Christian's childhood is full of OMG stories, that would be worthy of their own post. As you can probably guess from the Frederik V write-up, Frederik was not the stuff of which good fathers are made. His country was being run by other people, his son was being raised by other people, and if anything was going badly...don't bother him. He had a full time job called "drunken orgies."
Christian's first governor is a religious fanatic who considers it his job to beat Christian and yell at him to save his soul. To quote Barz the romanticizer:
In the background Reventlow's terrible question roars again and again, whether Christian wants to end up a swine like his father, who spends all his time messing around with whores. Christian doesn't want that at all. He doesn't even really know what whores are; but they must be something evil for this dreadful man to get so upset about.
At one point, Christian tries running to Dad for help, but as he bangs frantically on the door:
Behind this door only a babble and groaning could be heard, and Christian guessed what the whole court knew: As always, the father had a few Copenhagen ladies of pleasure with him, as always he poured down streams of alcohol, and it wasn't the merry drinking of his ancestors. Friedrich V. was ill, an alcoholic, and he finally dies of cirrhosis of the liver, a ruler who does not know why he is actually a ruler. The king no longer rules in Denmark.
Christian also didn't have a great relationship with Juliana Maria. Later in life, he cast her as the evil stepmother who wanted him dead so her son could inherit (and tells some really heart-rending stories to Struensee later); Barz is willing to acknowledge that we haven't heard her side of the story, but whatever happened there, it wasn't the kind of relationship that would compensate for paternal neglect and tutorial abuse.
When he's 11, little Christian gets a second tutor, a Voltaire protege who manages to alleviate some of the non-stop abuse, and then Christian decides he's going to become a freethinker. (Oh, *man*, I need to write up the Ferdinand of Parma monograph, it's so relevant!)
But he still turns out a mess. He ends up with severe trauma when he's king: first threatening to get rid of the guy who abused him, then crying and saying his beloved tutor can't leave. THERAPY FOR EVERYONE.
Once he becomes king, there's a combination of drinking and carousing, not wanting to get out of bed, jerky movements and general nervousness, delusions, impulse control problems (he's not at the butt-groping Ferdinand of Naples level, but they have to keep him out of public sight, because it's pretty obvious he's not normal), some punching down, and general chaos.
He admires Fritz in a sort-of Peter III style, even mimicking his walk, but also wants to go to war with him and beat him, because if you can beat the best, you are the best! (ViennaJoe is Sir Not Appearing in This Story, as we'll see later.)
He watches torture scenes, and wants to know all the details of executions. Heroleplays his own execution, writhing in pretend agony as he's "beheaded".
His mistress is an Amazon type woman with a whip, and at least according to our author, he was a masochist in the literal, sexual sense of the word.
He's awful to his wife, Caroline Matilda, sister of George III, and says he doesn't care who "mounts the cow."
At some point, his desperate advisors decide he needs to go on a Grand Tour to see if a change of scenery will do him any good. But they need to bring a doctor along, and there's this new up-and-coming guy making a name for himself, this Johann Friedrich Struensee guy. "Do you want to be the king's doctor while he's on tour?"
Struensee: Sure!
They go to Germany, France, and England. Struensee keeps an eye on him, kind of pissing off the nobles already by actually caring what's good for his patient, and not being a courtier. Christian is somewhat impressed by the guy who's willing to tell it like it is, but the time of great influence has not come yet.
He burns out quickly on the tour, probably clinically depressed, and wants to go home even before they go to Italy. His entourage is mostly disappointed because winter is setting in in Denmark, and they were looking forward to Italy. But, the king has spoken, and back they go. Once they're in Denmark again, and he's miserably mentally ill with Struensee as official physician, that's when Struensee begins to gain influence.
Christian doesn't want to get out of bed, is threatening suicide, says he can't sleep with his wife, because she's really his mother, etc.
