CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIII.THE TEMPTER.1769-1770.A single interview sufficed to break down the Queen’s prejudice against Struensee. His manner was so tactful and deferential; he seemed to be so grieved at her condition, and so anxious to serve her that before he withdrew she was convinced she had misjudged him. He was as skilful as he was sympathetic; the remedies he prescribed took effect almost immediately, and when the doctor again waited on his royal patient he found her better. Struensee’s visits were repeated daily, and as Matilda improved in health she was naturally grateful to the physician who wrought this change. She also became attracted by his tact and courtesy, so different from the treatment she met with from Holck and his party. She began to talk to the doctor on general subjects, and discovered that he was an extremely intelligent and well-read man. Struensee flattered himself that he had even more knowledge of the human heart—and especially of the heart of woman—than of medicine. He sought to amuse and distract the Queen, until she looked forward to his visits with pleasure,and every day gave him longer audience than before.Struensee was one of those doctors who find out what their patients like to do, and then advise them to do it, and after several conversations with the Queen, he arrived at most of her likes and dislikes. The Queen, having been bred in England, was fond of an outdoor life. In Denmark at that time ladies of rank never went outside their gates except in a carriage, and for them to ride or walk about the streets was unknown. Struensee advised that the Queen should set a precedent, and walk and ride when, and where, she pleased. In pursuance of this advice the Queen, a few days later, to the astonishment of many, was seen walking briskly about the streets of Copenhagen, attended by her ladies. She also rode a great deal, and, though she did not at first appear in public on horseback, she spent hours riding about the park and woods of Frederiksborg. Matilda much enjoyed her new-found freedom, which made a great flutter in all grades of society in Copenhagen. The DanishMercurywrote a poem on the subject of the Queen walking in the town ending with the lines:—Thanks, Matilda, thanks for the discovery,You’ve taught healthy women to use their legs.Struensee also advised the Queen that it was bad for her to remain so much alone. She must have amusement, surround herself with cheerful people and join in the court festivities. He hinted that it was advisable for her to take a more prominent part in these ceremonials, not only because of her health, but because it was incumbent upon her position as the reigning Queen, which, he added discreetly, some people about the court did not seem to respect as they should do. Matilda, who was not very wise, rose to the bait, and before long confided to her physician the mortification and annoyance she suffered from Holck and his following. Struensee listened sympathetically, and told the Queen that though he had not ventured to mention the matter before, he had noticed with amazement and indignation the scant consideration paid to her at her own court. The desire of his heart, he said, was to serve her, and if she would only listen to him, he would improve this state of affairs as surely as he had improved her health. Here the doctor obviously stepped outside his province, but the Queen, far from rebuking him, encouraged him to proceed. Struensee then said deferentially that, since all power and authority came from the King, the Queen would be well advised to court his favour. This advice was not so palatable to Matilda as the other he had given her, especially at this juncture. She could not forget in a moment how cruelly she had been wronged, and she hesitated. Then Struensee changed his note and urged the Queen’s own interest. He spoke to her plainly of the King’s failing mental powers, and declared that henceforth he must always be ruled by some one. It were better, therefore, that the Queen should rule him than another, for by doing so she would gatherthe regal power into her own hands and so confound her enemies. The King was anxious to repair the past; it was for the Queen to meet him half-way.The Queen suspiciously asked the doctor what was his object in striving to mediate between her and the King. Struensee replied, with every appearance of frankness, that he was studying his own interests quite as much as those of the King and Queen. The King had been pleased to show him especial marks of his favour, and he wished to remain in his present position. He had noticed that all the preceding favourites of the King had striven to promote disunion between Christian and his consort, and they had, one after another, fallen out of favour and been banished from court. Their fate was a warning to him, and an instinct of self-preservation prompted him to bring about a union between the King and Queen, because by so doing he was convinced that he would inevitably strengthen his own position.After some hesitation Matilda proceeded to act on this advice also, and, short of admitting the King to intimacy, she sought in every way to please him. The King, also prompted by Struensee, responded with alacrity to his wife’s overtures, and came to lean upon the Queen more and more. Before long Matilda’s influence over her husband became obvious to all. The young Queen delighted in the deference and homage which the time-serving courtiers now rendered to her. Holck’s star was on the wane; he still filled the post of Master of the Ceremonies, butit was the Queen who commanded the revels, and changed, or countermanded, Holck’s programme as she pleased.Struensee was now surely gaining ground. Both the King and the Queen placed their confidence in him, with the result, as he predicted, that he stood on a firmer footing than any former favourite. The Queen gave him audience every day, and the conversations between them became more intimate and more prolonged. There was nothing, however, at first to show that the Queen had anything more than a liking for the clever doctor, whose society amused and interested her, and whose zeal in her service was apparently heart-whole. Everything so far had succeeded exactly as Struensee foretold, and the vision of future happiness and power, which he portrayed in eloquent terms, dazzled the young Queen’s imagination, while his homage and devotion flattered her vanity.Struensee’s appearance and manner were such as to impress any woman. He was thirty-two years of age, tall and broad shouldered, and in the full strength of manhood. Though not really handsome, he appeared to be so in a dashing way, and he made the most of all his points and dressed with consummate taste. He had light brown hair, flashing eyes, an aquiline nose and a high forehead. He carried himself well, and there was about him a suggestion of reserved strength, both mental and physical. His manner to the Queen was a combination of deference and easy assurance, which pleasedher mightily. By the end of January, 1770, the Queen no longer needed medical advice, but she required Struensee’s services in other ways, and the more she saw of him the more she became attracted to him. Soon a further mark of the royal favour was shown to the doctor, and a handsome suite of rooms was given him in the Christiansborg Palace.Holck was the first to take alarm at the growing influence of the new favourite, and came to regard him as a rival who would ultimately drive him from court. Struensee looked upon Holck with contempt, and was indifferent whether he went or stayed. But the Queen insisted that he must go at the first opportunity, and Struensee promised that her wishes should be obeyed in this, as in all things—in a little time. Holck confided his fears to Bernstorff, warned him that the doctor was playing for high stakes, and advised him to remove Struensee from the King’s person before it was too late. To the aristocratic Bernstorff, however, it seemed impossible that a man of the doctor’s birth and antecedents could be any real danger, and he laughed at Holck’s warning. This is the more surprising, as both the Russian and English envoys spoke to the Prime Minister about the sudden rise of Struensee, and advised him to watch it well. The Russian minister, Filosofow, went further, and presumed to make some remarks to the King on the subject, which Christian ignored at the time, but afterwards repeated to Struensee and the Queen.This interference on the part of Filosofow wasno new thing. For some years the Russian envoy had practically dictated to the Danish King whom he should appoint and whom he should dismiss from his service. He even presumed to meddle in the private affairs of the Danish court, no doubt at the instigation of his mistress, Catherine the Great. The Danish King and Government submitted to this bondage until the treaty was signed, by which Russia exchanged her claims on Schleswig-Holstein for the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. As this exchange was eagerly desired by Denmark, the mere threat of stopping it threw the King and his ministers into alarm, and made Russia mistress of the situation. Curiously enough Filosofow, who was a very astute diplomatist, did not realise the changed state of affairs, and continued to dictate to the King as before. The haughty Russian did not consider Struensee to be of any account from a political point of view, but personally he objected to meeting him on terms of equality. He had also, it was said, a grievance against Struensee, because he had outrivalled him in the affections of a beautiful lady of the Danish court. For some time he fretted at the royal favour shown to the upstart doctor, and at last he showed his contempt for him by a public act of insolence.It chanced in this wise. Wishing to conciliate the Danish monarch, Filosofow gave a splendid entertainment to the King and Queen at the Russian embassy. It consisted of an Italian opera, composed for the occasion, and performed by personsof fashion about the court,[120]and was followed by a banquet. Struensee, who was now invited to the court entertainments, as a member of the third class, was present, and so marked was the favour shown him by the King and Queen that he was admitted to the box where the royal personages were. Filosofow, in his capacity of host, was also in the box, and he was so much irritated at the presence of the doctor that he showed his disgust by spitting on his coat. Struensee, with great self-control, treated the insult as though it were an accident, wiped his coat, and said nothing. Filosofow immediately insulted him again in the same way. This time the action was so unmistakable that Struensee withdrew from the royal box, and later demanded satisfaction of Filosofow. The Russian treated the challenge with contempt. He said that in his country an ambassador did not fight a duel with a common doctor, but he would take his revenge in another way, and give him a sound thrashing with his cane. Whether he carried out his threat is uncertain, but it is certain that Struensee never forgave the insult. The Queen also resented the flouting of her favourite, and, despite the attempted mediation of Bernstorff, she ignored Filosofow at court, and spoke with dislike of him and his mistress, the Empress Catherine, who, she thought, was responsible for her envoy’s meddlesome policy. A few months before it would have mattered littlewhat the Queen thought, or did not think, but now her influence with the King was growing every day.[120]VideGunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, March 31, 1770.Ibid., April 24, 1770.Eventually Filosofow had to retire from Copenhagen and give place to another, but that was not yet. At this time he again warned Bernstorff that his days of power were numbered, unless he forthwith took steps to get Struensee removed from court. In this the envoy proved more far-sighted than the minister, for Bernstorff still considered it an incredible thing that his position could be seriously threatened. Yet within a month of the Russian’s warning the extraordinary favour which Struensee enjoyed with the King and Queen was further demonstrated.The small-pox raged in Denmark in the spring of this year, 1770, and in Copenhagen alone twelve hundred children died of it. Struensee advised that the Crown Prince should be inoculated as a prevention. Inoculation had lately been introduced into Denmark, and Struensee’s suggestion was met with a storm of protest from some of the nobility, all the clergy and many of the doctors. Despite this Struensee carried his point; he inoculated the Crown Prince and watched over him in the brief illness that followed. Matilda herself nursed her son, and would not leave his bedside day or night. Her presence in the sick-room threw the Queen and the doctor continually together. Struensee was justified of his wisdom, for the Crown Prince not only escaped the small-pox, but soon rallied from the inoculation which it had been freely prophesied would cause his death. The doctor was rewarded with signal marks of the royal favour; he was given the title of Conferenzrath, or Councillor of Conference, which elevated him to the second class, and was appointed reader to the King,lecteur du roi, and private secretary to the Queen, with a salary of three thousand dollars. Ministers were amazed at the sudden elevation of the favourite, and began to ask themselves whither all this was tending.Step by step as Struensee rose in honour Matilda gained in power. It was now apparent to all about the court that the Queen, and not the King, was the real ruler of Denmark. The Queen’s ascendency over her consort was so great that he did nothing without her approval. She in turn was guided by Struensee; but, whereas the Queen’s authority was seen by all, Struensee’s power at this time was only guessed at. His plans were not matured. The prize was within his grasp, but he was careful not to snatch at it too soon lest he should lose it altogether. Struensee now accompanied the King and Queen wherever they went, and, since his elevation to the second rank, dined at the royal table. Bernstorff seems to have thought that these privileges were all that Struensee cared about, and given money, a title and social position the doctor would be content, like Holck, with the royal favour, and leave politics alone. He little knew that Struensee in his heart despised these things; they were to him merely the means to an end, and that end was power. In his pursuitof power Struensee swept every consideration aside. Honour, duty and gratitude were nothing to him provided he gained his desire. In his belief in his destiny, his great abilities, his soaring ambition and complete heedlessness of every one save himself, this extraordinary man was a type of theuebermensch.Struensee’s treatment of the Queen was an example of his utter unscrupulousness. Her condition when he came to court would have moved any man to pity. Her youth, her beauty and her friendlessness appealed to every sentiment of chivalry. The conditions under which Struensee made her acquaintance were the most intimate and delicate. He quickly gained her confidence; she trusted him from the first, and showed her gratitude by heaping favours upon him. Everything that came to Struensee in the next few years—honour, place and power—he owed to the Queen, and to her alone. Common gratitude, apart from any other consideration, should have led him to treat her honourably, but from the beginning he was