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bis contempt for the Danes. Christian’s stepmother accordingly
organised a conspiracy against him, and he was executed in 1772.
His successor was Ove Guldbery, a Dane, who passed a law that
Danes, Norwegians, and Holsteiners alone should he eligible for
the government service, and rescinded Strnensee’s reforms (1776).
In 1780 an attitude of armed neutrality introduced by the able
Count Bernstorff gave a great impulse to the shipping trade, but
the finances of the country were ruined. In 1784 the
Crown-prince Frederick assumed the conduct of affairs with Bernstorff as
his minister, whereupon a more liberal, and for Norway in
particular a more favourable era began. The corn-trade of S. Norway
was relieved from its fetters, the trade of Finmarken was set free,
and the towns of Tromsø, Hammerfest, and Vardø were founded.
On a renewal of the armed neutrality (1800-1), England refused
to recognise it, attacked Copenhagen, and compelled the Danes to
abandon it. Six years later Napoleon’s scheme of using Denmark’s
fleet against England led to a second attack on Copenhagen and
its bombardment by the English fleet, which resulted in the
surrender of the whole Danish and Norwegian fleet to England (1807’).
Denmark, allied with France, then declared war both against
England and Sweden (1808), and almost at the same period
Christian died.
On the accession of Frederick VI. (1808-36") the affairs of the
kingdom were in a desperate condition. The English did not
attack the country, but contented themselves with capturing as
many Danish and Norwegian vessels as possible and ruining^ the
trade of the country by blockading all its seaports. Owing to an
over-issue of paper money the government was soon unable to meet
its liabilities and declared itself bankrupt (1813). Meanwhile
Norway was governed by a separate commission, presided over by
Prince Christian Auyustus of Augustcnburg (1807), and was so
well defended that it lost nothing by the peace of Jönköping
(1809). The independence of the peasantry, the wealth of the
burghers, and the success of their country in the war against
Sweden naturally created in the minds of the Norwegians a proud
sense of superiority over the unhappy Danes, while the liberality
of their views widened the breach with a country still groaning
under absolutism. A ‘Society for the "Welfare of Norway’ was
founded in 1810, and a Union with Sweden was warmly advocated,
particularly by the talented Count Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg. The
Danish government made some vain attempts to conciliate the
Norwegians, as for example by the foundation of a university at
Christiania (1811), which had been proposed so far back as 1661,
but the Norwegians themselves provided the necessary funds. In
concluding a treaty with the Russians in 1812, Sweden obtained
their consent to its future annexation of Norway, and at the Peace
of Kiel in 1814 the Danes were compelled to make the cession.
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