Christian VIII of Denmark

Christian VIII (September 18th 1786 - January 20th 1848) was briefly king of Norway in 1814, then king of the Denmark of the December 3rd 1839 with its death.

Wire of Frederic, hereditary prince of Denmark (death in 1805) and of Sophie Frédérica de Mecklembourg, Christian VIII was born with the Château from Christiansborg (Copenhagen). He is the heir to the Danish crown by his uncle Christian VII. In 1813, it is sent in Norway by Frederic VI, as a viceroy. It quickly gains there a great popularity which facilitates its election on the Norwegian throne, in May 1814, under the name of Frederic-Christian.

But the Treated of Kiel, signed in January 1814, puts an end to the Napoleonean wars in the area and envisages the retrocession of Norway in Sweden. In vain, the sovereign tries to be opposed to the pressure French soldiers of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (future Charles XIV). At the end of a war more undergone than wanted, Charles is forced to accept the transfer of Norway in Sweden, and only succeeds in preserving the liberal Constitution of Moss. The Swedish army invades Norway then and, as of November 1814, the legislative body accepts the transfer of the crown to Charles XIII of Sweden. Christian returns then to Denmark where it obtains the post of governor of the island of Fyn (1819).

After twenty years of eclipse, with died of his/her cousin Frederic VI in 1839, Christian is indicated king of Denmark. It controls in the most scrupulous compliance with the rules absolutists, granting nevertheless an autonomous Constitution to the Iceland and supporting a cultural life and intellectual fertilizes, being itself author of several scientific works. On the whole however, it ignores the aspiration of the Danes to a democratization of the political life and a reform carrying out towards a constitutional monarchy.

Christian VIII in addition endeavors to tighten the dependence of the Schleswig and the Holstein, duchies hereditary of the crown, but located in the Prussian sphere of influence . There still, it works from the point of view absolutist and dominating by instituting the Danish like official language, to the great displeasure of German-speaking of the Duchies. In 1846, it évince the Augustenborg of the succession to the Duchies by extending the Danish law to it allowing the hereditary transmission by the women.

The question of the Duchies, far from being closed, is the principal legacy of Christian VIII with his son Frederic, the last sovereign in hot line of the dynasty of the Oldenbourg, which succeeds in January 1848 to him, under the name of Frederic VII.

It Maria twice, first of all in 1806 with his/her cousin Charlotte de Mecklembourg-Schwerin (1784-1840), girl of Frederic-François I {{er}} of Mecklembourg-Schwerin. He repudiates it in 1810, a child was born from this union: Frederic VII of Denmark. It remarie five years later with Caroline Amélie de Schelswig-Holstein (1796-1881), girl of Frederic-Christian II of Holstein.

Genealogy

Christian VIII of Denmark belongs to the first branch of the Maison of Oldenbourg. This line gave kings to the Sweden, the Norway, the Denmark, this line died out in 1863 with disappointed Frederic VII of Denmark.

Internal bonds and sources

Frederic V of Denmark (paternal grandfather)

Juliane Marie of Brunswick (paternal grandmother)

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