false to her. He who came in the guise of a deliverer was really her evil genius. The young Queen was never anything to him but a means to an end. Adventurer and intriguer as he was, Struensee had marked Matilda down as his prey before he was admitted to her presence, and she fell an easy victim to his wiles. He made use of her as a shield, behind which he could work in safety. She was to be the buffer between him and his enemies; she was to be the ladder by which hewould rise in power. To this end he tempted her with consummate art. He was first her confidential physician, then her devoted servant, then her friend and counsellor, and then her lover. This last phase was necessary to the success of his plans, and he deliberately lured his victim to her ruin in order that he might gain absolute mastery over her. Struensee gradually acquired over the Queen an almost mesmeric power, and she became so completely under his influence that she obeyed his wishes like an automaton. But it did not need hypnotism to cause a woman so tempted, so beset on every side as Matilda was, to fall. She had inherited from her father an amorous, pleasure-loving nature; she was of a warm, affectionate disposition, which had been driven back on itself by her husband’s cruelty and infidelities. Now, it was true, the King was anxious to make amends, but it was too late. Christian had greatly changed in appearance during the last year. Though little over twenty, he already looked like an old man, very thin, with sharp, drawn features and dead-looking eyes. Matilda, on the contrary, was in the full flood of womanhood; her blood flowed warmly in her veins, yet she was tied to a husband who, from his excesses, was ruined mentally and physically, and she was tempted by a lover in the full strength of his manhood, a lover who was both ardent and masterful, and whose strength of will broke down all her defences as though they had been built of cards. Moreover, her environment was bad—as bad as itcould be. The atmosphere of the court was one of undisguised immorality; the marriage tie was openly mocked at and derided. The King had often told her to go her own way and let him go his, and now so far from showing any signs of jealousy, he seemed to take a delight in watching the growth of the intimacy between his wife and the confidential physician. He was always sending Struensee to the Queen’s chamber on some pretext or another, and the more Matilda showed her liking for Struensee’s society the more the King seemed to be pleased. That clever devil, opportunity, was all on Struensee’s side.The Queen had no safeguards against temptation but those which arose from the promptings of her own conscience. That she did not yield without a struggle, that the inward conflict was sharp and bitter, there is evidence to prove.O keep me innocent, make others great!was the pathetic prayer she wrote on the window of the chapel of Frederiksborg[121]at a time, when in the corridors andante-chambersof the palace Struensee was plotting his tortuous intrigues, all of which started from the central point of his relations with the Queen. It was he who wished to be great, she who was to make him great, and to this end he demanded the sacrifice of her innocence. The poor young Queen knew her peril, but she was like abird fascinated by a snake. She fluttered a little, helplessly, and then fell.[121]This window, with the Queen’s writing cut with a diamond on a pane of glass, was destroyed by the great fire at Frederiksborg in 1859.The struggle was prolonged for some months, but the end was certain from the first. It was probably during the spring of 1770 that the flood of passion broke the Queen’s last barriers down. Her enemies afterwards declared that she entered on this fatal dalliance about the time of the Crown Prince’s illness. Certain it is that after Struensee had been appointed her private secretary, a marked change took place in Matilda’s manner and bearing. She is no longer a pathetic figure of wronged and youthful innocence, but appears as a beautiful and self-willed woman who is dominated by a great passion. There were no half measures about Matilda; her love for Struensee was the one supreme love of her life; it was a love so unselfish and all-absorbing, so complete in its abandonment, that it wrung reluctant admiration even from those who blamed it most.Once the Rubicon crossed, reserve, discretion, even ordinary prudence, were thrown to the winds. Struensee’s object seems to have been to compromise the Queen as much as possible, so that she could not draw back. He was always with her, and she granted him privileges which, as Reverdil says, “would have ruined the reputation of any ordinary woman,” though it has been pleaded, on the other hand, that her indifference to appearances was a proof of her innocence. The Queen and her favourite were inseparable; he was admitted to herapartments at all hours; she took solitary walks with him in the gardens and woods, and she frequently drove and rode out alone with him; at balls and masquerades, at the theatre and the opera, he was always by her side; and in public and at court she followed him with her eyes, and did not attempt to disguise the predilection she had for him.The Queen had no one to remonstrate with her, or guard her from the consequences of her imprudence. It was thought by some that the first use Matilda would make of her new-found power would be to recall Madame de Plessen, whose dismissal against her will she had bitterly lamented. It would have been well for her if she had done so, for Madame de Plessen would have saved her from herself. But if the idea crossed her mind, Struensee would not permit it, for he well knew that the presence of this strict duenna would be fatal to his plans. Madame von der Lühe, Madame de Plessen’s successor, though she shook her head in private, did not venture to remonstrate with her mistress; her position, she felt, was insecure, and she thought to strengthen it by compliance with the Queen’s whims. The maid of honour, Fräulein von Eyben, and some of the inferior women of the Queen’s household, secretly spied on their mistress, set traps for her, and generally sought occasion to harm her. But their opportunity was not yet, for the Queen was all-powerful. Matilda had always found the stiff etiquette of the Danish court wearisome; at Struensee’s advice she abolished it altogether in private, and dispensed with the attendance of her ladies, except in public. This enabled her to see the doctor for hours alone—not that she made any secret of these interviews. On the contrary, she talked quite freely to her ladies about her friendship with Struensee, and accounted for her preference by declaring that she owed him a debt of gratitude for all he had done, and was doing, for her. He always took her part; she said, “he had much sense and a good heart”. And it must be admitted he had apparently rendered her service; her health was re-established, and her life was fuller and happier. No longer was she slighted and set aside; she reigned supreme at her court, and all, even her former enemies, sought to win her smiles.The Queen’s relations with the King were now uniformly friendly, and he seemed quite content to leave authority in her hands. In return she strove to humour him, and even stooped to gratify some of his most absurd whims. It has already been stated that the imbecile Christian had a weakness for seeing women in men’s attire; “Catherine of the Gaiters” captivated him most when she donned the uniform of an officer in his service, and the complaisance of the former mistress on this point was at least explicable. But Matilda was his wife and not his mistress, his Queen and not his fancy of an hour, yet she did not hesitate to array herself in male attire to please her husband, at the suggestion of her lover. It may be, too, that she wished to imitate in this, as in other things, the Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, who frequently woreuniforms and rodeen homme. However this may be, Matilda adopted a riding-habit made like that of a man, and rode astride. The Queen often went out hunting with Struensee, or rode by his side through the city, in this extraordinary attire. She wore a dove-colour beaver hat with a deep gold band and tassels, a long scarlet coat, faced with gold, a buff, gold-laced waistcoat, a frilled shirt with a lace kerchief, buckskin small-clothes and spurs. She had other riding-habits of different designs, but this was the one in which she most frequently appeared in public. She was always splendidly mounted and rode fearlessly. On horseback she looked a Diana, but when she dismounted she did not appear to the same advantage, for the riding-habit made her seem shorter than she really was, and she already showed a tendency to stoutness, which the small-clothes did not minimise. The Queen, however, was so enamoured of her male attire that she frequently walked about the palace all day in it, to the offence of many and the derision of others.[122][122]The Queen set the fashion to ride in male attire, and it soon became the custom among the ladies of Copenhagen. Keith wrote a year later: “An abominable riding-habit, with black slouched hat, has been almost universally introduced here, which gives every woman an air of an awkward postilion, and all the time I have been in Denmark I have never seen the Queen out in any other garb”.—Memoirs.The adoption of this riding-habit greatly tended to lessen the Queen’s popularity, while her intimacy with Struensee before long caused it to disappear altogether. The staider and more respectable portion of the community were ready to believe any evilof a woman who went out riding like a man, and the clergy in particular were horrified; but acting on Struensee’s advice, the Queen never troubled to conciliate the clergy. This was a great mistake in a puritanical country like Denmark, where the Church had great power, if not in the immediate circle of the court, at least among the upper and middle classes. Even the semi-barbarous Danish nobility were disgusted. That the young and beautiful Queen should have a favourite was perhaps, under the circumstances, only to be expected; if he had been one of their own order, the weakness would have been excused. But that she should stoop to a man ofbourgeoisorigin, a mere doctor, who was regarded by the haughty nobles as little above the level of a menial, was a thing which admitted of no palliation.[123]But the Queen, blinded by her passion, was indifferent to praise or blame, and Struensee took a delight in demonstrating his power over her under their very eyes. It was the favourite’s mean revenge for the insults he had suffered from these nobles.[123]Even Frederick the Great (who was very broad-minded) wrote: “L’acces que le médecin eut à la cour lui fit gagner imperceptiblement plus d’ascendant sur l’esprit de la reine qu’il n’etoit convenable à un homme de cette extraction”.Queen Sophia Magdalena, grandmother of Christian VII.QUEEN SOPHIA MAGDALENA, GRANDMOTHER OF CHRISTIAN VII.At the end of May, 1770, the old Queen Sophia Magdalena died at the palace of Christiansborg. For the last few years of her life she had lived in strict retirement, and had long ceased to exercise any influence over her grandson, the King, in political affairs. The aged widow of Christian VI. was muchreverenced by the conservative party in Denmark, and they complained that the court treated her memory with disrespect. One incident in particular moved them to deep indignation, and, if true, it showed how greatly Matilda had deteriorated under the influence of her favourite. The body of Sophia Magdalena was embalmed, and lay in state for some days in the palace of Christiansborg. The public was admitted, and a great number of people of all classes and ages, clad in mourning, availed themselves of this opportunity of paying honour to the dead Queen. It was stated in Copenhagen by Matilda’s enemies that she showed her lack of good-feeling by passing through the mourners in the room where the Queen-Mother lay in state, leaning on the arm of Struensee, and clad in the riding-habit which had excited the reprobation of Sophia Magdalena’s adherents. This story was probably a malicious invention,[124]but it is certain that the court mourning for the venerable Queen-Mother was limited to the shortest possible period, and the King and Queen a few days after her death removed to Frederiksborg, where they lived in the same manner as before. Neither the King nor the Queen attended the public funeral at Röskilde, where the kings and queens of Denmark were buried, and Prince Frederick went as chief mourner. Rightly or wrongly, the reigning Queen was blamed for all this.[124]It rests on the authority of Wittich (Struensee, by K. Wittich, 1879), who is bitterly hostile to Queen Matilda.CHAPTER XIV.THE QUEEN’S FOLLY.1770.Struensee, who was now sure of his position with the King and Queen, resolved to carry out his plans, and obtain the object of his ambition—political power. In order to gain this it was necessary that the ministers holding office should one by one be removed, and the back of the Russian party in Copenhagen be broken. The Queen was quite agreeable to every change that Struensee suggested; she only stipulated that her detested enemy, Holck, should go first, and his friends at court follow. Struensee agreed, but in these matters it was necessary to move with great caution, and await a favourable opportunity to strike. Quite unwittingly Holck played into his enemies’ hands; the great thing, as either party knew well, was to gain possession of the King, who would sign any paper laid before him. A page, named Warnstedt, who was always about the person of the King, was Struensee’s friend, and Holck therefore resolved to get rid of him and appoint a creature of his own. He thought he could best effect this by taking the King away from his present surroundings, and hetherefore proposed to Christian that he should make another tour through the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The King agreed, and Holck was jubilant, for he knew that if he could only get the King to himself the power of Struensee would be shaken. To his dismay, the Queen announced that she intended to accompany her husband. She was anxious, she said, to see the duchies, and had no intention of being left behind again. Notwithstanding the difficulties which Holck raised, the King offered no objection, and even expressed pleasure that his Queen would accompany him. The Queen’s going meant, of course, that her favourite would go too. Struensee hailed the prospect of the tour; he had long been wishing to get the King and Queen away from the capital in order that he might better effect the changes he had in contemplation.The preparations for the tour were pushed on apace. The King and Queen were to be attended by a numerous suite. Holck, Struensee and Warnstedt were to be in attendance, and all the ladies of the Queen’s household. Of ministers only Bernstorff, the Prime Minister, was to accompany them, and the same council of three, Thott, Moltke and Rosenkrantz, who had managed public business at Copenhagen during the King’s former tour, were to conduct it again, but under limitations. They received express orders from the King not to have any transactions with foreign envoys during his absence, and if any matter of urgency occurredthey were to communicate with him in writing before deciding on any plan of action. These instructions were, of course, dictated to the King by Struensee. Bernstorff was astonished and indignant when he heard of them, for he guessed the quarter whence they came. He began to fear that his position was threatened, and, too late, regretted that he had not taken the repeated advice of his friends and removed Struensee while there was time. He knew, though the English influence was on his side, that he had nothing to hope from the Queen; he had offended her past forgiveness by insisting on the dismissal of Madame de Plessen, and by wishing to exclude her from the regency. He started on the tour with great misgivings. But he had been in office so long that even now he could not imagine the government of the kingdom going on without him, forgetting that no man is indispensable.On June 20, 1770, the royal party arrived at Gottorp Castle in Schleswig, an ancient and unpretending edifice on the edge of a lake, which was then occupied by Prince Charles of Hesse, whom the King had appointed Viceroy of the Duchies. The Viceroy and his wife, Princess Louise, drove out a league from Gottorp to meet the King and Queen, and their greetings were most cordial, especially those between Matilda and her sister-in-law. The King, too, was very friendly, though Prince Charles saw a great change in him. He seemed to rally his failing powers a little at Gottorp.Prince Charles noticed with amazement howgreat a power Struensee had acquired; it was the first time he had seen the favourite, and he took a strong dislike to him, which, perhaps, coloured the description he gave of the visit. “After an hour’s conversation,” writes Prince Charles [on arriving at Gottorp], “in which we recalled past times, the Queen took me by the arm and said: ‘Now, escort me to Princess Louise’s apartments, but do not take me through the ante-chamber’—where the suite were assembled. We almost ran along the corridor to the side door by the staircase, and then we saw some of the suite coming downstairs. The Queen espied Struensee among them, and said hastily: ‘I must go back; do not keep me!’ I replied that I could not well leave her Majesty alone in the passage. ‘No! no!’ she cried, ‘go to the Princess,’ and she fled down the corridor.” [Struensee had probably forbidden the Queen to talk to the Princess alone.] “I was much astonished, but I obeyed her commands. She was always ill at ease with me when Struensee was present; at table he invariably seated himself opposite to her.”[125][125]Mémoires de mon Temps.Prince Charles and his wife noted with great regret the change in the Queen; they remembered that she was only eighteen, they made allowance for her good heart and her lively spirits, but even so they grieved to see her forget her self-respect, and indulge in amusements which hurt her reputation. They ascribed this change to the perniciousinfluence of Struensee. She seemed frightened of him, and trembled, when he spoke to her, like a bird, ensnared. Frequently he so far forgot himself as to treat her with scant respect. For instance, Prince Charles writes: “The King’s dinner was dull. The Queen afterwards played at cards. I was placed on her right, Struensee on her left; Brandt, a new arrival, and Warnstedt, a chamberlain, completed the party. I hardly like to describe Struensee’s behaviour to the Queen, or repeat the remarks he dared address to her openly, while he leant his arm on the table close to her. ‘Well, why don’t you play?’ ‘Can’t you hear?’ and so forth. I confess my heart was grieved to see this Princess, endowed with so much sense and so many good qualities, fallen to such a point and into hands so bad.”[126][126]Mémoires de mon Temps.While the King and Queen were at Gottorp Struensee carried out the first of his changes, and recalled Brandt to court. Brandt, it will be remembered, had been banished from Copenhagen, and even from the country, at the suggestion of Holck. He had sought to regain the King’s favour when he was in Paris, but again Holck intervened, and he failed. He was formerly a friend of the Queen, which was one of the reasons why Holck got rid of him, and he was also a friend of Struensee, who had often, in his obscure days, visited at the house of Brandt’s stepfather. Struensee had, moreover, helped him in Paris. Brandt had recentlybeen so far restored to favour as to be given a small appointment in Oldenburg, but no one expected that he would be recalled to court, and Holck was astonished and dismayed when Brandt suddenly appeared at Gottorp and was nominated a chamberlain by the King. Brandt noticed his enemy’s dismay, and said: “Monsieur le Comte, you look as if you had seen a spectre. Are you afraid?” To which Holck bitterly replied: “Oh no,Monsieur le Chambellan, it is not the spectre I fear, but his return”.Matilda was unwell during her stay at Gottorp, and her indisposition caused the court to remain there longer than had been intended. Struensee saw Prince Charles’s dislike of him, and was uneasy lest he should gain an influence over the King. The silent condemnation of the Viceroy made him impatient to be gone, and directly the Queen was sufficiently recovered to travel she and the King set out for Traventhal, a small royal castle in Holstein. This move furnished the opportunity of getting rid of Holck and his following. The excuse put forward was that Traventhal was not large enough to accommodate so numerous a suite, and therefore Count Holck and his wife, his sister, Madame von der Lühe, and her husband, Councillor Holstein, Chamberlain Luttichau, Gustavus Holck, a page, Fräulein von Eyben, and two more of the Queen’s maids of honour, were ordered to go back to Copenhagen. All these people were either related to Holck, or appointed through his influence, and ontheir return to the capital they learned that they were dismissed from office. Holck, perhaps in consideration of the fact that he had once befriended Struensee, was granted a pension of two thousand dollars, the others received nothing.Bernstorff, who went with the King and Queen to Traventhal, as minister in attendance, was not consulted concerning these dismissals, or in anything about the court. Woodford, the English minister of Lower Saxony, then at Hamburg, writes: “Mr. Bernstorff and the ministers appear to be entirely ignorant of these little arrangements, the royal confidence running in quite another direction”.[127]And again: “With regard to the court’s movements at Traventhal, nothing is known, for everything is kept a secret from those who, by their employments, ought to be informed”.[128]The Prime Minister, Bernstorff, was rarely allowed to see the King, for Brandt, who had now stepped into Holck’s vacant place, was always with his master, and made it his business to guard him against any influence that might be hostile to Struensee’s plans. Holck’s sudden dismissal filled Bernstorff with apprehension, which was increased by an important move which Struensee took soon after the arrival of the court at Traventhal—a move destined to exercise great influence on the future of both the favourite and the Queen. This was the recall to court of the notorious anti-Russian, Count Rantzau Ascheberg.[127]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 13, 1770.[128]Ibid., July 17, 1770.Schack Karl, Count zu Rantzau Ascheberg, whom for short we shall call Count Rantzau, had succeeded (on his father’s death in 1769) to vast estates in Holstein. Gunning, the English envoy, thus wrote of him:—“Count Rantzau is a son of the minister of that name who formerly spent some years at our court. He received some part of his education at Westminster School. His family is the first in Denmark. He is a man of ruined fortunes. It would be difficult to exhibit a character more profligate and abandoned. There are said to be few enormities of which he has not been guilty, and scarcely any place where he has not acted a vicious part. Rashness and revenge form very striking features in his character. With these qualities he possesses great imagination, vivacity and wit. He is most abundantly fertile in schemes and projects, which he forms one day and either forgets or ridicules the next. He would be a very dangerous man did not his great indiscretion put it into the power of his enemies to render many of his most mischievous designs abortive.”[129][129]Gunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, April 4, 1771.Rantzau had led an adventurous and dishonourable career. In his youth he had been a chamberlain at the Danish court, and had served in the army, eventually rising to the rank of major-general. In consequence of a court plot, he was banished from Copenhagen in 1752. He then entered the French army, but in Paris he became enamoured of anopera singer and resigned his commission to follow her about Europe. This part of his career, which occupied nearly ten years, was shrouded in mystery, but it was known that during it Rantzau had many scandalous adventures. Sometimes he travelled with all the luxury befitting his rank and station, at others he was at his wits’ end for money. At one time he lived at Rome, habited as a monk, and at another he travelledincognitowith a troupe of actors. He had absolutely no scruples, and seemed to be a criminal by nature. He was tried in Sicily for swindling, and only escaped imprisonment through the influence brought to bear on his judges. At Naples there was an ugly scandal of another nature, but the French envoy intervened, and saved him from punishment, in consideration of his birth and rank. In Genoa he got into trouble through drawing a bill on his father, whom he falsely described as the “Viceroy of Norway,” but his father repudiated the bill, as he had already repudiated his son, and again Rantzau narrowly escaped gaol. With such a record Keith was certainly justified in saying of him: “Count Rantzau would, ... if he had lived within reach of Justice Fielding, have furnished matter for an Old Bailey trial any one year of the last twenty of his life”.[130][130]Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir R. Murray Keith.In 1761, after the death of the Empress Elizabeth, when a war seemed imminent between Russia and Denmark, Rantzau, who wished to be on the stronger side, went to St. Petersburg and offered his servicesto Peter III., as a Holstein nobleman who owed allegiance to Russia rather than to Denmark. But even the sottish Tsar knew what manner of man the Holsteiner was, and rejected his offer with contumely. In revenge, Rantzau went over to Catherine and the Orloffs, and was involved in the conspiracy which resulted in the deposition and assassination of Peter III. When Catherine the Great was firmly seated upon the Russian throne she had no further need of Rantzau, and instead of rewarding him, ignored him. Rantzau therefore left St. Petersburg and returned to Holstein, a sworn foe of the Empress and eager for revenge on her. It was during this sojourn in Holstein that his acquaintance with Struensee began, and, as at this time Rantzau could get no help from his father, Struensee is said to have lent him money to go to Copenhagen, whither he went to regain his lost favour at the Danish court. In this he was foiled by the influence of the Russian envoy Filosofow, who was then all-powerful, and Rantzau was forced to return again to Holstein, where he remained until his father’s death in 1769—the year before the King and Queen came to Holstein on their tour.Rantzau should now have been a rich man, for in addition to the property he inherited from his father, he had married an heiress, the daughter of his uncle, Count Rantzau Oppendorft, by which marriage the estates of the two branches of the family were united. But Rantzau was crippled with debt, and on succeeding to his inheritance he continued to live a reckless, dissipated life, and indulged ingreat extravagance. On the other hand, he was a good landlord to his people, and they did whatever he wished. On account of his ancient name, vast estates and the devotion of his peasantry, Rantzau had much influence in Holstein, which he persistently used against Russia.Rantzau and Struensee had not forgotten their covenant of years ago, that if either attained power he should help the other. Even if Struensee had been inclined to forget it, Rantzau would have reminded him, but Filosofow’s public insult made Struensee determined to break the power of Russia in Denmark, and in Rantzau he found a weapon ready to his hand. He determined to recall Rantzau to court, because he knew that he, of all others, was most disliked by the Empress of Russia. Therefore, when the King and Queen arrived at Traventhal, Struensee wrote to Rantzau and asked him to come and pay his respects to their Majesties. Rantzau was admitted to audience of the King and Queen, who both received him very graciously. Rantzau was the most considerable noble in Holstein, and moreover, any favour shown to him would demonstrate that the Danish court would no longer brook the dictation of Russia in domestic matters. Therefore, when Rantzau, prompted by Struensee, prayed the King and Queen to honour him with a visit to his castle at Ascheberg, they at once consented. Attended by Struensee and Brandt they drove over from Traventhal and spent several days at Ascheberg.Rantzau entertained his royal guests with lavish magnificence, and, favoured by brilliant weather, the visit was a great success. There was a masque of flowers one day, there were rustic sports another, there was a hunting party on a third, and banquets every evening. The Queen took the first place at all the festivities (the King had ceased to be of account), and the splendour of her entertainment at Ascheberg recalled Elizabeth’s famous visit to Leicester at Kenilworth. Though Rantzau was fifty-three years of age, he was still a very handsome man, a born courtier, an exquisite beau, and skilled in all the arts of pleasing women. Had he been ten years younger he might have tried to eclipse Struensee in the Queen’s favour, but he was a cynical and shrewd observer, and saw that any such attempt was foredoomed to failure, so he contented himself with offering the most flattering homage to the young Queen. As a return for his sumptuous hospitality, Matilda gave Rantzau her husband’s gold snuff-box set with diamonds, which Christian had bought in London for one thousand guineas, and as a further mark of her favour, the Queen presented colours to the regiment at Glückstadt, commanded by Rantzau, of which she became honorary colonel. The presentation of these colours was made the occasion of a military pageant, and the court painter, Als, received commands to paint the Queen in her uniform as colonel. This picture was presented to Rantzau as a souvenir.The royal favours heaped upon Rantzau filledthe Russian party with dismay. The visit to Ascheberg had a political significance, which was emphasised by the Queen’s known resentment of Russian dictation. One of the Russian envoys, Saldern, had brought about the dismissal of her chief lady-in-waiting; another, Filosofow, had publicly affronted her favourite. The Queen neither forgot nor forgave. Woodford writes at this time: “Her Danish Majesty, formerly piqued at M. de Saldern’s conduct, and condescending at present to show little management for the Russian party, they are using every indirect influence to keep themselves in place”.