Johann Friedrich Struensee

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Lensgreve Johann Friedrich Struensee (5 August 1737 – 28 April 1772) was a German-Danish physician, philosopher and statesman. He became royal physician to the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark and a minister in the Danish government. He rose in power to a position of de facto regent of the country, and he tried to carry out widespread reforms. His affair with Queen Caroline Matilda ("Caroline Mathilde") caused a scandal, especially after the birth of a daughter, Princess Louise Augusta, and was the catalyst for the intrigues and power play that caused his downfall and dramatic death.

Upbringing and early career

Born at

When Adam and Maria Dorothea Struensee moved to Altona in 1758, where the elder Struensee became pastor of Trinitatiskirche (Trinity's Church), Johann Friedrich moved with them. He was soon employed as a public doctor in Altona, in the estate of Count Rantzau, and in the Pinneberg District. His wages were meager and he expected to supplement them with private practice.

His parents moved to

Struensee was ambitious and petitioned the Danish government through Minister of Foreign Affairs

Physician to King Christian VII

During Struensee's near ten-year residence in Altona he came into contact with a circle of aristocrats who had been sent away from the royal court in Copenhagen. Among them were Enevold Brandt and Count Schack Carl Rantzau, who were supporters of the Enlightenment. Rantzau recommended Struensee to the court as a physician to attend King Christian VII on his forthcoming tour to princely and royal courts in western Germany, the Netherlands, England, and France.

Struensee received the appointment in April 1768. The king and his entourage set forth on 6 May. While in England Struensee received the honorary degree of Doctor in Medicine from the University of Cambridge.

During the eight-month tour, he gained the king's confidence and affection. The king's ministers, Bernstorff and Finance Minister H.C. Schimmelmann, were pleased with Struensee's influence on the king, who began making fewer embarrassing "scenes". Upon the court's return to Copenhagen in January 1769, Struensee was appointed personal physician to the king. In May, he was given the honorary title of State Councillor, which advanced him to the class of the third rank at court. Struensee wrote an important report on the mental health of the King.^[3]

Rise to power

First he reconciled the king and queen. At first Caroline Matilda disliked Struensee, but she was unhappy in her marriage, neglected and spurned by the king, and affected by his illness. However, Struensee was one of the few people who paid attention to the lonely queen, and he seemed to do his best to alleviate her troubles. Over time her affection for the young doctor grew and by spring 1770 he became her lover; a successful vaccination of the baby crown prince in May still further increased his influence.

Struensee was very involved with the upbringing of the Crown Prince Frederick VI along the principles of Enlightenment, such as outlined by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's challenge to return to nature. However, he had his own interpretation of Rousseau's ideas and preferred isolating the child and encouraging him to manage things largely on his own. He also took Rousseau's advice about cold being beneficial for children literally, and the Crown Prince was thus only sparsely clothed even during wintertime.

In control of the government

Struensee was named royal adviser (forelæser) and konferensråd on 5 May 1770.^[4] As in the course of the year the king sank into a condition of mental torpor, Struensee's authority became paramount. On the 15th September the 16-month period generally referred to as the "Time of Struensee" began.

At first, Struensee kept a low profile as he began to control the political machine. However, as the royal court and government spent the summer of 1770 in Schleswig-Holstein (

Reforms initiated by Struensee included:[6]

• abolition of torture
• abolition of unfree labor (corvée)
• abolition of the censorship of the press
• abolition of the practice of preferring nobles for state offices
• abolition of noble privileges
• abolition of "undeserved" revenues for nobles
• abolition of the etiquette rules at the Royal Court
• abolition of the Royal Court's aristocracy
• abolition of state funding of unproductive manufacturers
• abolition of several holidays
• introduction of a tax on gambling and luxury horses to fund nursing of foundlings
• ban of slave trade in the Danish colonies
• rewarding only actual achievements with feudal titles and decorations
• criminalization and punishment of bribery
• re-organization of the judicial institutions to minimize corruption
• introduction of state-owned grain storages to balance out the grain price
• assignment of farmland to peasants
• re-organization and reduction of the army
• university reforms
• reform of the state-owned medical institutions

Other reforms included the abolition of capital punishment for theft; the doing away with such demoralizing abuses as perquisites; and of "lackey-ism", the appointment of powerful men's domestic staff to lucrative public posts.

Critics of Struensee thought that he did not respect native Danish and Norwegian customs, saw them as prejudices and wanted to eliminate them in favour of abstract principles. He also did not speak Danish and conducted his business in German. To ensure obedience, he dismissed entire staffs of public departments, without pensions or compensation, and substituted with nominees of his own. The new officials were in many cases inexperienced men who knew little or nothing of the country that they were supposed to govern.