No one else knows what to do, but Struensee thinks his mental illness is neither immoral nor demonic possession, but that Christian is just a lost and scared child driven into mania. He becomes the first person who sits down and listens to Christian, and makes him feel heard and taken seriously.
Christian is all, "Oh, let me tell you all the stories about my childhood! My evil governor, my evil stepmother, my deadbeat dad..."
So now Struensee is what we would call Christian's therapist. Someone actually gets therapy!
And it helps. Christian's mental health starts to improve! He becomes a huge Struensee fan. Even better, it turns out his therapist also has all these liberal reforming ideas, which Christian had vaguely had before (remember, his second tutor was a Voltaire protege), but all his nobles were like, "With all due respect, Your Majesty, that's a stupid idea."
But now he has a strong-willed man at his side to put these ideas into practice! So he gives Struensee the green light to start reforming. Struensee tries to get Christian involved in governing, for the sake of his mental health and for the country, but Christian's approach to governing is rather like his father's: "I have all these demons from my childhood to cope with, you just tell me what to sign and I'll sign it."
So now Struensee's in power. He's therapist to the king, and as we'll see, therapist to the queen as well, then probably her lover, he's entrusted with their son's education, and now he's allowed to reform the country. The king even seems fine with the menage a trois they have going.
Everything is great for about five minutes! But there is a snake in paradise. Workaholic Struensee becomes obsessed with all the good he can do as minister. He stops having time for Christian.
Who still needs a therapist. And now suddenly he doesn't have one. If you know anything about clinical practice today, it is a very, very bad thing to lose your therapist without warning.
Christian's behavior becomes very erratic again. Struensee is all, "Ugh, I do not have time for this," and gives him a babysitter. One Enevold Brandt, a friend of Struensee's who likes putting on plays, and whom Struensee puts in charge of entertaining at the court. His instructions are "distract the King while I do the ruling."
Only Brandt and Christian have very different taste in plays, and they don't get along at all.
And things go even further south.
Christian keeps challenging people to duels, knowing that if they obey, assaulting the king is high treason, and if they disobey, disobeying the king is just as bad! He's got them in a catch-22, ha!
One day, Brandt, who is totally fed up with Christian and with Struensee for not letting him quit this stupid job of royal babysitter, finally snaps and takes Christian up on his challenge. They go into another room, throw a few punches, Brandt bites the king's hand, and then they come out laughing and in a better mood with each other. Having let off some steam, as it were.
Unfortunately, they're not the discreet type, and they tell everyone. As rumors spread and grow in the telling, it does not contribute to Struensee's PR that his friend that he put in charge of the king is punching and biting the king.
Christian is also showing signs of being fed up with Struensee never having time for him any more. He tells one of his ministers that the King of Prussia is sleeping with his wife. When asked who this King of Prussia is, he cackles madly and says, "Struensee, obviously!" (As we've seen, both Fritz and Struensee would be offended by this comparison, but...you can see where Christian got it.)
Eventually Struensee decides they have to take Christian out to a remote palace, just like in the bad old days, and hide him from the people so no one sees how erratic the king's behavior is.
Unfortunately, never seeing the king allows rumors to start among the population: that he's being kept against his will, abused, even poisoned.
Eventually, there's a coup.
Christian gets woken up in the middle of the night by a group of conspirators (which Moltke, remember, refused to join), and told Struensee is plotting against him. He signs paperwork agreeing to let Struensee be taken prisoner, and also agrees to divorce his wife and send her away. There's a show trial, and Struensee is condemned to lose a hand and his head. Former babysitter Brandt gets executed alongside Struensee, for an alleged assassination attempt (the punching and biting episode retold). Christian is supposedly distracted with a lot of festivals and parties from realizing what was going on and having time to reflect and change his mind.
His stepmother Juliana Maria, leader of the coup, ends up running the country in concert with some ministers. Later in life, Christian's son will get him to sign yet another document without reading it, allowing the son to be regent. Sadly, the tragedy of Struensee is also the tragedy of Christian VII.