[131][131]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 20, 1770.The defeat of the Russian party would involve necessarily the fall of Bernstorff, who, more than any other Danish minister, had identified himself with Russia. He was greatly perturbed at the visit to Ascheberg, which had been undertaken without consulting him. After the King and Queen returned to Traventhal the Prime Minister was treated even more rudely than before; he was no longer honoured with the royal invitation to dinner, but had to eat his meals in his own room, while Struensee and his creatures revelled below. The object of these slights was to force Bernstorff to resign, but he still clung to office, and strove by all possible means to mitigate the anti-Russian policy of the Queen and her advisers. To obtain private audience of the King was impossible, though he was livingunder the same roof. Bernstorff therefore drew up a memorandum, addressed to the King, in which he forcibly pointed out the displeasure with which Russia would view Rantzau’s appointment to any office, not only because of his well-known opposition to the territorial exchange, but because he was personally objectionable to the Empress, who would resent his promotion as an insult. Bernstorff’s memorandum was read by Struensee and the Queen, and though it made no difference to their policy, yet, as Struensee did not wish to imperil the exchange, he made Rantzau promise not to meddle further in this matter.[132]Rantzau gave the required promise, which was duly communicated to Bernstorff, and with this negative assurance he had to be content.[132]Though the treaty was signed in 1768, the actual exchange of territory between Russia and Denmark was not carried out until some years later. The original understanding was that it should wait until the Grand Duke Paul attained his majority and gave it his sanction.The King and Queen remained at Traventhal nearly a month in seclusion. The Queen was left without any of her ladies, and nearly the whole of the King’s suite had gone too. Except for Bernstorff, who was kept that Struensee might have an eye on him, the King and Queen were surrounded only by the favourite and his creatures. At Traventhal Struensee was very busy maturing his plans. In concert with Rantzau and General Gahler, an officer of some eminence who had been given a post in the royal household, Struensee discussedthe steps that were to be taken for overthrowing Bernstorff and the other ministers, and reforming the administration. There is nothing to show that the Queen took a leading part in these discussions, though she was of course consulted as a matter of form. Unlike her mother, the Princess-Dowager of Wales, or her grandmother, the illustrious Caroline, Matilda cared nothing for politics for their own sake, but she liked to have the semblance of power, and was jealous of her privileges as the reigning Queen. When she had a personal grievance against a minister, as against Bernstorff, she wished him removed, and when she was thwarted by a foreign influence, as in the case of Russia, she wished that influence broken; but otherwise it was a matter of indifference to her who filled the chief offices of state, or whether France or Russia reigned supreme at Copenhagen. Her good heart made her keenly solicitous for the welfare of her people, and some of the social reforms carried out by Struensee may have had their origin with the Queen; but for affairs of state in the larger sense Matilda cared nothing, and she lent herself blindly to abetting Struensee’s policy in all things. In complete abandonment she placed her hands beneath his feet and let him do with her as he would. Her birth as Princess of Great Britain, her rank as Queen of Denmark and Norway, her beauty, her talents, her popularity, were valued by her only as means whereby she might advance Struensee and his schemes.Rumours of the amazing state of affairs at the Danish court reached England in the spring of 1770, and before long George III. and the Princess-Dowager of Wales were acquainted with the sudden rise of Struensee, and the extraordinary favour shown to him by the Queen. They also heard of the check which Russia had received at Copenhagen, and the probability of Bernstorff (who was regarded as the friend of England) being hurled from power to make room for the ambitious adventurer. Too late George III. may have felt a twinge of remorse for having married his sister against her will to a profligate and foolish prince, and sent her, without a friend in the world, to encounter the perils and temptations of a strange court in a far-off land. Moreover, the political object for which Matilda had been sacrificed had signally failed. The marriage had in no way advanced English interests in the north. Russia and France had benefited by it, but England not at all. Now there seemed a probability that, with the fall of the Russian influence at Copenhagen, France, the enemy of England, would again be in the ascendant there. Both personal and political reasons therefore made it desirable that some remonstrance should be addressed to the Queen of Denmark by her brother of England. The matter was of too delicate and difficult a nature to be dealt with satisfactorily by letter, and there was the fear that Struensee might intercept the King’s letter to the Queen. Even if he did not venture thus far, he would be sure to learn its contents andseek to counteract its influence. In this difficulty George III. took counsel with his mother, with the result that on June 9, 1770, the Dowager-Princess of Wales set out from Carlton House for the Continent. It was announced that she was going to pay a visit to her daughter Augusta, Hereditary Princess of Brunswick.Royal journeys were not very frequent in these days, and as this was the first time the Princess-Dowager had quitted England since her marriage many years ago, her sudden departure gave rise to the wildest conjectures. It was generally believed that she was going to meet Lord Bute, who was still wandering in exile about Europe; some said that she was going to bring him back to England for the purpose of fresh intrigue; others that she was not returning to England at all, but meant to spend the rest of her life with Bute in an Italian palace. Against these absurd rumours was to be set the fact that the Duke of Gloucester accompanied his mother, and more charitable persons supposed that she was trying to break off hisliaisonwith Lady Waldegrave, for their secret marriage had not yet been published. Some declared that the Princess-Dowager and Queen Charlotte had had a battle royal, in which the mother-in-law had been signally routed, and was leaving the country to cover her confusion. Others, and this seemed the most probable conjecture, thought that she was going abroad for a little time to escape the scandal which had been brought upon the royal family byher youngest son, Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland.Augusta, Princess of Wales, mother of Queen Matilda.AUGUSTA, PRINCESS OF WALES, MOTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA.After a Painting by J. B. Vanloo.The Duke of Cumberland was the least amiable of the sons of Frederick Prince of Wales. Physically and mentally he was a degenerate. Walpole pictures him as a garrulous, dissipated and impudent youth, vulgarly boasting his rank, yet with a marked predilection for low society. Unfortunately he did not confine himself to it, but betrayed to her ruin a young and beautiful woman of rank, the Countess Grosvenor, daughter of Henry Vernon and wife of Richard, first Earl Grosvenor. Lord Grosvenor discovered the intrigue, and brought an action of divorce in which the Duke of Cumberland figured as co-respondent. For the first time in England a prince of the blood appeared in the divorce court, and, what was worse, cut a supremely ridiculous and contemptible figure in it. Several of the Duke’s letters to the Lady Grosvenor were read in court, and were so grossly ill-spelt and illiterate that they were greeted with shouts of derision, and furnished eloquent comment upon the education of the King’s brother.[133][133]Lord Grosvenor got his divorce, and the jury awarded him £10,000 damages, which the Duke had great difficulty in paying, and George III., much to his disgust, had to arrange for settlement to avoid a further scandal. So base a creature was this royal Lothario that he abandoned to her shame the woman whom he had betrayed, and scarcely had the verdict been pronounced than he began another disreputable intrigue.It was easy to imagine, had there been no other reason, that the Princess-Dowager of Wales would be glad to be out of England while these proceedingswere being made public. The King, who lived a virtuous and sober life, and his intensely respectable Queen Charlotte, were scandalised beyond measure at these revelations, and the possibility of another, and even worse, scandal maturing in Denmark filled them with dismay. At present the secret was well kept in England. Whatever the English envoy might write in private despatches, or Prince Charles of Hesse retail through his mother, or the Princess Augusta transmit from Brunswick respecting the indiscretions of Matilda, no whisper was heard in England at this time, outside the inner circle of the royal family. Therefore all the conjectures as to the reason of the Princess-Dowager’s visit to the Continent were wide of the mark. The real motive of her journey was not even hinted.The Princess-Dowager was hooted as she drove through the streets of Canterbury on her way to Dover, and so great was her unpopularity that it was rumoured that London would be illuminated in honour of her departure. The Princess, as announced, travelled first to Brunswick, where she was received by her daughter Augusta and the rest of the ducal family with honour and affection. It was arranged that the King and Queen of Denmark, who were then at Traventhal, should also journey to Brunswick and join the family circle. Everything was prepared for their coming, the town was decorated and a programme of festivities drawn up, when suddenly the Grand Marshal of the King of Denmark arrived at Brunswick with the news thatthe Queen was ill, and unable to travel so far. That Matilda’s illness was feigned there can be little doubt, for she was well enough the next day to go out hunting as usual with Struensee by her side, and in the evening she played cards until midnight. The incident showed how greatly the Queen had changed, for Matilda’s family affections were strong, and under other circumstances she would have been overjoyed at the prospect of meeting her mother after years of separation, and seeing again her favourite sister Augusta. But Struensee knew that the journey of the Princess-Dowager boded no good to his plans, and persuaded the Queen to offer this affront to her mother.The Princess-Dowager, who had a shrewd idea of the nature of her daughter’s illness, was not to be outwitted in this way, and she proposed a meeting at Lüneburg, a town situated between Celle and Hamburg, in the electorate of Hanover. Lüneburg was much nearer Traventhal than Brunswick, and Matilda could not excuse herself on the ground of the length of the journey. If she made that pretext, the Princess-Dowager proposed to come to Traventhal, where she might have seen more than it was desirable for her to see. So Struensee made the Queen choose what he thought was the lesser evil, and write to her mother that she would meet her at Lüneburg; but he was careful to deprive the visit of every mark of ceremony, and to make it as brief as possible.The King and Queen of Denmark arrived atLüneburg late in the evening, attended only by Struensee and Warnstedt, who were seated in the coach with them. Matilda did not bring with her a lady-in-waiting, and one coach only followed with a couple of servants and some luggage. There was no palace at Lüneburg, and the King and Queen lodged for the night in one of the fine Renaissance houses in the main street of the old town. The interview between the Princess-Dowager and her daughter took place that same evening, late though it was. Struensee was present in the room the whole time, though the Princess-Dowager pointedly ignored him. She addressed her daughter in English, of which she knew Struensee was ignorant, but to her anger and surprise Matilda pretended to have forgotten it, and she answered always in German that Struensee might understand. Under these circumstances the conversation was necessarily constrained and formal; the Princess-Dowager did not conceal her displeasure, and retired to bed discomfited.The next morning at eleven o’clock she sent for her daughter again, and this time succeeded in having a talk with her alone. What passed between them cannot certainly be known, but its import was generally guessed. The Princess-Dowager was said to have told her daughter that the dismissal of Bernstorff would be much regretted by George III., as he had always been a friend of England and its royal family, and it would, moreover, be disastrous to Denmark. Whereupon the Queen haughtilyrejoined: “Pray, madam, allow me to govern my kingdom as I please”. The Princess, annoyed by this want of respect, unmasked her batteries forthwith, and roundly scolded her daughter for the extraordinary favours she gave to Struensee. Matilda at first would not listen, but when her mother persisted, and declared that her conduct would end in disgrace and ruin, she retorted with an allusion to the supposedliaisonbetween her mother and Lord Bute, which wounded the Princess past forgiveness. The interview only widened the breach. As a matter of form the King had invited his mother-in-law to Copenhagen, but the invitation was now curtly refused. The Princess saw that she could do no good, and she did not care to countenance by her presence a state of affairs of which she did not approve. The King and Queen of Denmark left Lüneburg in the afternoon, the Princess a few hours later; mother and daughter parted in anger, and they never met again.Struensee must have felt a great sense of relief when the King of Denmark’s coach rolled out of Lüneburg on the way back to Altona. He had dreaded the meeting between the Queen and her mother, and had striven to prevent it by every means in his power. But when that was no longer possible, he had long and anxious consultations with the Queen, and prompted her how she was to act and what she was to say. Even so he could not be quite sure of the line the Princess-Dowager might take. If she had spoken to her daughter gently,reasoned with her, pleaded with her in love, and appealed to her with tears, she might have had some effect, for Matilda was very warm-hearted and impressionable. But these were not the stern Princess’s methods; she had been accustomed to command her children, and her haughty, overbearing tone and contemptuous reproaches stung the spirited young Queen to the quick, and made her resent what she called her mother’s unjust suspicions and unwarrantable interference. So the result was all that Struensee wished. Woodford, who had been commanded by George III. to attend the Princess-Dowager during her stay in Lüneburg, writes in a despatch of “the agitation that was visible in Mr. Struensee upon his arrival first at Lüneburg, and the joy that could be seen in his countenance as the moment of departure approached”.[134][134]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, marked “private,” Hamburg, August 21, 1770.Struensee now felt that the time was ripe for him to come forward as the exponent of a new foreign policy for Denmark, and as the reformer of internal abuses. He was no longer the doctor, but the councillor and adviser of the Crown. He had flouted Russia and prevailed against the influence of England. What power was there to withstand him?

