Digitaliseret af | Digitised by

Digitaliseret af | Digitised by

Forfatter(e) | Author(s): Brown, John.

Titel | Title: Original memoirs of the sovereigns of Sweden

and Denmark from 1766-1818.

Bindbetegnelse | Volume Statement: Vol. 1

Udgivet år og sted | Publication time and place: London : H. S. Nichols & Co., 1895 Fysiske størrelse | Physical extent: 2 bd. :

DK

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“ M emoirs of t h e E m p r e s s Jo s e p h i n e.” 2 vols.

“ S e c r e t M emoirs of t h e Co ur t of L oui s XIV.”

1 vol.

“ S e c r e t M emoirs of t h e R oyal F amily of

F ^{r a n c e}.” 2 vols.

“ T he P rivate M emoirs of L oui s XV.” 1 vol.

“ T he S e c r e t H istory of t h e Co u r t of B e r l i n.”

2 vols.

“ T he S e c r e t H istory of t h e Co ur t and Ca b i n e t of St . Cl o u d.” 2 vols.

“ M ^{emoirs of} M ^{m e}. ^la Ma rq ui s e de Mo n t e s p a n.”

2 vols.

“ S e c r e t M emoirs of t h e Co ur t of S t. P e t e r s-

BURG.” I V o l.

“ M ^{emoirs of} M^{argaret de} V ^{al o i s}.” ⁱ vol.

“ T he Co u r t s of E uro pe at t h e Close of t h e

L ^ast Ce n t u r y.” 2 vols.

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O R I G I N A L M E M O I R S

OF T H E

S O V E R E IG N S . OF SW E D E N AND

DENMARK

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O R I G I N A L M E M O J R S

OF T H E

H S

VEREIGNS QF SWEDEN

AND

D E N M A R K

From 1766 to 1818

BY

J O H N B R O W N

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VI- V1

O R I G I N A L M E M O I R S

OF T H E

SOVEREIGNS OF SWEDEN

AND

DENMARK

From 1766 to 1818

J O H N B R O W N

IN TWO VOLUMES—VOLUME I

L O N D O N

H . S. N I C H O L S & CO.

3 SOHO S Q U A R E ^{a n d 6 2*} PIC C A D IL L Y W.

Printed and Published by

H. S. NICHOLS AND CO.

AT 3 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

ET ' KON O G UG E UB Li C T H ;

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♦ V r>*S ^ L l i I t J \ , '1

BP.Vr ^{j n > V' ' Æ x'i}

P U B L IS H E R S ’ N O TE

T^he Eleventh issue of the Collection of Court Memoirs is the “ Secret History of the Courts of Sweden and Denm ark.”

These Memoirs are reprinted from an edition published in 1818, and are of more than ordinary interest, the Author having exercised great care to present his work in as complete a form as possible. Mr. John Brown (author. of “ The

Mysteries of Neutralization,” “ The Naval Advo- cate,” and other T racts relative to Neutral Flags and the Rights of Belligerents), in his Notes to the work, has quoted to a very great extent from other writers, and in some instances has con- sidered it necessary to criticise their statements.

Two of the Danish Sovereigns whose Memoirs are given in this issue came to England for their Consorts. A full and descriptive account is given

of the deposition of Matilda, sister to George III.

of England, and of the punishment of her ac- complices.

A portrait of Charles XIV., John (Bernadotte), who commenced to reign in 1818, is given in this

volume.

The next issue in this series will be the

“ Memoirs of Marie Antoinette,” by Madame Campan, with a Biographical Sketch of the former by Lamartine.

26th November, 1895.

pjjraj^

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D f M c a t i a n

TO -

C A P T A IN R I C H A R D G A I N E J A N V E R I N , R .N .

K

S i r ,—Although, without permission, ^I borrowed your features to draw the picture of a Post-Captain as he should be, in the first number of m'y “ Naval

i

Advocate,” it is neither your professional capacity, intrepidity, hospitality, nor humanity, that have induced me to offer you this unequivocal mark of public homage and grateful attachm ent, but that proud and unbending public spirit by which you are distinguished beyond most of your equals or superiors in rank. It is that noble quality which, in a naval officer, is far more rare than eminent science, valour or generosity that con- secrates the propriety of this spontaneous tribute.