Next up: the tragedy of Struensee, and also of Queen Caroline Matilda.
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Danish kings and their favorites: Christian VII
Date: 2023-02-11 07:23 pm (UTC)Christian's first governor is a religious fanatic who considers it his job to beat Christian and yell at him to save his soul. To quote Barz the romanticizer:
In the background Reventlow's terrible question roars again and again, whether Christian wants to end up a swine like his father, who spends all his time messing around with whores. Christian doesn't want that at all. He doesn't even really know what whores are; but they must be something evil for this dreadful man to get so upset about.
At one point, Christian tries running to Dad for help, but as he bangs frantically on the door:
Behind this door only a babble and groaning could be heard, and Christian guessed what the whole court knew: As always, the father had a few Copenhagen ladies of pleasure with him, as always he poured down streams of alcohol, and it wasn't the merry drinking of his ancestors. Friedrich V. was ill, an alcoholic, and he finally dies of cirrhosis of the liver, a ruler who does not know why he is actually a ruler. The king no longer rules in Denmark.
Christian also didn't have a great relationship with Juliana Maria. Later in life, he cast her as the evil stepmother who wanted him dead so her son could inherit (and tells some really heart-rending stories to Struensee later); Barz is willing to acknowledge that we haven't heard her side of the story, but whatever happened there, it wasn't the kind of relationship that would compensate for paternal neglect and tutorial abuse.
When he's 11, little Christian gets a second tutor, a Voltaire protege who manages to alleviate some of the non-stop abuse, and then Christian decides he's going to become a freethinker. (Oh, *man*, I need to write up the Ferdinand of Parma monograph, it's so relevant!)
But he still turns out a mess. He ends up with severe trauma when he's king: first threatening to get rid of the guy who abused him, then crying and saying his beloved tutor can't leave. THERAPY FOR EVERYONE.
Once he becomes king, there's a combination of drinking and carousing, not wanting to get out of bed, jerky movements and general nervousness, delusions, impulse control problems (he's not at the butt-groping Ferdinand of Naples level, but they have to keep him out of public sight, because it's pretty obvious he's not normal), some punching down, and general chaos.
He admires Fritz in a sort-of Peter III style, even mimicking his walk, but also wants to go to war with him and beat him, because if you can beat the best, you are the best! (ViennaJoe is Sir Not Appearing in This Story, as we'll see later.)
He watches torture scenes, and wants to know all the details of executions. Heroleplays his own execution, writhing in pretend agony as he's "beheaded".
His mistress is an Amazon type woman with a whip, and at least according to our author, he was a masochist in the literal, sexual sense of the word.
He's awful to his wife, Caroline Matilda, sister of George III, and says he doesn't care who "mounts the cow."
At some point, his desperate advisors decide he needs to go on a Grand Tour to see if a change of scenery will do him any good. But they need to bring a doctor along, and there's this new up-and-coming guy making a name for himself, this Johann Friedrich Struensee guy. "Do you want to be the king's doctor while he's on tour?"
Struensee: Sure!
They go to Germany, France, and England. Struensee keeps an eye on him, kind of pissing off the nobles already by actually caring what's good for his patient, and not being a courtier. Christian is somewhat impressed by the guy who's willing to tell it like it is, but the time of great influence has not come yet.
He burns out quickly on the tour, probably clinically depressed, and wants to go home even before they go to Italy. His entourage is mostly disappointed because winter is setting in in Denmark, and they were looking forward to Italy. But, the king has spoken, and back they go.
Once they're in Denmark again, and he's miserably mentally ill with Struensee as official physician, that's when Struensee begins to gain influence.
Christian doesn't want to get out of bed, is threatening suicide, says he can't sleep with his wife, because she's really his mother, etc.
No one else knows what to do, but Struensee thinks his mental illness is neither immoral nor demonic possession, but that Christian is just a lost and scared child driven into mania. He becomes the first person who sits down and listens to Christian, and makes him feel heard and taken seriously.