THE TEMPTER.

1769-1770.

A single interview sufficed to break down the Queen’s prejudice against Struensee. His manner was so tactful and deferential; he seemed to be so grieved at her condition, and so anxious to serve her that before he withdrew she was convinced she had misjudged him. He was as skilful as he was sympathetic; the remedies he prescribed took effect almost immediately, and when the doctor again waited on his royal patient he found her better. Struensee’s visits were repeated daily, and as Matilda improved in health she was naturally grateful to the physician who wrought this change. She also became attracted by his tact and courtesy, so different from the treatment she met with from Holck and his party. She began to talk to the doctor on general subjects, and discovered that he was an extremely intelligent and well-read man. Struensee flattered himself that he had even more knowledge of the human heart—and especially of the heart of woman—than of medicine. He sought to amuse and distract the Queen, until she looked forward to his visits with pleasure,and every day gave him longer audience than before.

Struensee was one of those doctors who find out what their patients like to do, and then advise them to do it, and after several conversations with the Queen, he arrived at most of her likes and dislikes. The Queen, having been bred in England, was fond of an outdoor life. In Denmark at that time ladies of rank never went outside their gates except in a carriage, and for them to ride or walk about the streets was unknown. Struensee advised that the Queen should set a precedent, and walk and ride when, and where, she pleased. In pursuance of this advice the Queen, a few days later, to the astonishment of many, was seen walking briskly about the streets of Copenhagen, attended by her ladies. She also rode a great deal, and, though she did not at first appear in public on horseback, she spent hours riding about the park and woods of Frederiksborg. Matilda much enjoyed her new-found freedom, which made a great flutter in all grades of society in Copenhagen. The DanishMercurywrote a poem on the subject of the Queen walking in the town ending with the lines:—

Thanks, Matilda, thanks for the discovery,You’ve taught healthy women to use their legs.

Thanks, Matilda, thanks for the discovery,You’ve taught healthy women to use their legs.

Thanks, Matilda, thanks for the discovery,You’ve taught healthy women to use their legs.

Thanks, Matilda, thanks for the discovery,

You’ve taught healthy women to use their legs.

Struensee also advised the Queen that it was bad for her to remain so much alone. She must have amusement, surround herself with cheerful people and join in the court festivities. He hinted that it was advisable for her to take a more prominent part in these ceremonials, not only because of her health, but because it was incumbent upon her position as the reigning Queen, which, he added discreetly, some people about the court did not seem to respect as they should do. Matilda, who was not very wise, rose to the bait, and before long confided to her physician the mortification and annoyance she suffered from Holck and his following. Struensee listened sympathetically, and told the Queen that though he had not ventured to mention the matter before, he had noticed with amazement and indignation the scant consideration paid to her at her own court. The desire of his heart, he said, was to serve her, and if she would only listen to him, he would improve this state of affairs as surely as he had improved her health. Here the doctor obviously stepped outside his province, but the Queen, far from rebuking him, encouraged him to proceed. Struensee then said deferentially that, since all power and authority came from the King, the Queen would be well advised to court his favour. This advice was not so palatable to Matilda as the other he had given her, especially at this juncture. She could not forget in a moment how cruelly she had been wronged, and she hesitated. Then Struensee changed his note and urged the Queen’s own interest. He spoke to her plainly of the King’s failing mental powers, and declared that henceforth he must always be ruled by some one. It were better, therefore, that the Queen should rule him than another, for by doing so she would gatherthe regal power into her own hands and so confound her enemies. The King was anxious to repair the past; it was for the Queen to meet him half-way.

The Queen suspiciously asked the doctor what was his object in striving to mediate between her and the King. Struensee replied, with every appearance of frankness, that he was studying his own interests quite as much as those of the King and Queen. The King had been pleased to show him especial marks of his favour, and he wished to remain in his present position. He had noticed that all the preceding favourites of the King had striven to promote disunion between Christian and his consort, and they had, one after another, fallen out of favour and been banished from court. Their fate was a warning to him, and an instinct of self-preservation prompted him to bring about a union between the King and Queen, because by so doing he was convinced that he would inevitably strengthen his own position.

After some hesitation Matilda proceeded to act on this advice also, and, short of admitting the King to intimacy, she sought in every way to please him. The King, also prompted by Struensee, responded with alacrity to his wife’s overtures, and came to lean upon the Queen more and more. Before long Matilda’s influence over her husband became obvious to all. The young Queen delighted in the deference and homage which the time-serving courtiers now rendered to her. Holck’s star was on the wane; he still filled the post of Master of the Ceremonies, butit was the Queen who commanded the revels, and changed, or countermanded, Holck’s programme as she pleased.

Struensee was now surely gaining ground. Both the King and the Queen placed their confidence in him, with the result, as he predicted, that he stood on a firmer footing than any former favourite. The Queen gave him audience every day, and the conversations between them became more intimate and more prolonged. There was nothing, however, at first to show that the Queen had anything more than a liking for the clever doctor, whose society amused and interested her, and whose zeal in her service was apparently heart-whole. Everything so far had succeeded exactly as Struensee foretold, and the vision of future happiness and power, which he portrayed in eloquent terms, dazzled the young Queen’s imagination, while his homage and devotion flattered her vanity.

Struensee’s appearance and manner were such as to impress any woman. He was thirty-two years of age, tall and broad shouldered, and in the full strength of manhood. Though not really handsome, he appeared to be so in a dashing way, and he made the most of all his points and dressed with consummate taste. He had light brown hair, flashing eyes, an aquiline nose and a high forehead. He carried himself well, and there was about him a suggestion of reserved strength, both mental and physical. His manner to the Queen was a combination of deference and easy assurance, which pleasedher mightily. By the end of January, 1770, the Queen no longer needed medical advice, but she required Struensee’s services in other ways, and the more she saw of him the more she became attracted to him. Soon a further mark of the royal favour was shown to the doctor, and a handsome suite of rooms was given him in the Christiansborg Palace.

Holck was the first to take alarm at the growing influence of the new favourite, and came to regard him as a rival who would ultimately drive him from court. Struensee looked upon Holck with contempt, and was indifferent whether he went or stayed. But the Queen insisted that he must go at the first opportunity, and Struensee promised that her wishes should be obeyed in this, as in all things—in a little time. Holck confided his fears to Bernstorff, warned him that the doctor was playing for high stakes, and advised him to remove Struensee from the King’s person before it was too late. To the aristocratic Bernstorff, however, it seemed impossible that a man of the doctor’s birth and antecedents could be any real danger, and he laughed at Holck’s warning. This is the more surprising, as both the Russian and English envoys spoke to the Prime Minister about the sudden rise of Struensee, and advised him to watch it well. The Russian minister, Filosofow, went further, and presumed to make some remarks to the King on the subject, which Christian ignored at the time, but afterwards repeated to Struensee and the Queen.

This interference on the part of Filosofow wasno new thing. For some years the Russian envoy had practically dictated to the Danish King whom he should appoint and whom he should dismiss from his service. He even presumed to meddle in the private affairs of the Danish court, no doubt at the instigation of his mistress, Catherine the Great. The Danish King and Government submitted to this bondage until the treaty was signed, by which Russia exchanged her claims on Schleswig-Holstein for the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. As this exchange was eagerly desired by Denmark, the mere threat of stopping it threw the King and his ministers into alarm, and made Russia mistress of the situation. Curiously enough Filosofow, who was a very astute diplomatist, did not realise the changed state of affairs, and continued to dictate to the King as before. The haughty Russian did not consider Struensee to be of any account from a political point of view, but personally he objected to meeting him on terms of equality. He had also, it was said, a grievance against Struensee, because he had outrivalled him in the affections of a beautiful lady of the Danish court. For some time he fretted at the royal favour shown to the upstart doctor, and at last he showed his contempt for him by a public act of insolence.

It chanced in this wise. Wishing to conciliate the Danish monarch, Filosofow gave a splendid entertainment to the King and Queen at the Russian embassy. It consisted of an Italian opera, composed for the occasion, and performed by personsof fashion about the court,[120]and was followed by a banquet. Struensee, who was now invited to the court entertainments, as a member of the third class, was present, and so marked was the favour shown him by the King and Queen that he was admitted to the box where the royal personages were. Filosofow, in his capacity of host, was also in the box, and he was so much irritated at the presence of the doctor that he showed his disgust by spitting on his coat. Struensee, with great self-control, treated the insult as though it were an accident, wiped his coat, and said nothing. Filosofow immediately insulted him again in the same way. This time the action was so unmistakable that Struensee withdrew from the royal box, and later demanded satisfaction of Filosofow. The Russian treated the challenge with contempt. He said that in his country an ambassador did not fight a duel with a common doctor, but he would take his revenge in another way, and give him a sound thrashing with his cane. Whether he carried out his threat is uncertain, but it is certain that Struensee never forgave the insult. The Queen also resented the flouting of her favourite, and, despite the attempted mediation of Bernstorff, she ignored Filosofow at court, and spoke with dislike of him and his mistress, the Empress Catherine, who, she thought, was responsible for her envoy’s meddlesome policy. A few months before it would have mattered littlewhat the Queen thought, or did not think, but now her influence with the King was growing every day.

[120]VideGunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, March 31, 1770.Ibid., April 24, 1770.

[120]VideGunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, March 31, 1770.Ibid., April 24, 1770.

Eventually Filosofow had to retire from Copenhagen and give place to another, but that was not yet. At this time he again warned Bernstorff that his days of power were numbered, unless he forthwith took steps to get Struensee removed from court. In this the envoy proved more far-sighted than the minister, for Bernstorff still considered it an incredible thing that his position could be seriously threatened. Yet within a month of the Russian’s warning the extraordinary favour which Struensee enjoyed with the King and Queen was further demonstrated.

The small-pox raged in Denmark in the spring of this year, 1770, and in Copenhagen alone twelve hundred children died of it. Struensee advised that the Crown Prince should be inoculated as a prevention. Inoculation had lately been introduced into Denmark, and Struensee’s suggestion was met with a storm of protest from some of the nobility, all the clergy and many of the doctors. Despite this Struensee carried his point; he inoculated the Crown Prince and watched over him in the brief illness that followed. Matilda herself nursed her son, and would not leave his bedside day or night. Her presence in the sick-room threw the Queen and the doctor continually together. Struensee was justified of his wisdom, for the Crown Prince not only escaped the small-pox, but soon rallied from the inoculation which it had been freely prophesied would cause his death. The doctor was rewarded with signal marks of the royal favour; he was given the title of Conferenzrath, or Councillor of Conference, which elevated him to the second class, and was appointed reader to the King,lecteur du roi, and private secretary to the Queen, with a salary of three thousand dollars. Ministers were amazed at the sudden elevation of the favourite, and began to ask themselves whither all this was tending.

Step by step as Struensee rose in honour Matilda gained in power. It was now apparent to all about the court that the Queen, and not the King, was the real ruler of Denmark. The Queen’s ascendency over her consort was so great that he did nothing without her approval. She in turn was guided by Struensee; but, whereas the Queen’s authority was seen by all, Struensee’s power at this time was only guessed at. His plans were not matured. The prize was within his grasp, but he was careful not to snatch at it too soon lest he should lose it altogether. Struensee now accompanied the King and Queen wherever they went, and, since his elevation to the second rank, dined at the royal table. Bernstorff seems to have thought that these privileges were all that Struensee cared about, and given money, a title and social position the doctor would be content, like Holck, with the royal favour, and leave politics alone. He little knew that Struensee in his heart despised these things; they were to him merely the means to an end, and that end was power. In his pursuitof power Struensee swept every consideration aside. Honour, duty and gratitude were nothing to him provided he gained his desire. In his belief in his destiny, his great abilities, his soaring ambition and complete heedlessness of every one save himself, this extraordinary man was a type of theuebermensch.

