Absolute monarchy in later eighteenth-century Denmark: Centralized reform, public expectations, and the Copenhagen press

Historical Journal

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 201-224

  Munck, Thomas ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 61149434050     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X9700770X     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Article on 'Monarchic limitée', in the Encyclopédic (Paris, 1751-72), × (1765), p. 637.
2. A similar view was expressed a few years later by Abbe Raynal, in his widely read Histoirephilosophique etpolitique des...deux Indis (first published 1770, revised Amsterdam, 1774), iv, p. 392, .
3. where he sees the Danes lapsing into 'lethargy' after 1660. Neither of these comments appears to have been picked out for review in the Danish press.
4. The decree of hereditary absolute monarchy (10 Jan. 1661) was not approved at one single formal meeting, but circulated for individual signature by magnates and representatives of the clergy and major town corporations. Beyond a few general points, it gave little clue as to the form the new monarchical government should take. The text of the Royal Law of 1665, though also quite short, was richer in significant detail. It referred to divine intervention which had rescued the kingdom from certain ruin and collapse in 1660, but also noted that the council of the realm and the assembled estates had agreed to relinquish earlier prerogatives and render the electoral capitulation null and void. The council and estates had agreed, 'uncompelled and without any instigation, request or command from us, of their own free will... to surrender to us the hereditary right to these our kingdoms... as well as to all Jura Majestatis, absolute power, sovereignty and all royal privileges and regalia'. This was something of an oversimplication of the complex process that had led to the surrender of power by the estates; but essentially there had been no alternative, given the deep divisions within the estates (especially within the nobility) and the desperate condition of the country after the war. For the formal texts, see E. Ekman, ' The Danish Royal Law of 1665', Journal of Modern History, 19 (1957), pp. 102-7;.
5. tne full text, with that of the electoral capitulations from 1282 onwards, is found in Samling of danske Kongers Haandftestninger og andre lignende Acter (Copenhagen, 1856-8, reprinted in 1974 by Selskabet for Udgivelser af Kilder til Dansk Historie). For a short account of the coup of 1660 and its consequences, see T. Munck, The peasantry and the early absolute monarchy in Denmark, 1660-1708 (Copenhagen, 1979), pp. 39-58.
6. Clause 16 of the Royal Law spelt out that since the hereditary right in the male and female line was total and unrestricted for eternity, the death of an incumbent ruler would automatically and instantaneously secure the unconditional succession of the heir, without the need for any further formality; nevertheless, to show to the world that the king is humble before God, a public ceremony otanointment would take place-in other words, a full coronation was dispensed with, to be replaced (significanUy) with a public affirmation of the spiritual relationship between king and God. The substantial practical ramifications of this view of monarchical absolutism were outlined a generation later, in the introduction to the law code of 1683, cited in T. Munck, Seventeenth century Europe, 1598-1700 (London, 1990), p. 340.
7. Robert Molesworth, An account ofDenmark as it was in theyear 1692 (London, 1694), pp. 99-122, 232, and 246.
8. This belief was clearly on the optimistic side, since a variety of real grievances in Norway persisted, notably over economic policy, and over the lack of University and banking facilities: see O. Feldback, 'For Norge, kjxmpers Fodeland: norsk kritik og identitet, 1770-1773', Historisk Tidshrift (Oslo), 73 (1994), pp. 23-48. For a short account in English of the Lofthuus rebellion, .
9. see H. A. Barton, Scandinavia in the revolutionary era, 1760-1815 (Minneapolis, 1986), pp. 149-54.
10. The documentation resulting from the 1686 inquiry is in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen: Danske Kancelli, C30. See also M. Lebech, 'Jyllands gamle Retskredse', Jyske Samlinger, 5RII (1935-6), pp. 151-344.
11. B. Logstrup, Jorddrot og offentlig administrator (Copenhagen, 1983), especially pp. 24-61, .
12. emphasizes the extent of the overlap between the private and the public functions exercised by landowners, for example with regard to tenancy contracts (private property) as against military conscription (public obligation); see also L. Dombernowsky, Lensbesidderen som amtmand (Copen-hagen, 1983), pp. 31-48, 60-2 and passim.
13. Stampe was not alone in adopting such a pragmatic view, and many subsequent Danish commentators followed suit. This was entirely in line with the selective reading of Montesquieu also common in Germany at the time: see F. Oz-Salzberger, Translating the enlightenment: Scottish civic discourse in eighteenth-century Germany (Oxford, 1995), pp. 81.
14. ff. German thinkers were in any case widely read and influential in Danish intellectual and government circles.
15. There is a very extensive literature on aspects of Danish technical agrarian development, but for a recent radically innovatory and broad perspective, see T. Kjaergaard, The Danish Revolution: an ecohistorical interpretation (Cambridge, 1995).