Initially, the Danish people favored his reforms, but they began to turn against him. When Struensee abolished all censorship of the press, it mostly resulted in a flood of anti-Struensee pamphlets.^[7]

During the initial months of his rule, middle-class opinion was in his favour.^[8] What incensed the people most against him was the way in which he put the king completely on one side, and the feeling was all the stronger as, outside a very narrow court circle, nobody seems to have believed that Christian VII was really mad, but only that his will had been weakened by habitual ill usage^{[clarification needed]}. That opinion was confirmed by the publication of the cabinet order of 14 July 1771, which appointed Struensee "gehejme kabinetsminister" or "Geheimekabinetsminister", with authority to issue cabinet orders which were to have the force of royal ordinances, even if unprovided with the royal sign manual.

Struensee's relations with the queen were offensive to a nation which had a traditional veneration for the royal House of Oldenburg, and Caroline Matilda's conduct in public scandalized the populace. The society which daily gathered round the king and queen excited the derision of the foreign ambassadors. The unhappy king was little more than the butt of his environment, but occasionally, the king would put up a show of obstinacy and refuse to carry out Brandt's or Struensee's orders. Once, when he threatened his keeper, Brandt, with a flogging for some impertinence, Brandt ended up in a struggle with the King and he struck the King in the face.

Arrest and execution

See also:

Royal Life Guards' Mutiny

Struensee's dismissal of many government officials and officers brought him numerous political enemies. On 30 November 1771, he declared himself and Brandt counts. Those actions stirred feelings of unease and dissatisfaction in the populace of Denmark and Norway.

Christian VII along with his queen, Struensee, Brandt, and members of the royal court, spent the summer of 1771 at

The court returned to Christiansborg Palace on 8 January 1772. The season's first masquerade ball was held at the Court Theatre on 16 January.

A

On 27 April/28 April, Struensee and Brandt were condemned first to lose their right hands and then to be beheaded. Their bodies were afterwards to be

Struensee awaited his execution at Kastellet, Copenhagen. The sentences were carried out on 28 April 1772, with Brandt being executed first.^[6]

The king himself considered Struensee a great man, even after his death. Written in German on a drawing the king made in 1775, three years after Struensee's execution, was the following: Ich hätte gern beide gerettet ("I would have liked to have saved them both"), referring to Struensee and Brandt.^[9]

Cultural depictions

Struensee, his affair with the queen and his relation with the king have been featured in many artistic works:

Literature

• 1773: A faithful narrative of the conversion and death of Count Struensee, late Prime Minister of Denmark (1773) by Balthasar Münter (translated Jørgen Hee)
• 1935: Die Gefangene von Celle – a 1935 novel by Else von Hollander-Lossow
• 1935: The Favourite of the Queen (German: Struensee: Doktor, Diktator, Favorit und armer Sünder; later Der Favorit der Königin) – a 1935 novel by Robert Neumann
• 1948: The Queen's Physician – a 1948 novel by Edgar Maass
• 1953: Converse at Night in Copenhagen (Danish: Samtale om natten i København) – a 1953 novel by Karen Blixen
• 1955: Caroline Matilda, princess of Great Britain and queen of Denmark – a 1955 novel by Geoffrey Vaughan Blackstone
• historical novel by Norah Lofts
• 1985: Letter from Celle – a 1985 dramatic poem by Edward Lowbury
• 1999: The Visit of the Royal Physician (Swedish: Livläkarens besök) – a 1999 novel by Per Olov Enquist
• 2000: Prinsesse af Blodet - en roman om Caroline Mathilde – a 2000 novel by Bodil Steensen-Leth
• 2015: There's a mad king in Denmark (Italian: C'è un re pazzo in Danimarca) – a 2015 biographical novel by Dario Fo

Stage

• 1827: Struensee – an 1827 drama by
  Frederick William IV and premiered in Berlin in 1856.^[10]
• 1991:
  choreographed by Flemming Flindt to music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
  .
• 2008:
  Royal Danish Opera and composed by Bo Holten to a libretto
  based on Enquist's 1999 novel.

Film

• German historical drama silent film directed by Ludwig Wolff, in which Struensee is played by Harry Liedtke.^[11]
• British film directed by Victor Saville, in which Struensee was played by the English actor Clive Brook. The film depicts his relationship with Caroline Mathilde, who is played by Madeleine Carroll.^[12]
• O.W. Fischer.^[13]
• Danish historical drama film directed by Nikolaj Arcel, starring Mads Mikkelsen as Struensee.^[14]