Struensee’s treatment of the Queen was an example of his utter unscrupulousness. Her condition when he came to court would have moved any man to pity. Her youth, her beauty and her friendlessness appealed to every sentiment of chivalry. The conditions under which Struensee made her acquaintance were the most intimate and delicate. He quickly gained her confidence; she trusted him from the first, and showed her gratitude by heaping favours upon him. Everything that came to Struensee in the next few years—honour, place and power—he owed to the Queen, and to her alone. Common gratitude, apart from any other consideration, should have led him to treat her honourably, but from the beginning he was false to her. He who came in the guise of a deliverer was really her evil genius. The young Queen was never anything to him but a means to an end. Adventurer and intriguer as he was, Struensee had marked Matilda down as his prey before he was admitted to her presence, and she fell an easy victim to his wiles. He made use of her as a shield, behind which he could work in safety. She was to be the buffer between him and his enemies; she was to be the ladder by which hewould rise in power. To this end he tempted her with consummate art. He was first her confidential physician, then her devoted servant, then her friend and counsellor, and then her lover. This last phase was necessary to the success of his plans, and he deliberately lured his victim to her ruin in order that he might gain absolute mastery over her. Struensee gradually acquired over the Queen an almost mesmeric power, and she became so completely under his influence that she obeyed his wishes like an automaton. But it did not need hypnotism to cause a woman so tempted, so beset on every side as Matilda was, to fall. She had inherited from her father an amorous, pleasure-loving nature; she was of a warm, affectionate disposition, which had been driven back on itself by her husband’s cruelty and infidelities. Now, it was true, the King was anxious to make amends, but it was too late. Christian had greatly changed in appearance during the last year. Though little over twenty, he already looked like an old man, very thin, with sharp, drawn features and dead-looking eyes. Matilda, on the contrary, was in the full flood of womanhood; her blood flowed warmly in her veins, yet she was tied to a husband who, from his excesses, was ruined mentally and physically, and she was tempted by a lover in the full strength of his manhood, a lover who was both ardent and masterful, and whose strength of will broke down all her defences as though they had been built of cards. Moreover, her environment was bad—as bad as itcould be. The atmosphere of the court was one of undisguised immorality; the marriage tie was openly mocked at and derided. The King had often told her to go her own way and let him go his, and now so far from showing any signs of jealousy, he seemed to take a delight in watching the growth of the intimacy between his wife and the confidential physician. He was always sending Struensee to the Queen’s chamber on some pretext or another, and the more Matilda showed her liking for Struensee’s society the more the King seemed to be pleased. That clever devil, opportunity, was all on Struensee’s side.

The Queen had no safeguards against temptation but those which arose from the promptings of her own conscience. That she did not yield without a struggle, that the inward conflict was sharp and bitter, there is evidence to prove.

O keep me innocent, make others great!

O keep me innocent, make others great!

O keep me innocent, make others great!

O keep me innocent, make others great!

was the pathetic prayer she wrote on the window of the chapel of Frederiksborg[121]at a time, when in the corridors andante-chambersof the palace Struensee was plotting his tortuous intrigues, all of which started from the central point of his relations with the Queen. It was he who wished to be great, she who was to make him great, and to this end he demanded the sacrifice of her innocence. The poor young Queen knew her peril, but she was like abird fascinated by a snake. She fluttered a little, helplessly, and then fell.

[121]This window, with the Queen’s writing cut with a diamond on a pane of glass, was destroyed by the great fire at Frederiksborg in 1859.

[121]This window, with the Queen’s writing cut with a diamond on a pane of glass, was destroyed by the great fire at Frederiksborg in 1859.

The struggle was prolonged for some months, but the end was certain from the first. It was probably during the spring of 1770 that the flood of passion broke the Queen’s last barriers down. Her enemies afterwards declared that she entered on this fatal dalliance about the time of the Crown Prince’s illness. Certain it is that after Struensee had been appointed her private secretary, a marked change took place in Matilda’s manner and bearing. She is no longer a pathetic figure of wronged and youthful innocence, but appears as a beautiful and self-willed woman who is dominated by a great passion. There were no half measures about Matilda; her love for Struensee was the one supreme love of her life; it was a love so unselfish and all-absorbing, so complete in its abandonment, that it wrung reluctant admiration even from those who blamed it most.

Once the Rubicon crossed, reserve, discretion, even ordinary prudence, were thrown to the winds. Struensee’s object seems to have been to compromise the Queen as much as possible, so that she could not draw back. He was always with her, and she granted him privileges which, as Reverdil says, “would have ruined the reputation of any ordinary woman,” though it has been pleaded, on the other hand, that her indifference to appearances was a proof of her innocence. The Queen and her favourite were inseparable; he was admitted to herapartments at all hours; she took solitary walks with him in the gardens and woods, and she frequently drove and rode out alone with him; at balls and masquerades, at the theatre and the opera, he was always by her side; and in public and at court she followed him with her eyes, and did not attempt to disguise the predilection she had for him.

The Queen had no one to remonstrate with her, or guard her from the consequences of her imprudence. It was thought by some that the first use Matilda would make of her new-found power would be to recall Madame de Plessen, whose dismissal against her will she had bitterly lamented. It would have been well for her if she had done so, for Madame de Plessen would have saved her from herself. But if the idea crossed her mind, Struensee would not permit it, for he well knew that the presence of this strict duenna would be fatal to his plans. Madame von der Lühe, Madame de Plessen’s successor, though she shook her head in private, did not venture to remonstrate with her mistress; her position, she felt, was insecure, and she thought to strengthen it by compliance with the Queen’s whims. The maid of honour, Fräulein von Eyben, and some of the inferior women of the Queen’s household, secretly spied on their mistress, set traps for her, and generally sought occasion to harm her. But their opportunity was not yet, for the Queen was all-powerful. Matilda had always found the stiff etiquette of the Danish court wearisome; at Struensee’s advice she abolished it altogether in private, and dispensed with the attendance of her ladies, except in public. This enabled her to see the doctor for hours alone—not that she made any secret of these interviews. On the contrary, she talked quite freely to her ladies about her friendship with Struensee, and accounted for her preference by declaring that she owed him a debt of gratitude for all he had done, and was doing, for her. He always took her part; she said, “he had much sense and a good heart”. And it must be admitted he had apparently rendered her service; her health was re-established, and her life was fuller and happier. No longer was she slighted and set aside; she reigned supreme at her court, and all, even her former enemies, sought to win her smiles.

The Queen’s relations with the King were now uniformly friendly, and he seemed quite content to leave authority in her hands. In return she strove to humour him, and even stooped to gratify some of his most absurd whims. It has already been stated that the imbecile Christian had a weakness for seeing women in men’s attire; “Catherine of the Gaiters” captivated him most when she donned the uniform of an officer in his service, and the complaisance of the former mistress on this point was at least explicable. But Matilda was his wife and not his mistress, his Queen and not his fancy of an hour, yet she did not hesitate to array herself in male attire to please her husband, at the suggestion of her lover. It may be, too, that she wished to imitate in this, as in other things, the Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, who frequently woreuniforms and rodeen homme. However this may be, Matilda adopted a riding-habit made like that of a man, and rode astride. The Queen often went out hunting with Struensee, or rode by his side through the city, in this extraordinary attire. She wore a dove-colour beaver hat with a deep gold band and tassels, a long scarlet coat, faced with gold, a buff, gold-laced waistcoat, a frilled shirt with a lace kerchief, buckskin small-clothes and spurs. She had other riding-habits of different designs, but this was the one in which she most frequently appeared in public. She was always splendidly mounted and rode fearlessly. On horseback she looked a Diana, but when she dismounted she did not appear to the same advantage, for the riding-habit made her seem shorter than she really was, and she already showed a tendency to stoutness, which the small-clothes did not minimise. The Queen, however, was so enamoured of her male attire that she frequently walked about the palace all day in it, to the offence of many and the derision of others.[122]

[122]The Queen set the fashion to ride in male attire, and it soon became the custom among the ladies of Copenhagen. Keith wrote a year later: “An abominable riding-habit, with black slouched hat, has been almost universally introduced here, which gives every woman an air of an awkward postilion, and all the time I have been in Denmark I have never seen the Queen out in any other garb”.—Memoirs.

[122]The Queen set the fashion to ride in male attire, and it soon became the custom among the ladies of Copenhagen. Keith wrote a year later: “An abominable riding-habit, with black slouched hat, has been almost universally introduced here, which gives every woman an air of an awkward postilion, and all the time I have been in Denmark I have never seen the Queen out in any other garb”.—Memoirs.

The adoption of this riding-habit greatly tended to lessen the Queen’s popularity, while her intimacy with Struensee before long caused it to disappear altogether. The staider and more respectable portion of the community were ready to believe any evilof a woman who went out riding like a man, and the clergy in particular were horrified; but acting on Struensee’s advice, the Queen never troubled to conciliate the clergy. This was a great mistake in a puritanical country like Denmark, where the Church had great power, if not in the immediate circle of the court, at least among the upper and middle classes. Even the semi-barbarous Danish nobility were disgusted. That the young and beautiful Queen should have a favourite was perhaps, under the circumstances, only to be expected; if he had been one of their own order, the weakness would have been excused. But that she should stoop to a man ofbourgeoisorigin, a mere doctor, who was regarded by the haughty nobles as little above the level of a menial, was a thing which admitted of no palliation.[123]But the Queen, blinded by her passion, was indifferent to praise or blame, and Struensee took a delight in demonstrating his power over her under their very eyes. It was the favourite’s mean revenge for the insults he had suffered from these nobles.

[123]Even Frederick the Great (who was very broad-minded) wrote: “L’acces que le médecin eut à la cour lui fit gagner imperceptiblement plus d’ascendant sur l’esprit de la reine qu’il n’etoit convenable à un homme de cette extraction”.

[123]Even Frederick the Great (who was very broad-minded) wrote: “L’acces que le médecin eut à la cour lui fit gagner imperceptiblement plus d’ascendant sur l’esprit de la reine qu’il n’etoit convenable à un homme de cette extraction”.

Queen Sophia Magdalena, grandmother of Christian VII.QUEEN SOPHIA MAGDALENA, GRANDMOTHER OF CHRISTIAN VII.

QUEEN SOPHIA MAGDALENA, GRANDMOTHER OF CHRISTIAN VII.

At the end of May, 1770, the old Queen Sophia Magdalena died at the palace of Christiansborg. For the last few years of her life she had lived in strict retirement, and had long ceased to exercise any influence over her grandson, the King, in political affairs. The aged widow of Christian VI. was muchreverenced by the conservative party in Denmark, and they complained that the court treated her memory with disrespect. One incident in particular moved them to deep indignation, and, if true, it showed how greatly Matilda had deteriorated under the influence of her favourite. The body of Sophia Magdalena was embalmed, and lay in state for some days in the palace of Christiansborg. The public was admitted, and a great number of people of all classes and ages, clad in mourning, availed themselves of this opportunity of paying honour to the dead Queen. It was stated in Copenhagen by Matilda’s enemies that she showed her lack of good-feeling by passing through the mourners in the room where the Queen-Mother lay in state, leaning on the arm of Struensee, and clad in the riding-habit which had excited the reprobation of Sophia Magdalena’s adherents. This story was probably a malicious invention,[124]but it is certain that the court mourning for the venerable Queen-Mother was limited to the shortest possible period, and the King and Queen a few days after her death removed to Frederiksborg, where they lived in the same manner as before. Neither the King nor the Queen attended the public funeral at Röskilde, where the kings and queens of Denmark were buried, and Prince Frederick went as chief mourner. Rightly or wrongly, the reigning Queen was blamed for all this.

[124]It rests on the authority of Wittich (Struensee, by K. Wittich, 1879), who is bitterly hostile to Queen Matilda.

[124]It rests on the authority of Wittich (Struensee, by K. Wittich, 1879), who is bitterly hostile to Queen Matilda.

THE QUEEN’S FOLLY.

1770.

Struensee, who was now sure of his position with the King and Queen, resolved to carry out his plans, and obtain the object of his ambition—political power. In order to gain this it was necessary that the ministers holding office should one by one be removed, and the back of the Russian party in Copenhagen be broken. The Queen was quite agreeable to every change that Struensee suggested; she only stipulated that her detested enemy, Holck, should go first, and his friends at court follow. Struensee agreed, but in these matters it was necessary to move with great caution, and await a favourable opportunity to strike. Quite unwittingly Holck played into his enemies’ hands; the great thing, as either party knew well, was to gain possession of the King, who would sign any paper laid before him. A page, named Warnstedt, who was always about the person of the King, was Struensee’s friend, and Holck therefore resolved to get rid of him and appoint a creature of his own. He thought he could best effect this by taking the King away from his present surroundings, and hetherefore proposed to Christian that he should make another tour through the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The King agreed, and Holck was jubilant, for he knew that if he could only get the King to himself the power of Struensee would be shaken. To his dismay, the Queen announced that she intended to accompany her husband. She was anxious, she said, to see the duchies, and had no intention of being left behind again. Notwithstanding the difficulties which Holck raised, the King offered no objection, and even expressed pleasure that his Queen would accompany him. The Queen’s going meant, of course, that her favourite would go too. Struensee hailed the prospect of the tour; he had long been wishing to get the King and Queen away from the capital in order that he might better effect the changes he had in contemplation.