You resisted pretensions advanced by a com- mander-in-chief; you brought the validity.of his

claims to the test of a court of law—actions that required greater fortitude than the most desperate attack against an enemy’s ship or b a tte ry ; the claim was declared to be illegal, and you emanci- pated the Naval Service from its longer endurance.

T hat you may be as prosperous as your heart is benevolent is the ardent desire of

T H E AU THO R.

L ^{o n d o n}, May gth, 1818.

P R E F A C E

T he present work was originally intended by the Author to have been a miscellany; and the sketches of the reigns of the different Sovereigns were to have been given as an Appendix, made up of selections.

It was, however, discovered that one volume would not contain the matter that was indispensably neces- sary, which was then divided into two volumes ; but such was its redundancy that the lives of the late and present Kings of Sweden, and the late and present Kings of Denmark, as well as some intended comments on the political opinions respecting Russia by Mr. Leckie and Lieut.-General Sir Robert Wilson, were necessarily omitted; they must otherwise have been reduced to the limits of an index.

In December last a pause occurred in the execu- tion of the work, during which the Author endeavoured to procure, from various sources, those authentic and original facts which were essential to complete his work, and calculated to distinguish it from a mere compilation.

The Swedes are eminent for hospitality and every social virtue, and their character has been wilfully

assailed, or casually misunderstood, by British tourists.

In the hour of persecution Mr. Brown found a secure and most agreeable asylum there. It was an act of duty to those whose friendship he had enjoyed to publish the criticisms on the works of travellers in Sweden which appear in the second volume, not with a view to decry the general merits of the authors alluded to, but to display their local errors and correct their too frequent acerbity.

The sources whence he borrowed matter for his work are so generally given with the. quotations that he is not conscious of a single omission of importance.

From the causes recited, the life of Charles XIV., John, as well as others, could not be given, but the plate is still prefixed, because the secret of his eleva­

tion is first developed in these pages, and the Author intends to translate from Swedish authorities a third volume that shall contain the extraordinary and event­

ful life of that monarch.

L o n d o n, May gth, 1818.

C O N T E N T S TO VOL. I

c-

!_-i.

r

-

v

f ; »

- i

C H A P T E R I

R eflections on the Danish Revolution of x66o

C H A P T E R II

r ^f. Frederick V .— H is character—The cause of his intemperance—

Character and anecdotes of Juliana Maria—Anecdotes of

• C hristian.V II., when Crown Prince .

■i

ri

C H A P T E R III

The character and person of Christian V II.— Demoralised by his cruel step-m other--Portrait of Caroline Matilda at fifteen years of age— Reflections on, and instances of, the unhappiness of Royal females— Secret memoirs of Gus- tavus III. and his Queen— The Princess Albertina— Unhappy love— An extraordinary expedient, its detection—T he secret history of the birth of Gustavus IV., Adolphus, now Count

Gottorp . . . . . . . . . . .

C H A P T E R IV

M atilda’s reception in Denmark—The machinations of Juliana Maria—W eakness and depravity of Christian VII.^—H is motive for setting out on his travels— H is adventures in Amsterdam and London . . .

’Q

PAGE

I

10

22

43

C H A P T E R V

TAGE

Queen M atilda—The Counts Struensee and R antzau—Court intrigues—Peter III., Count Rantzau the cause of his death

— Madame Gohier— First confidential interview between Queen M atilda and Struensee— Its result— Reflections on

their com parative criminality . . . . . . 66

C H A P T E R VI

M elancholy State of the King—A Royal tour to the D uchies of H olstein ånd Sleisw ick— Count R antzau’s hospitality—

H istory of Gourmand, the K ing’s favourite dog—Anecdotes of the Court—A Circassian P rin cess—Altered manners of Queen M a tild a : wears leathern sm all-clothes, and sits her horse like a man— Prosperity more difficult to endure than adversity— Struensee and Brandt admonished by Count R an tzau — The last interview — The arrest of Matilda,

Struensee and Brandt . . . . . . . . 85

C H A P T E R V II

Critical situation of Juliana Maria, Count Rantzau and the other conspirators — The courage of Queen M atilda—

Cowardice of Struensee — A singular riot : its source developed—The execution of Brandt and Struensee . . 1 2 4