References

1. ^ Jens Glebe-Møller: Struensees vej til skafottet: fornuft og åbenbaring i Oplysningstiden. Museum Tusculanum Press 2007. (in Danish)
2. ISBN 978-0-691-14200-5
   .
3. ^ Schioldann J (2013) “Struensée’s memoir on the Situation of the King” (1772): Christian VII of Denmark. History of Psychiatry 24: 227-247.
4. ^ Edvard, Holm, Danmark-Norges Historie, G.E.C. Gads Forlag, 1902, vol. 4, part. 2, p. 27.
5. ^ Henry Steele Commager, "Struensee and the Enlightenment," in Commager, The search for a usable past, and other essays in historiography (1967) pp 349-623.
6. ^
   ISBN 9783892448853.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
   )
7. ^ John Christian Laursen, Luxdorph's Press Freedom Writings: Before the Fall of Struensee in Early 1770s Denmark-Norway, pp. 61–77 in: The European Legacy, vol. 7, no. 1, 2002.
8. ^ Johann Friedrich Struensee. (2014). Retrieved September 7, 2015, from http://www.nndb.com/people/197/000097903/
9. ISBN 978-87-769-2093-7
   .
10. ^ Meyerbeer & Letellier (1999–2004) I, 15 (Foreword by Heinz Becker) (1980) 250; Becker (1989), 108–9
11. IMDb
12. IMDb
13. IMDb
14. IMDb

Sources

• Barton, H. Arnold. Scandinavia in the Revolutionary Era 1760–1815, University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
  ISBN 0-8166-1393-1
  .
• Commager, Henry Steele. "Struensee and the Enlightenment," The search for a usable past, and other essays in historiography (1967) pp 349+.
• Dewey, Donald. "The Danish Rasputin" Scandinavian Review (2013) 100#1 online
• Tilliyard, Stella. A Royal Affair: George III and his Scandalous Siblings. Chatto & Windus, 2006.
  ISBN 978-0-7011-7306-7

In Danish, Swedish or German

• Ahnfelt, Arvid (1883). Från Europas hof, dess furstehus och aristokrati: skildringar hemtade i nya specialverk samt svenska och utländska arkiv [From Europe's royal courts, its princely houses and aristocracy: depictions taken from new special works as well as Swedish and foreign archives.] (in Swedish). Vol. 1. Stockholm: Oscar L. Lamms förlag. pp. 3–103.
• Amdisen, Asser (2002). Til nytte og fornøjelse : Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737-1772) [For benefit and pleasure : Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737-1772)] (in Danish). Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.
  ISBN 87-5-003730-7
  .
• Barz, Paul (1985). Doktor Struensee : Rebell von oben [Doctor Struensee: Rebel from above] (in German). Munich: Kabel Ernst Verlag.
  ISBN 3-8225-0001-1
  .
• Barz, Paul (1986). Doktor Struensee – rebel blandt hofsnoge (in Danish). Translated by Ib Christensen. Lynge: Bogans forlag.
  ISBN 87-7466-083-7
  ..
• ISBN 87-89068-11-4
  .
• (in Danish) Bech, Svend Cedergreen. Struensee og hans tid. 2nd ed. Viborg. Forlaget Cicero, 1989.
  ISBN 87-7714-038-9
• (in Danish) Lars Bisgaard, Claus Bjørn, Michael Bregnsbo, Merete Harding, Kurt Villads Jensen, Knud J. V. Jespersen, Danmarks Konger og Dronninger (Copenhagen, 2004)
• (in Danish) Bregnsbo, Michael. Caroline Mathilde – Magt og Skæbne. Denmark. Aschehoug Dansk Forlag, 2007.
  ISBN 978-87-11-11856-6
• (in Danish) Gether, Christian (editor), Kronprins og Menneskebarn (Sorø, 1988)
• (in Danish) Glebe-Møller. Struensees vej til skafottet – Fornuft og åbenbaring i oplysningstiden. Copenhagen. Museum Tusculanums Forlag, 2007.
  ISBN 978-87-635-0513-0
• (in Danish) Thiedecke, Johnny. For Folket. Oplysning, Magt og vanvid i Struensee-tidens Danmark. Viborg. Forlaget Pantheon, 2004.
  ISBN 87-90108-29-9
• (in German) Winkle, Stefan: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Arzt – Aufklärer – Staatsmann, Stuttgart: Fischer 1989 (2nd ed.). Online excerpt (Ärztekammer Hamburg).

Primary sources

• Alenius, Marianne, ed. (1986). Mit ubetydelige Levnets Løb. Efter Charlotte Dorothea Biehls breve (in Danish). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanums Forlag.
• Cedergreen, Svend, ed. (1975). Brev fra Dorothea. Af Charlotta Dorothea Biehls historiske breve (in Danish). Copenhagen:
  Politikens Forlag
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johann Friedrich Struensee.

• Johann Friedrich Struensee at the website of the Royal Danish Collection at Rosenborg Castle
• The Ancestry of Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737–1772)
• "Struensee, Johann Friedrich von" .
  New International Encyclopedia
  . 1905.
• Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Struensee, Johan Frederick" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). pp. 1043–1044.

Political offices
Preceded by Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff	Privy Councillor of Denmark 1770 - 1772	Succeeded by Ove Høegh-Guldberg