The preparations for the tour were pushed on apace. The King and Queen were to be attended by a numerous suite. Holck, Struensee and Warnstedt were to be in attendance, and all the ladies of the Queen’s household. Of ministers only Bernstorff, the Prime Minister, was to accompany them, and the same council of three, Thott, Moltke and Rosenkrantz, who had managed public business at Copenhagen during the King’s former tour, were to conduct it again, but under limitations. They received express orders from the King not to have any transactions with foreign envoys during his absence, and if any matter of urgency occurredthey were to communicate with him in writing before deciding on any plan of action. These instructions were, of course, dictated to the King by Struensee. Bernstorff was astonished and indignant when he heard of them, for he guessed the quarter whence they came. He began to fear that his position was threatened, and, too late, regretted that he had not taken the repeated advice of his friends and removed Struensee while there was time. He knew, though the English influence was on his side, that he had nothing to hope from the Queen; he had offended her past forgiveness by insisting on the dismissal of Madame de Plessen, and by wishing to exclude her from the regency. He started on the tour with great misgivings. But he had been in office so long that even now he could not imagine the government of the kingdom going on without him, forgetting that no man is indispensable.

On June 20, 1770, the royal party arrived at Gottorp Castle in Schleswig, an ancient and unpretending edifice on the edge of a lake, which was then occupied by Prince Charles of Hesse, whom the King had appointed Viceroy of the Duchies. The Viceroy and his wife, Princess Louise, drove out a league from Gottorp to meet the King and Queen, and their greetings were most cordial, especially those between Matilda and her sister-in-law. The King, too, was very friendly, though Prince Charles saw a great change in him. He seemed to rally his failing powers a little at Gottorp.

Prince Charles noticed with amazement howgreat a power Struensee had acquired; it was the first time he had seen the favourite, and he took a strong dislike to him, which, perhaps, coloured the description he gave of the visit. “After an hour’s conversation,” writes Prince Charles [on arriving at Gottorp], “in which we recalled past times, the Queen took me by the arm and said: ‘Now, escort me to Princess Louise’s apartments, but do not take me through the ante-chamber’—where the suite were assembled. We almost ran along the corridor to the side door by the staircase, and then we saw some of the suite coming downstairs. The Queen espied Struensee among them, and said hastily: ‘I must go back; do not keep me!’ I replied that I could not well leave her Majesty alone in the passage. ‘No! no!’ she cried, ‘go to the Princess,’ and she fled down the corridor.” [Struensee had probably forbidden the Queen to talk to the Princess alone.] “I was much astonished, but I obeyed her commands. She was always ill at ease with me when Struensee was present; at table he invariably seated himself opposite to her.”[125]

[125]Mémoires de mon Temps.

[125]Mémoires de mon Temps.

Prince Charles and his wife noted with great regret the change in the Queen; they remembered that she was only eighteen, they made allowance for her good heart and her lively spirits, but even so they grieved to see her forget her self-respect, and indulge in amusements which hurt her reputation. They ascribed this change to the perniciousinfluence of Struensee. She seemed frightened of him, and trembled, when he spoke to her, like a bird, ensnared. Frequently he so far forgot himself as to treat her with scant respect. For instance, Prince Charles writes: “The King’s dinner was dull. The Queen afterwards played at cards. I was placed on her right, Struensee on her left; Brandt, a new arrival, and Warnstedt, a chamberlain, completed the party. I hardly like to describe Struensee’s behaviour to the Queen, or repeat the remarks he dared address to her openly, while he leant his arm on the table close to her. ‘Well, why don’t you play?’ ‘Can’t you hear?’ and so forth. I confess my heart was grieved to see this Princess, endowed with so much sense and so many good qualities, fallen to such a point and into hands so bad.”[126]

[126]Mémoires de mon Temps.

[126]Mémoires de mon Temps.

While the King and Queen were at Gottorp Struensee carried out the first of his changes, and recalled Brandt to court. Brandt, it will be remembered, had been banished from Copenhagen, and even from the country, at the suggestion of Holck. He had sought to regain the King’s favour when he was in Paris, but again Holck intervened, and he failed. He was formerly a friend of the Queen, which was one of the reasons why Holck got rid of him, and he was also a friend of Struensee, who had often, in his obscure days, visited at the house of Brandt’s stepfather. Struensee had, moreover, helped him in Paris. Brandt had recentlybeen so far restored to favour as to be given a small appointment in Oldenburg, but no one expected that he would be recalled to court, and Holck was astonished and dismayed when Brandt suddenly appeared at Gottorp and was nominated a chamberlain by the King. Brandt noticed his enemy’s dismay, and said: “Monsieur le Comte, you look as if you had seen a spectre. Are you afraid?” To which Holck bitterly replied: “Oh no,Monsieur le Chambellan, it is not the spectre I fear, but his return”.

Matilda was unwell during her stay at Gottorp, and her indisposition caused the court to remain there longer than had been intended. Struensee saw Prince Charles’s dislike of him, and was uneasy lest he should gain an influence over the King. The silent condemnation of the Viceroy made him impatient to be gone, and directly the Queen was sufficiently recovered to travel she and the King set out for Traventhal, a small royal castle in Holstein. This move furnished the opportunity of getting rid of Holck and his following. The excuse put forward was that Traventhal was not large enough to accommodate so numerous a suite, and therefore Count Holck and his wife, his sister, Madame von der Lühe, and her husband, Councillor Holstein, Chamberlain Luttichau, Gustavus Holck, a page, Fräulein von Eyben, and two more of the Queen’s maids of honour, were ordered to go back to Copenhagen. All these people were either related to Holck, or appointed through his influence, and ontheir return to the capital they learned that they were dismissed from office. Holck, perhaps in consideration of the fact that he had once befriended Struensee, was granted a pension of two thousand dollars, the others received nothing.

Bernstorff, who went with the King and Queen to Traventhal, as minister in attendance, was not consulted concerning these dismissals, or in anything about the court. Woodford, the English minister of Lower Saxony, then at Hamburg, writes: “Mr. Bernstorff and the ministers appear to be entirely ignorant of these little arrangements, the royal confidence running in quite another direction”.[127]And again: “With regard to the court’s movements at Traventhal, nothing is known, for everything is kept a secret from those who, by their employments, ought to be informed”.[128]The Prime Minister, Bernstorff, was rarely allowed to see the King, for Brandt, who had now stepped into Holck’s vacant place, was always with his master, and made it his business to guard him against any influence that might be hostile to Struensee’s plans. Holck’s sudden dismissal filled Bernstorff with apprehension, which was increased by an important move which Struensee took soon after the arrival of the court at Traventhal—a move destined to exercise great influence on the future of both the favourite and the Queen. This was the recall to court of the notorious anti-Russian, Count Rantzau Ascheberg.

[127]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 13, 1770.

[127]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 13, 1770.

[128]Ibid., July 17, 1770.

[128]Ibid., July 17, 1770.

Schack Karl, Count zu Rantzau Ascheberg, whom for short we shall call Count Rantzau, had succeeded (on his father’s death in 1769) to vast estates in Holstein. Gunning, the English envoy, thus wrote of him:—

“Count Rantzau is a son of the minister of that name who formerly spent some years at our court. He received some part of his education at Westminster School. His family is the first in Denmark. He is a man of ruined fortunes. It would be difficult to exhibit a character more profligate and abandoned. There are said to be few enormities of which he has not been guilty, and scarcely any place where he has not acted a vicious part. Rashness and revenge form very striking features in his character. With these qualities he possesses great imagination, vivacity and wit. He is most abundantly fertile in schemes and projects, which he forms one day and either forgets or ridicules the next. He would be a very dangerous man did not his great indiscretion put it into the power of his enemies to render many of his most mischievous designs abortive.”[129]

“Count Rantzau is a son of the minister of that name who formerly spent some years at our court. He received some part of his education at Westminster School. His family is the first in Denmark. He is a man of ruined fortunes. It would be difficult to exhibit a character more profligate and abandoned. There are said to be few enormities of which he has not been guilty, and scarcely any place where he has not acted a vicious part. Rashness and revenge form very striking features in his character. With these qualities he possesses great imagination, vivacity and wit. He is most abundantly fertile in schemes and projects, which he forms one day and either forgets or ridicules the next. He would be a very dangerous man did not his great indiscretion put it into the power of his enemies to render many of his most mischievous designs abortive.”[129]

[129]Gunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, April 4, 1771.

[129]Gunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, April 4, 1771.

Rantzau had led an adventurous and dishonourable career. In his youth he had been a chamberlain at the Danish court, and had served in the army, eventually rising to the rank of major-general. In consequence of a court plot, he was banished from Copenhagen in 1752. He then entered the French army, but in Paris he became enamoured of anopera singer and resigned his commission to follow her about Europe. This part of his career, which occupied nearly ten years, was shrouded in mystery, but it was known that during it Rantzau had many scandalous adventures. Sometimes he travelled with all the luxury befitting his rank and station, at others he was at his wits’ end for money. At one time he lived at Rome, habited as a monk, and at another he travelledincognitowith a troupe of actors. He had absolutely no scruples, and seemed to be a criminal by nature. He was tried in Sicily for swindling, and only escaped imprisonment through the influence brought to bear on his judges. At Naples there was an ugly scandal of another nature, but the French envoy intervened, and saved him from punishment, in consideration of his birth and rank. In Genoa he got into trouble through drawing a bill on his father, whom he falsely described as the “Viceroy of Norway,” but his father repudiated the bill, as he had already repudiated his son, and again Rantzau narrowly escaped gaol. With such a record Keith was certainly justified in saying of him: “Count Rantzau would, ... if he had lived within reach of Justice Fielding, have furnished matter for an Old Bailey trial any one year of the last twenty of his life”.[130]

[130]Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir R. Murray Keith.

[130]Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir R. Murray Keith.

In 1761, after the death of the Empress Elizabeth, when a war seemed imminent between Russia and Denmark, Rantzau, who wished to be on the stronger side, went to St. Petersburg and offered his servicesto Peter III., as a Holstein nobleman who owed allegiance to Russia rather than to Denmark. But even the sottish Tsar knew what manner of man the Holsteiner was, and rejected his offer with contumely. In revenge, Rantzau went over to Catherine and the Orloffs, and was involved in the conspiracy which resulted in the deposition and assassination of Peter III. When Catherine the Great was firmly seated upon the Russian throne she had no further need of Rantzau, and instead of rewarding him, ignored him. Rantzau therefore left St. Petersburg and returned to Holstein, a sworn foe of the Empress and eager for revenge on her. It was during this sojourn in Holstein that his acquaintance with Struensee began, and, as at this time Rantzau could get no help from his father, Struensee is said to have lent him money to go to Copenhagen, whither he went to regain his lost favour at the Danish court. In this he was foiled by the influence of the Russian envoy Filosofow, who was then all-powerful, and Rantzau was forced to return again to Holstein, where he remained until his father’s death in 1769—the year before the King and Queen came to Holstein on their tour.

Rantzau should now have been a rich man, for in addition to the property he inherited from his father, he had married an heiress, the daughter of his uncle, Count Rantzau Oppendorft, by which marriage the estates of the two branches of the family were united. But Rantzau was crippled with debt, and on succeeding to his inheritance he continued to live a reckless, dissipated life, and indulged ingreat extravagance. On the other hand, he was a good landlord to his people, and they did whatever he wished. On account of his ancient name, vast estates and the devotion of his peasantry, Rantzau had much influence in Holstein, which he persistently used against Russia.

Rantzau and Struensee had not forgotten their covenant of years ago, that if either attained power he should help the other. Even if Struensee had been inclined to forget it, Rantzau would have reminded him, but Filosofow’s public insult made Struensee determined to break the power of Russia in Denmark, and in Rantzau he found a weapon ready to his hand. He determined to recall Rantzau to court, because he knew that he, of all others, was most disliked by the Empress of Russia. Therefore, when the King and Queen arrived at Traventhal, Struensee wrote to Rantzau and asked him to come and pay his respects to their Majesties. Rantzau was admitted to audience of the King and Queen, who both received him very graciously. Rantzau was the most considerable noble in Holstein, and moreover, any favour shown to him would demonstrate that the Danish court would no longer brook the dictation of Russia in domestic matters. Therefore, when Rantzau, prompted by Struensee, prayed the King and Queen to honour him with a visit to his castle at Ascheberg, they at once consented. Attended by Struensee and Brandt they drove over from Traventhal and spent several days at Ascheberg.