C H A P T E R V III

Character and conduct of Count Rantzau — H is disgrace—

B enevolence of M atilda — Gratitude—Lex talionis— Sensi- 1 bility and gratitude—A fascinating m istress—Visit' to Zell—

A fair penitent— R econciliation of M atilda and Rantzau—

Their deaths . . . . . . . . . . 148

C H A P T E R IX

T he D anish Court after the fali of Struensee—W ise and dignified conduct of George III.— Memoir of Count Andreas Petrus Bernstorff—A celebrated tourist quoted, and censured—

PAGE

Violation of the D anish flag— Source of that abuse—Its consequence—The armed neutrality of the Northern Powers

— Count Bernstorff retires—T he Crown Prince Frederick

seizes the reins of governm ent—Count Bernstorff restored 211 C H A P T E R X

T ^{h e} Sw e d i s h Ol i g a r c h y . . . . . . . . . .247

C H A P T E R XI

G u s t a v u s I I I .

Sophia Magdalena, consort to Gustavus I II.— Auspicious com- mencement of his reign— H is secrecy and self-com m and—

Profound dissim ulation— The D iet of 1771— Further proofs of deep hypocrisy— Outwits the Senate— Overthrows the oligarchy in 1772— H is gross im piety on that occasion—

Anecdote of Count U gglas— Gustavus lives apart from his Q ueen—The D uchess of Sodermanland—A Royal expedient

— Increased splendour of the Court— Gustavus encourages trade and manufactures— B ecom es a monopolist of brandy distilleries— General discontent— Insurrections—Failure of

his commercial speculations . . . . . . . 274 C H A P T E R XII

Vast projeets of Peter the Great— Their progressive realisation—

Gustavus attempts to counteract R ussia—Catherine II. and G ustavus—Their opposite views and preparations—Great national undertakings begun or com pleted by Gustavus at Carlscrona and Sveaborg—V isits his 'provinces—Reforms local abuses, and punishes several unjust judges— H is great and varied talents and acquirements— Effeminacy of his Court— Honours paid by Gustavus to the memory of Sir Charles Linné— Suffers his invaluable collection to be sold

— Em bellishes Stockholm — Practises the utmost profusion—

Recom m ends frugality to his subjects— Sumptuary law s—

Corrupts the national manners— Lavishes his treasures on

idle pageantry . . . . . . . . . . 292

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S E C R E T HI S T O R Y

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OF T H E

COURTS OF SWEDEN AND DENMARK

CH A PTER I

Rejlections on the Danish Revolution of 1660}

O u r historians inform us that in the seventeenth century the tyranny, insolence, and rapacity of the Nobles had attained such a height that, to deliver themselves from the humiliating and oppressive yoke, the Clergy, burghers and peasantry surrendered to the Crown all their rights and privileges; making the Monarch absolute, and themselves and posterity slaves!

But why do I say posterity ? Can the rights of the unborn to freedom be done away with by the folly or baseness of their ancestors ? Certainly n o t; and we have

i T his interesting portion of the 41 Secret H istory of the Courts of Sweden and Denmark ” was copied and translated from a Danish M S. found on board the U nited States merchantman, the Clyde, Alcorn, master, laden with French and D utch colonial produce, and bound from N ew York to Amsterdam ; detained off the Start by the Dapper gun-brig, Lieutenant Gardner, commander, and sent into Plym outh, February, 1807.

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♦ VOL. I

now a greater right to restore the freedom of Denmark than our weak and infatuated forefathers had to lay it at the feet of Frederick III. Of all the stains on our annals, this is the most disgraceful. It is also one of the most extraordinary events recorded in modern history. There is no doubt but some creatures of the Crown, playing upon the exasperated feelings of the burghers, persuaded them that the only effectual mode of avénging their wrongs consisted in making the Monarchy absolute! Yet, it still seems incomprehensible how a race of men illuminated by the light of the Reformation, who were far from illiterate, well versed in their political rights, and who had recently covered themselves with glory in defending the metropolis, could be so completely infatuated as to act in this base and wicked manner. Their infamy is the more apparent as they were inured to war, were flushed by victory, had their weapons still in their hånds, and their vile oppres- sors were cooped up within the walls of their city! By the same elfort of mind, and at a less personal risk than it required to reduce themselves and posterity to the condition of slaves, they might have humbled the accursed oligarchy that devoured and degraded Denmark, have stripped them of their territorial spoils, their feudal rights—as their tyrannies were im- properly called—and every other usurpation; and, with all facility, have elevated themselves to the rank of free- men. While borrowing from England that representa­

