. He also attempted some reforms in the Church, especially by abolishing most of the numerous holidays. In short, he tried to imbue Denmark, which was near a century behind the rest of Europe, with the spirit of the age, and with this view invited thither many foreigners distinguished by their learning or ability. These innovations naturally produced great discontent and opposition among the privileged classes. Struensee had touched the interests of three powerful orders-the clergy, the army, and the nobles. Nay, with the best intentions for their welfare, he had contributed to offend the prejudices of the whole nation; for the greater part of the Danes, who were bigoted Lutherans, regarded Struensee, on account of his reforms in the Church, as no better than an atheist. The national prejudices were also shocked by the introduction of foreign teachers and outlandish ideas, and especially because the edicts of reform had been promulgated in the German language instead of the Danish. Hence, a "Danish" party was formed, in opposition to the "German," and these names became the watchwords of national antipathy. The widowed Queen Juliana, Christian VII.'s stepmother, who saw her own son Frederick neglected, retired from Court in disgust, and put herself at the head of the Danish party. The conduct of the young Queen Caroline and Struensee soon supplied this faction with the means of overthrowing them. In the well-known condition of Christian, the birth of a princess had manifested the nature of the connection between Caroline and her Minister. Struensee, on his side, began to abuse his influence, and effaced the merit of his reforms by his ambition, avarice, and vanity. He enriched himself, whilst he forced economy on others; nay, elated with his success, he was even weak enough to assume some of the official titles which he had abolished, and he caused himself and his colleague Brandt to be created Counts. He lived in princely style in the royal palace, CHAP. L.] EXECUTION OF STRUENSEE. 241 and instead of a democratic reformer made himself a sort of Dictator, with the title of Privy Cabinet Minister. All papers signed by him, and furnished with the cabinet seal, were to be regarded as valid as if they had received the royal signature. In spite, however, of the opposition formed against him, Struensee might probably have maintained his hold of power had he possessed the requisite courage and resolution. But in the presence of danger this bold reformer did not show himself equal to the task which he had undertaken. He displayed his cowardice by flying with the whole Court from Copenhagen on the occasion of a riot of some 300 sailors, who compelled him to grant a request he had previously refused. He acted with equal pusillanimity on two or three other occasions. Thus he had determined to reduce the Norwegian guards, a privileged corps, and distribute them among the regiments of the line; yet, when a mutiny arose, he not only complied with their demand to be discharged, but even conciliated them by a distribution of money. By such instances of weakness he inspired his enemies with contempt as well as hatred, and encouraged them to work his ruin. The chief instrument of his fall was Guldberg, a miller's son, a ci-devant student of theology, who, as tutor to Prince Frederick, had acquired great influence over the Queen Dowager. Under Guldberg's direction, a conspiracy was organized against Struensee, which included Queen Juliana, Prince Frederick, Rantzau, the Minister-at-War, and others. In the morning of January 17th, 1772, the chief conspirators, who had gained the military, suddenly entered Struensee's bed-chamber, and by working on his fears compelled him to sign the documents which they had prepared. Several orders of arrest were next extorted from the imbecile Christian, by virtue of which Queen Caroline Matilda, Struensee, Brandt, and ten of their colleagues were placed in confinement. The young Queen was conducted to Kronborg; Struensee and Brandt were cast into horrible dungeons and loaded with chains. Stupefied by the sense of his danger, and terrified by the threats of his judges, Struensee was induced to sign a full confession of his guilt with the Queen. But his hopes of saving his life by this step were disappointed. He and Brandt were executed, April 28th. Frankenskiold was banished to Funkholm in Norway, and compelled to subsist on half-a-dollar a day; till at length, in 1777, at the intercession of the Court of St. Petersburg, he was liberated and indemnified. Queen Caroline Matilda 242 GUSTAVUS III. BECOMES ABSOLUTE. [CHAP. L. signed a confession of her guilt, March 8th, 1772. Her trembling hand was able to form only the first four letters of her name, and was guided to the end by Baron Schak. A divorce was then pronounced between her and Christian VII.; but she was liberated from confinement and conveyed to Celle, in the Hanoverian dominions, where she died in 1775. The hypocritical Guldberg was now triumphant, and ruled twelve years in Denmark under the modest title of Cabinet Secretary. He took an opposite course to Struensee. Instead of abolishing abuses he restored them, and introduced fresh ones. Thus he acquired the gratitude and favour of the nobles; but the people discovered that the restoration of Lutheranism did not involve the return of happiness, and began to regret the Minister over whose fall they had rejoiced. Guldberg ruled till 1784. Two years before he had dismissed the greatest ornament of this period, Peter Andrew von Bernstorf, nephew of the former Minister of that name, who to great talents united strict integrity. But in the year named the young Crown Prince succeeded in obtaining possession of his father's person, dismissed Queen Juliana, Guldberg, and their creatures, and restored Bernstorf to power. Agreeably to its treaties with Russia, Denmark prepared to succour that Power in its war with Sweden. In September, 1788, an army of 20,000 Danes, under Prince Charles of HesseCassel, invaded Sweden from Norway, and advanced as far as Uddevalla, near Gothenburg. Gustavus hastened into the