16. Demands for the exclusion of foreigners from government offices had been voiced by writers like Eiler Hagerup already in 1767; indeed four years earlier Guldberg himself had, as professor at Soro, criticized the prevalence of German at the court. The events of 1772, however, released much more bitter and often xenophobic frustrations, discussed more fully in Dansk idenliletshistorie, ed. Ole Feldæk, vol. 1 (Copenhagen, 1991), pp. 111-230.
17. Although the law of 1776 did not exclude German-speaking subjects who were born in those territories south of the border which were governed by the Danish ruling house, public opinion in Denmark was rapidly becoming highly sensitive to alleged German cultural and linguistic encroachment. The nationality issue again became contentious during the reforming ministry of 1784-97, and erupted in the brief so-called 'German feud' of 1789-90, discussed ibid. vol. 11, pp. 9-109., Dansk Idenliletshistorie, 1991.
18. See also the debate in Historisk Tidsskrift (Copenhagen, 1992), pp. 326-52;.
19. and in Der dinuche Gesamtstaat: Kopenhagen, Kiel, Altona, ed. K. Bohnen and S. A. Jogensen, Wolfenbiitteler Studien zur Aufklärung, XVIII (Wolfenbuttel, 1992).
20. The background documentation to the order of 20 Oct. 1773 (Rigsarkivet: Daske Kancelli, Koncepter og Indteg til Sjarflandske Tegnelser) suggests there was disagreement in government circles, as there had been immediately after the coup the previous year, whether the existing press legislation was sufficient or not. The order of 7 Oct. 1771 had in fact already been used for prosecutions-the most notable victim being the writer Christian Thura, whose series of disrespectful commentaries first on the Struensee legacy, then on the post-Struensee political and religious establishment, were deemed unacceptably subversive.
21. For the very few exceptions to this generalization, see H. Jorgensen, Da cenmren bleu opghtt (Copenhagen, 1970), pp. 53-68;.
22. though lacking references, it is largely based on the older discussion in E. Holm, Danmark-A'orges Historie, v (Copenhagen, 1906), pp. 148-62.
23. For a description of all journals and newspapers, their owners, frequency, duration, and orientation, see J. D. Sollinge and N. Thomsen, De danske aviser, i634-1989, vol. 1: 1634-1847 (Odense, 1989).
24. J. Moller, 'P. F. Suhms regcringsregler 1774', Historisk Tidsskrifl, 12RVI (1972), PP-123-55. esp. 125-9, 137-.
25. See n. 10, above.
26. The comparative European debate needs no further comment here: for a lively recent contribution, see D. Beales, 'Was Joseph II an enlightened despot', in R. Robertson and E. Timms, eds., The Austrian enlightenment and its aftermath (Edinburgh, 1991), pp. 1-21.
27. On the specifically Scandinavian dimension to this debate, see J. A. Seip, 'Teorien om det opinionsstyrte enevelde', Historisk. Tidskrift (Oslo), 38 (1958-9), pp. 397-463;.
28. and the more recent rejection of parts of this argument by H. Horstboll, 'Enevælde, opinion og opposition', Hislorie, 17 (1987), PP-35-53-.
29. Barton, Scandinavia in the revolutionary era, pp. 127-230, .
30. provides a good survey in English, with an extensive bibliography. For a summary of the actual work of the rural reform commission, and of other reform policies implemented by the 1784 regime, see T. Munck, 'The Danish reformers', in H. M. Scott, ed., Enlightened absolutism (London, 1990), pp. 245-63.
31. As for the other parts of Europe, it is very difficult to establish the print-runs and types of readership of the Danish press. One attempt has been made by T. Kjsrgaard, 'The rise of the press and public opinion in eighteenth-century Denmark-Norway', Scandinavian Journal of History, 14(1989), pp. 215-30.
32. Using post-office distribution lists, he argues that by 1800 the total output of Danish-language papers had risen to around 1 o.ooo copies, each of which might reasonably be seen by ten individuals, effectively giving 1 o % of the total population over the age of fifteen access to a paper of some kind. See also his much fuller but unpublished dissertation, ' En undersogelse af den offentlige kritik af den danske Enevadde, 1789-1799' (Copenhagen University, 1973; available in The Royal Library in Copenhagen).
33. Cited in Kiöbenhavnske Lærde Eflerretninger (1788), pp. 79ff and 202.
34. Minerva: eet maantdskrift, 1 (July 1785), p. 108. The way fascicles of this journal are numbered (and hence bound in different libraries) is not consistent: the references given here are to the set in the Royal Library in Copenhagen.