tive system which our ancestors, the Goths, carried thither in their first expeditions, they might have laid the deep and broad foundations of a free commonwealth,

with a constitutional king at its head; by which means Denmark would at this day have equalled England in wealth, power and farne! The Crown was at that moment elective, and the oligarchs lorded it with equal insolence over the King and the people. If, therefore, this base conspiracy on the part of the commonalty had been discovered by the aristocracy in time enough to have prevented its execution, the fierce, haughty, vindictive oligarchs would have washed out the crime meditated by the silly commoners with their biood!

Not so if they had aimed at establishing a government altogether republican, because, under that system, the Nobles would not have been subjected to the King, who was before subjected to them ; and it was the sole object of the burghers to reduce the Nobles to a State of slavery and degradation ! The heroism displayed by Frederick III. in defending his Capital against the Swedes had rendered him deservedly popular, whilst the Nobles were detested on account of the disaffection, if not the cowardice, that many of them had displayed in the unfortunate wars with Sweden. The King, to secure his Crown from the power of the Nobles, would, no doubt, have readily entered into the views of the people, and have ratified their freedom in return for their rendering the Crown hereditary and independent of the oligarchy. Instead of acting thus nobly and wisely, with a frantic hånd they tore the laurels from their brows and surrendered unconditionally and with- out any equivalent—for what is there equivalent to such a sacrifice ?—their lives, liberty, property and honour, to the King: investing him and his heirs male

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for ever with the uncontrolled power to wage war, negotiate peace, to eede provinces, levy taxes, expend treasures, spill the biood of his people by unnecessary wars, by the axe of the executioner; and piunge them into solitary dungeons, there to rot in darkness, with- out the King or his ministers being accountable to any human being! Stupendous folly and wickedness!

I blush as I write at the degeneracy of my ancestors.

This vile, polluting and degrading Revolution was brought about by a few of the leading burghers in Copenhagen, backed by the blind confidence and heated passions of the lowest classes, and aided by the secret influence, the gold and the power of the Crown. The blow was struck; the liberties of the Danes, existent or to be born, were clandestinely sur­

rendered, and the Crown elevated on the ruins of liberty ere the great mass of the people knew that the dire expe- dient was in agitation ! In a delirium of joy the burghers of Copenhagen sung “ lo Pæans,” that the tyranny of the Nobles was no more. Silly wretches! A short time taught them that the Crown, to prevent the enraged oligarchs from calling in the Swedes, made a compro- mise, and left that obnoxious class of privileged men all their territorial domains, however acquired; all their feudal claims and exactions. They could no longer dictate to the King, but each could play the petty tyrant on his own estates, and spread desolation and misery among their unhappy dependents, who were still left subjected to their insolence and power. A short time opened the eyes of the infatuated burghers, but the mis- chief was done; and a standing army protected the

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■throne which the stupid burghers had made absolute, and rendered their regrets and remorse alike unavailing.'

Our historians in vain endeavour to palliate this act of political suicide. Amongst innumerable attempts to extenuate its infamy, they pretend that so transcendently great were the merits of Frederick III. that the nation had no other means of affording him an adequate proof of its gratitude and devotion! Silly casuistry. Con- temptible sophists. W hat individual had so much to lose as the King ? Certainly no one; and, consequently, no one had a stimulant equally strong to propel him to great exertions. His wisdom, fortitude, valour, were admitted

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and admired by friend and foe; by the Swede and by the Dåne. He preserved his throne and his metropolis.

The glory of the achievement, and the love and praise of his people and of posterity, offered the only recom- pense to which he ought to have aspired.