northern provinces of his Kingdom, and by his popular eloquence incited the people to defend their country. The threats of the three allied Powers, England, Holland, and Prussia, to send a fleet to the help of the Swedish King, induced the Danes to withdraw from Sweden; an armistice was concluded under British mediation, and Christian VII. declared his neutrality. In the Diet which assembled at Stockholm in January, 1789, the nobles manifested a disposition to oppose the King; but Gustavus, being supported by the other three estates, caused twenty-five of the nobles to be arrested, February 20th. On the following day he laid before the Diet a new Constitution, under the title of an "Act of Union and Surety:" its object was to increase the royal prerogative, and confer on the King the power of declaring war. This Act received the immediate assent of the clergy, burgesses, and peasants. The nobles rejected it, but the King compelled their speaker to affix his signature; and though this order protested, they agreed, like the rest, to furnish supplies CHAP. L.] PEACE OF WERELA. 243 for the war. Hostilities continued during 1789 and 1790; but though a great many actions took place, both by sea and land, they were, for the most part, indecisive; and, with the exception of some of the maritime operations of 1790, which brought the war to a close, are scarcely worth detailing. In May of that year Gustavus, after defeating the Russian galleys off Frederickshamn, proceeded to Wiborg, and disembarked troops within thirty leagues of St. Petersburg. Here he was joined by his brother, the Duke of Sudermania, with the main Swedish fleet. But meanwhile the Russian fleets, stationed at Cronstadt and Revel, had formed a junction, constituting a force of thirty ships of the line and eighteen frigates, and they now blockaded the whole naval power of Sweden, with the King himself, in the Gulf of Wiborg, during a period of four weeks. Provisions began to fail the Swedes, and the Russian commander, sure of his prey, proposed to Gustavus to surrender by capitulation. Fortunately, an easterly wind sprang up. The Swedes, taking advantage of it, and clearing the way by means of fireships, succeeded in forcing a passage; but with the loss of seven ships of the line, three frigates, and 5,000 men. Gustavus, who followed with the Swedish galleys, succeeded in escaping to Svenksund, but with the loss of thirty sail. The Russians, however, were subsequently defeated with great loss in an attack upon that place, and were thus hindered from any attempt upon Stockholm. These events accelerated a peace. Russia, mistress of the Baltic, could no longer be prevented from sending a fleet into the Mediterranean; the aid of Sweden had therefore become useless to the Porte, and she could no longer reckon on subsidies from that quarter. It was known, too, that Catharine was negotiating a peace with the Porte, on the conclusion of which Sweden would be exposed to all the weight of her anger. But Catharine, on her side, was aware that the negotiations between Prince Potemkin and the Turks had been broken off, and that Austria was about to conclude a separate peace with them, which would leave Prussia and Poland at liberty to turn their arms. against her. She therefore proposed a conference, which terminated in the Peace of Werela, on the strict status quo ante bellum, August 14th, 1790. The progress of the French Revolution subsequently converted Gustavus and Catharine from personal enemies into warm friends and allies, and in October, 1791, an 1 Martens, t. iii. p. 175. 244 ALLIANCE OF PRUSSIA AND TURKEY. [CHAP. L. alliance was concluded at Drottningholm, called the Treaty of Friendship and Union.' We must now return to the Austro-Russian war with Turkey, the narrative of which was interrupted at the close of the campaign of 1788 (supra, p. 235). The Prince Repnin had now succeeded to the command of the Russian army of the Ukraine, and defeated the Turks, who had crossed the Danube at Ismail, September 20th, 1789. General Platoff, at the head of the Cossacks, took Akerman, or Bialogrod, at the mouth of the Dniester, October 13th; and Potemkin closed the campaign by the capture of Bender, November 14th. Austrians had been equally fortunate, under the command-inchief of General Haddik. Prince Coburg, in conjunction with Suvaroff, defeated the Turks at Fokchany, August 1st, and again at Martinesti, September 22nd; while Count Clairfait overthrew them at Mehadia, August 28th, and drove them from the Banat. But the chief hero of the campaign was Loudon, who took the suburbs of Belgrade by storm, September 30th, and compelled Osman Pasha and the Turkish garrison to capitulate, October 8th; Semendria and Passarowitz surrendered a few days after. Meanwhile, Sultan Abdul Hamed had been carried off by a stroke of apoplexy, April 7th, 1789. His nephew and successor, Selim III., son of the unfortunate Mustapha III., a young Prince of twenty-eight years, possessing considerable energy and talent, resolved to prosecute the war with spirit; and he issued a decree commanding all the "Faithful," between sixteen and sixty years. of age, to take up arms. But, like some of his predecessors, he acted with more zeal than discretion. Dressed as a sailor, or in other disguises, Selim went alone, by night as well as day, through the streets of Constantinople; he entered manufactories, shops, and coffee-houses, and endeavoured to learn the wants and wishes of the people from their own mouths. By such a course, however, he was often led into error. By the revival of obsolete sumptuary laws, and the severity with which he enforced their provisions with respect to apparel, &c., he lost more hearts than he had gained by his apparent zeal for the welfare of his people. Selim's warlike ardour suspended for a while the negotiations. which the Court of Berlin, under the counsels of Hertzberg, had for some time been carrying on with the Porte, with the view of bringing about a peace. Frederick William II. had offered his Martens, t. v. p. 38. 2 Zinkeisen, Gesch. des osm. Reiches, B. vi. S. 721. |