35. Ibid. pp. 239-304., Minerva: Eet Maantdskrift, 1785, 1.
36. Kiöbenhavnskc Lerde Efterrelninger, originally known as Nye Tichender cm Urde sager, later as Jrfeste Kiobenhavnskc Efterretninger or just Ltrde Efterrelninger (henceforth abbreviated KLE): founded in 1720 and published continuously from 1722 to 181 o. Despite its variable title, its format and content remained remarkably consistent, making it ideally suited for systematic content analysis. For the period covered here it was paginated consecutively through a whole calendar year, covering all fifty-two fascicles, which could thus be bound into a substantial octavo-size book. Although the number of pages per fascicle remained absolutely constant at sixteen, slight weekly variations in the total length of text could be accommodated by means of changes in the size of print.
37. KLE (1784), pp. 710-12.
38. Discussed in a serial review covering consecutive issues, KLE (1784), pp. 369-444.
39. KLE (1786), pp. 673-9. The promised full publication of the rural reform commission proceedings began only in 1788, when the first stage was complete, and was terminated in 1789 with the publication of a second volume, dealing with the drafting of the ordinance abolishing the staznsband. The further proceedings of the commission up to its termination in 1816 were not reported fully to the public.
40. KLE (1787), pp. 54ff.
41. KLE (1787), p. 585.
42. Review of F. Thaarup, Kort Veiledning til det danske Monarchies Statislik (Copenhagen, 1790), .
43. in KLE (1790), pp. 529-38. By this stage the systematic collection of statistical information by the government followed well-established procedures, ranging from full censuses to assessments of educational needs, but Thaarup's volume was the first compendium of such information for public use. It included census, trade, and financial aggregates, a summary overview of the central administration itself, and much else.
44. Minerva, fasc. 17 (July-Sept. 1789), pp. 417-27.
45. and fasc. 18 (Oct.-Dcc. 1789), pp. 27iffand 414-27. Because of food shortages in 1789, there were real fears of popular unrest of a kind familiar from other parts of Europe. In fact Minerva consistently took a remarkably factual and scrupulously sober line in its reporting of domestic and foreign affairs. The same applies to most of the other periodical publications of the time. Even the brief and unwanted war against Sweden (1788-9) gave rise to surprisingly little jingoism-the satirists and cartoonists merely demonising Gustavus III-whilst everyone from the finance minister down (with the possible exception of the crown prince himself) seemed to urge its hasty termination in order to limit its damaging fiscal consequences. See B. Bludnikow, Sladder og satire: Kebenhavnerliv i 178oerne (Copenhagen, 1988), pp. 36-41 and 142-61.
46. A full report in KLE (1790), pp. 399ff, names Marat, Desmoulins, and Prudhomme, but noted that official prosecution was authorized only for the former.
47. N. D. Riegels (1755-1802), Julemtther fra Landet og Byen (Copenhagen, 1790). Since the pamphlet was published anonymously, the publisher, having refused to name the author, was in accordance with the law fined 200 rigsdaler.
48. The background documentation to the order of 3 Dec. 1790 has been missing for some years, so it is currently not possible to verify precisely how and why the government reached its decision. However, KLE (1790) discussed both offending publications, pp. 753-7 and 778-82, and was prepared to acknowledge that Riegels, in particular, had some substantive arguments.
49. The Jutland petition was couched in terms which emphasized the extent to which the agrarian reforms were destabilizing the countryside, and damaging seigneurial property rights in breach of the law code of 1683. See Barton, Scandinavia in the revolutionary era, pp. 187ff, .
50. and, for a fuller discussion, C. Bjorn, 'Denjyske proprietasrfejde, 1790-91, Historie, 13 (1979), pp. 1-70.
51. The petition triggered a new wave of writings and polemics regarding the reform programme and its social implications, which were again reviewed in KLE (1791), pp. 113ff.
52. Characteristically, the Jutland protest also triggered a symbolic gesture of support for the reforms, in the shape of a monument to the unity of interest between the crown and its subjects, financed by public subscription and built from 1792: see K. Kryger, Frihedsstetten (Copenhagen, 1986).
53. Minerva, fasc. 21 (July-Sept. 1790), pp. 11-52.
54. The fairly mild and sporadic riots that did occur in the 1790s were triggered by very specific factors (including economic uncertainty), and rarely had political targets beyond the Copenhagen magistracy: for this dimension, see B. Blüdnikow, 'Folkelig uro i Kobenhavn 1789-1820', Forlidog Nutid, 33 (1986), pp. 1-54.
55. The documentation on the press law is found in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen: Danske Kancelli F37, Bilag til Forordning ang. Trykkefrihedens Granser 27 sept. 1799, Sjællandske Registre, no. 1089.E.Holm, Danmark-Norges Historie 1720-1815, vol.VI/2 (Copenhagen, 1909), pp. 121-219 and 660-703, still provides the standard account of the circumstances that led to this legislation.