The same historians,1 as an excuse for this sad monu­

ment of popular frenzy and delinquency, tell us that the Nobles were corrupt, tyrannical and oppressive; that, in their legislative capacity, they levied enormous burdens on the labouring hind and the industrious citizens, from which those drones not merely remained exempted, but contrived, in their capacity as generals, governors, or ministers, to intercept a large proportion of those taxes wrung from the hard hånd of the toil-worn, sinewy labourer and his half-famished family. Our time-serving historians assert that this foul oligarchy (to get rid of which moral pestilence our liberties were all destroyed),

1 Holberg, &c.

with one hånd oppressed and controlled the Crown, obtruding their creatures and partisans into all places of high trust and great emolument; whilst, with the other hånd they scourged, debased, plundered and enslaved the people. This venal class of privileged men met with mockery and contempt the remonstrance and peti­

tions of the commonalty, insolently denying the truth of self-evident grievances; and not merely denying them redress and adding insult to to their wrongs, but visiting them with still heavier burdens, and lay- ing them under more humiliating restraints! Hence, our courtly historians infer that there remained no other way of getting rid of those accursed devourers than by making the Crown of Denmark arbitrary and hered- itary. The people, from one extremity of the Danish dominions to the other, should have destroyed the power of those despicable and cruel oligarchs, levelied their moated and turreted castles with the earth, and set the bondsman free ; thus should they have got rid of that oligarchy which, like a huge and loathsome wen on the human body, impaired its strength and disfigured its beauty. Instead of which, surely in a moment of general madness, to gratify an absurd spirit of vengeance, the citizens of Copenhagen established despotism by law⁷ That their posterity have not suf- fered by the folly and delinquency of their ancestors in an equal degree with those unhappy nations whose harder destiny bowed their necks to a Bourbon yoke, has arisen from the superior quality of our princes, who, since this scandalous Revolution, have ruled Den­

mark and its dependencies. Possessing unlimited

sovereignty in the. fullest and most ampie meaning of the term, it redounds to the glory of our autocrats—

for such are our kings, as well as the czars of Russia

—that they have permitted us to be governed by law instead of by ukase ; that . they have allowed us the liberty of discoursing or. writing with freedom on political subjects, instead of shedding our biood on scafFolds, or, å la Bouvbon, throwing us into lonesome cells and there leaving us to perish. But this clemency, so honourable to our illustrious kings, has the danger- ous tendency of rendering despotism less odious, less frightful, less disgusting than it appears when hung «

• round by chains and implements of torture, by lettves- de-cachet and Bastilles, which decorated the splendid despotisms of the Bourbons ere their merited fall and eternal banishment from France. It is to the mercy of our kings, and not to the prudence of our ancestors, that we are indebted for an exemption from most of the evils attendant on despotism. The example of justice and moderation. afforded by our mild monarchs,

each of whom, had he been a Nero in heart, might, like Nero, have wallowed in the biood of the most illustrious citizens, goes a considerable length towards establishing the justice of Pope’s dubious aphorism:

“ On forms of governm ent let fools contest, W hatever’s best administered is b est.”

One of the greatest calamities that can befall any nation ; one of the most certain omens of its speedy fall, is the declining state of the labouring classes, on whose labour the wealth of every superior class is grounded. That degrading Revolution, which calls a

8 SECRET HISTORY OF THE

blush into my cheeks as I treat of its baseness, re- duced the political, but not the seigneurial, power of our Nobles, and was fatal to our poor hinds ; for the monarchs, assuming a degree of pomp unknown to their electoral predecessors, fearful of offending the wealthy burghers, increased the burdens of the agriculturists, and the weight of this cumbrous pomp feli principally on the labouring peasant. The nobleman, driven from the Court and the Treasury, forced into an involuntary rustication, sought, by increasing his exactions in every possible way, to gain in wealth what he had lost in power; whilst our poor peasantry fared even worse than the beast of the held belonging to his lord ; for, having a property in the beast, the lord had an interest in providing it with provender and shelter from the severity of our northern winters. Not so with the poor hind; he was left to struggle with famine and taxation.

His sole inheritance was ignorance and bondage. From his birth, in some squalid hovel, he has been, till lately, exposed to privations of every kind, to humilia- tions of the most debasing description. If Nature blessed his wife or daughter with beauty, the lust of his lord demanded its possession. In his cheerless hut reigned want and wretchedness. Filthy in his habits, base in his propensities, he exhihited the bitter fruits of aristocratical despotism in its most appalling form ; and his whole life, from his cradle to his grave, was but one continual scene of wretched and hopeless servitude.

The two greatest errors of our monarchs have been these: the too great splendour of their Courts, and the too great extent of their standing armies—that dreadful