Christian is all, "Oh, let me tell you all the stories about my childhood! My evil governor, my evil stepmother, my deadbeat dad..."
So now Struensee is what we would call Christian's therapist. Someone actually gets therapy!
And it helps. Christian's mental health starts to improve! He becomes a huge Struensee fan. Even better, it turns out his therapist also has all these liberal reforming ideas, which Christian had vaguely had before (remember, his second tutor was a Voltaire protege), but all his nobles were like, "With all due respect, Your Majesty, that's a stupid idea."
But now he has a strong-willed man at his side to put these ideas into practice! So he gives Struensee the green light to start reforming. Struensee tries to get Christian involved in governing, for the sake of his mental health and for the country, but Christian's approach to governing is rather like his father's: "I have all these demons from my childhood to cope with, you just tell me what to sign and I'll sign it."
So now Struensee's in power. He's therapist to the king, and as we'll see, therapist to the queen as well, then probably her lover, he's entrusted with their son's education, and now he's allowed to reform the country. The king even seems fine with the menage a trois they have going.
Everything is great for about five minutes! But there is a snake in paradise. Workaholic Struensee becomes obsessed with all the good he can do as minister. He stops having time for Christian.
Who still needs a therapist. And now suddenly he doesn't have one. If you know anything about clinical practice today, it is a very, very bad thing to lose your therapist without warning.
Christian's behavior becomes very erratic again. Struensee is all, "Ugh, I do not have time for this," and gives him a babysitter. One Enevold Brandt, a friend of Struensee's who likes putting on plays, and whom Struensee puts in charge of entertaining at the court. His instructions are "distract the King while I do the ruling."
Only Brandt and Christian have very different taste in plays, and they don't get along at all.
And things go even further south.
Christian keeps challenging people to duels, knowing that if they obey, assaulting the king is high treason, and if they disobey, disobeying the king is just as bad! He's got them in a catch-22, ha!
One day, Brandt, who is totally fed up with Christian and with Struensee for not letting him quit this stupid job of royal babysitter, finally snaps and takes Christian up on his challenge. They go into another room, throw a few punches, Brandt bites the king's hand, and then they come out laughing and in a better mood with each other. Having let off some steam, as it were.
Unfortunately, they're not the discreet type, and they tell everyone. As rumors spread and grow in the telling, it does not contribute to Struensee's PR that his friend that he put in charge of the king is punching and biting the king.
Christian is also showing signs of being fed up with Struensee never having time for him any more. He tells one of his ministers that the King of Prussia is sleeping with his wife. When asked who this King of Prussia is, he cackles madly and says, "Struensee, obviously!" (As we've seen, both Fritz and Struensee would be offended by this comparison, but...you can see where Christian got it.)
Eventually Struensee decides they have to take Christian out to a remote palace, just like in the bad old days, and hide him from the people so no one sees how erratic the king's behavior is.
Unfortunately, never seeing the king allows rumors to start among the population: that he's being kept against his will, abused, even poisoned.
Eventually, there's a coup.
Christian gets woken up in the middle of the night by a group of conspirators (which Moltke, remember, refused to join), and told Struensee is plotting against him. He signs paperwork agreeing to let Struensee be taken prisoner, and also agrees to divorce his wife and send her away. There's a show trial, and Struensee is condemned to lose a hand and his head. Former babysitter Brandt gets executed alongside Struensee, for an alleged assassination attempt (the punching and biting episode retold). Christian is supposedly distracted with a lot of festivals and parties from realizing what was going on and having time to reflect and change his mind.
His stepmother Juliana Maria, leader of the coup, ends up running the country in concert with some ministers. Later in life, Christian's son will get him to sign yet another document without reading it, allowing the son to be regent. Sadly, the tragedy of Struensee is also the tragedy of Christian VII.
Next up: the tragedy of Struensee, and also of Queen Caroline Matilda.