Rantzau entertained his royal guests with lavish magnificence, and, favoured by brilliant weather, the visit was a great success. There was a masque of flowers one day, there were rustic sports another, there was a hunting party on a third, and banquets every evening. The Queen took the first place at all the festivities (the King had ceased to be of account), and the splendour of her entertainment at Ascheberg recalled Elizabeth’s famous visit to Leicester at Kenilworth. Though Rantzau was fifty-three years of age, he was still a very handsome man, a born courtier, an exquisite beau, and skilled in all the arts of pleasing women. Had he been ten years younger he might have tried to eclipse Struensee in the Queen’s favour, but he was a cynical and shrewd observer, and saw that any such attempt was foredoomed to failure, so he contented himself with offering the most flattering homage to the young Queen. As a return for his sumptuous hospitality, Matilda gave Rantzau her husband’s gold snuff-box set with diamonds, which Christian had bought in London for one thousand guineas, and as a further mark of her favour, the Queen presented colours to the regiment at Glückstadt, commanded by Rantzau, of which she became honorary colonel. The presentation of these colours was made the occasion of a military pageant, and the court painter, Als, received commands to paint the Queen in her uniform as colonel. This picture was presented to Rantzau as a souvenir.

The royal favours heaped upon Rantzau filledthe Russian party with dismay. The visit to Ascheberg had a political significance, which was emphasised by the Queen’s known resentment of Russian dictation. One of the Russian envoys, Saldern, had brought about the dismissal of her chief lady-in-waiting; another, Filosofow, had publicly affronted her favourite. The Queen neither forgot nor forgave. Woodford writes at this time: “Her Danish Majesty, formerly piqued at M. de Saldern’s conduct, and condescending at present to show little management for the Russian party, they are using every indirect influence to keep themselves in place”.[131]

[131]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 20, 1770.

[131]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 20, 1770.

The defeat of the Russian party would involve necessarily the fall of Bernstorff, who, more than any other Danish minister, had identified himself with Russia. He was greatly perturbed at the visit to Ascheberg, which had been undertaken without consulting him. After the King and Queen returned to Traventhal the Prime Minister was treated even more rudely than before; he was no longer honoured with the royal invitation to dinner, but had to eat his meals in his own room, while Struensee and his creatures revelled below. The object of these slights was to force Bernstorff to resign, but he still clung to office, and strove by all possible means to mitigate the anti-Russian policy of the Queen and her advisers. To obtain private audience of the King was impossible, though he was livingunder the same roof. Bernstorff therefore drew up a memorandum, addressed to the King, in which he forcibly pointed out the displeasure with which Russia would view Rantzau’s appointment to any office, not only because of his well-known opposition to the territorial exchange, but because he was personally objectionable to the Empress, who would resent his promotion as an insult. Bernstorff’s memorandum was read by Struensee and the Queen, and though it made no difference to their policy, yet, as Struensee did not wish to imperil the exchange, he made Rantzau promise not to meddle further in this matter.[132]Rantzau gave the required promise, which was duly communicated to Bernstorff, and with this negative assurance he had to be content.

[132]Though the treaty was signed in 1768, the actual exchange of territory between Russia and Denmark was not carried out until some years later. The original understanding was that it should wait until the Grand Duke Paul attained his majority and gave it his sanction.

[132]Though the treaty was signed in 1768, the actual exchange of territory between Russia and Denmark was not carried out until some years later. The original understanding was that it should wait until the Grand Duke Paul attained his majority and gave it his sanction.

The King and Queen remained at Traventhal nearly a month in seclusion. The Queen was left without any of her ladies, and nearly the whole of the King’s suite had gone too. Except for Bernstorff, who was kept that Struensee might have an eye on him, the King and Queen were surrounded only by the favourite and his creatures. At Traventhal Struensee was very busy maturing his plans. In concert with Rantzau and General Gahler, an officer of some eminence who had been given a post in the royal household, Struensee discussedthe steps that were to be taken for overthrowing Bernstorff and the other ministers, and reforming the administration. There is nothing to show that the Queen took a leading part in these discussions, though she was of course consulted as a matter of form. Unlike her mother, the Princess-Dowager of Wales, or her grandmother, the illustrious Caroline, Matilda cared nothing for politics for their own sake, but she liked to have the semblance of power, and was jealous of her privileges as the reigning Queen. When she had a personal grievance against a minister, as against Bernstorff, she wished him removed, and when she was thwarted by a foreign influence, as in the case of Russia, she wished that influence broken; but otherwise it was a matter of indifference to her who filled the chief offices of state, or whether France or Russia reigned supreme at Copenhagen. Her good heart made her keenly solicitous for the welfare of her people, and some of the social reforms carried out by Struensee may have had their origin with the Queen; but for affairs of state in the larger sense Matilda cared nothing, and she lent herself blindly to abetting Struensee’s policy in all things. In complete abandonment she placed her hands beneath his feet and let him do with her as he would. Her birth as Princess of Great Britain, her rank as Queen of Denmark and Norway, her beauty, her talents, her popularity, were valued by her only as means whereby she might advance Struensee and his schemes.

Rumours of the amazing state of affairs at the Danish court reached England in the spring of 1770, and before long George III. and the Princess-Dowager of Wales were acquainted with the sudden rise of Struensee, and the extraordinary favour shown to him by the Queen. They also heard of the check which Russia had received at Copenhagen, and the probability of Bernstorff (who was regarded as the friend of England) being hurled from power to make room for the ambitious adventurer. Too late George III. may have felt a twinge of remorse for having married his sister against her will to a profligate and foolish prince, and sent her, without a friend in the world, to encounter the perils and temptations of a strange court in a far-off land. Moreover, the political object for which Matilda had been sacrificed had signally failed. The marriage had in no way advanced English interests in the north. Russia and France had benefited by it, but England not at all. Now there seemed a probability that, with the fall of the Russian influence at Copenhagen, France, the enemy of England, would again be in the ascendant there. Both personal and political reasons therefore made it desirable that some remonstrance should be addressed to the Queen of Denmark by her brother of England. The matter was of too delicate and difficult a nature to be dealt with satisfactorily by letter, and there was the fear that Struensee might intercept the King’s letter to the Queen. Even if he did not venture thus far, he would be sure to learn its contents andseek to counteract its influence. In this difficulty George III. took counsel with his mother, with the result that on June 9, 1770, the Dowager-Princess of Wales set out from Carlton House for the Continent. It was announced that she was going to pay a visit to her daughter Augusta, Hereditary Princess of Brunswick.

Royal journeys were not very frequent in these days, and as this was the first time the Princess-Dowager had quitted England since her marriage many years ago, her sudden departure gave rise to the wildest conjectures. It was generally believed that she was going to meet Lord Bute, who was still wandering in exile about Europe; some said that she was going to bring him back to England for the purpose of fresh intrigue; others that she was not returning to England at all, but meant to spend the rest of her life with Bute in an Italian palace. Against these absurd rumours was to be set the fact that the Duke of Gloucester accompanied his mother, and more charitable persons supposed that she was trying to break off hisliaisonwith Lady Waldegrave, for their secret marriage had not yet been published. Some declared that the Princess-Dowager and Queen Charlotte had had a battle royal, in which the mother-in-law had been signally routed, and was leaving the country to cover her confusion. Others, and this seemed the most probable conjecture, thought that she was going abroad for a little time to escape the scandal which had been brought upon the royal family byher youngest son, Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland.

Augusta, Princess of Wales, mother of Queen Matilda.AUGUSTA, PRINCESS OF WALES, MOTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA.After a Painting by J. B. Vanloo.

AUGUSTA, PRINCESS OF WALES, MOTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA.After a Painting by J. B. Vanloo.

The Duke of Cumberland was the least amiable of the sons of Frederick Prince of Wales. Physically and mentally he was a degenerate. Walpole pictures him as a garrulous, dissipated and impudent youth, vulgarly boasting his rank, yet with a marked predilection for low society. Unfortunately he did not confine himself to it, but betrayed to her ruin a young and beautiful woman of rank, the Countess Grosvenor, daughter of Henry Vernon and wife of Richard, first Earl Grosvenor. Lord Grosvenor discovered the intrigue, and brought an action of divorce in which the Duke of Cumberland figured as co-respondent. For the first time in England a prince of the blood appeared in the divorce court, and, what was worse, cut a supremely ridiculous and contemptible figure in it. Several of the Duke’s letters to the Lady Grosvenor were read in court, and were so grossly ill-spelt and illiterate that they were greeted with shouts of derision, and furnished eloquent comment upon the education of the King’s brother.[133]

[133]Lord Grosvenor got his divorce, and the jury awarded him £10,000 damages, which the Duke had great difficulty in paying, and George III., much to his disgust, had to arrange for settlement to avoid a further scandal. So base a creature was this royal Lothario that he abandoned to her shame the woman whom he had betrayed, and scarcely had the verdict been pronounced than he began another disreputable intrigue.

[133]Lord Grosvenor got his divorce, and the jury awarded him £10,000 damages, which the Duke had great difficulty in paying, and George III., much to his disgust, had to arrange for settlement to avoid a further scandal. So base a creature was this royal Lothario that he abandoned to her shame the woman whom he had betrayed, and scarcely had the verdict been pronounced than he began another disreputable intrigue.

It was easy to imagine, had there been no other reason, that the Princess-Dowager of Wales would be glad to be out of England while these proceedingswere being made public. The King, who lived a virtuous and sober life, and his intensely respectable Queen Charlotte, were scandalised beyond measure at these revelations, and the possibility of another, and even worse, scandal maturing in Denmark filled them with dismay. At present the secret was well kept in England. Whatever the English envoy might write in private despatches, or Prince Charles of Hesse retail through his mother, or the Princess Augusta transmit from Brunswick respecting the indiscretions of Matilda, no whisper was heard in England at this time, outside the inner circle of the royal family. Therefore all the conjectures as to the reason of the Princess-Dowager’s visit to the Continent were wide of the mark. The real motive of her journey was not even hinted.

The Princess-Dowager was hooted as she drove through the streets of Canterbury on her way to Dover, and so great was her unpopularity that it was rumoured that London would be illuminated in honour of her departure. The Princess, as announced, travelled first to Brunswick, where she was received by her daughter Augusta and the rest of the ducal family with honour and affection. It was arranged that the King and Queen of Denmark, who were then at Traventhal, should also journey to Brunswick and join the family circle. Everything was prepared for their coming, the town was decorated and a programme of festivities drawn up, when suddenly the Grand Marshal of the King of Denmark arrived at Brunswick with the news thatthe Queen was ill, and unable to travel so far. That Matilda’s illness was feigned there can be little doubt, for she was well enough the next day to go out hunting as usual with Struensee by her side, and in the evening she played cards until midnight. The incident showed how greatly the Queen had changed, for Matilda’s family affections were strong, and under other circumstances she would have been overjoyed at the prospect of meeting her mother after years of separation, and seeing again her favourite sister Augusta. But Struensee knew that the journey of the Princess-Dowager boded no good to his plans, and persuaded the Queen to offer this affront to her mother.

The Princess-Dowager, who had a shrewd idea of the nature of her daughter’s illness, was not to be outwitted in this way, and she proposed a meeting at Lüneburg, a town situated between Celle and Hamburg, in the electorate of Hanover. Lüneburg was much nearer Traventhal than Brunswick, and Matilda could not excuse herself on the ground of the length of the journey. If she made that pretext, the Princess-Dowager proposed to come to Traventhal, where she might have seen more than it was desirable for her to see. So Struensee made the Queen choose what he thought was the lesser evil, and write to her mother that she would meet her at Lüneburg; but he was careful to deprive the visit of every mark of ceremony, and to make it as brief as possible.

The King and Queen of Denmark arrived atLüneburg late in the evening, attended only by Struensee and Warnstedt, who were seated in the coach with them. Matilda did not bring with her a lady-in-waiting, and one coach only followed with a couple of servants and some luggage. There was no palace at Lüneburg, and the King and Queen lodged for the night in one of the fine Renaissance houses in the main street of the old town. The interview between the Princess-Dowager and her daughter took place that same evening, late though it was. Struensee was present in the room the whole time, though the Princess-Dowager pointedly ignored him. She addressed her daughter in English, of which she knew Struensee was ignorant, but to her anger and surprise Matilda pretended to have forgotten it, and she answered always in German that Struensee might understand. Under these circumstances the conversation was necessarily constrained and formal; the Princess-Dowager did not conceal her displeasure, and retired to bed discomfited.

The next morning at eleven o’clock she sent for her daughter again, and this time succeeded in having a talk with her alone. What passed between them cannot certainly be known, but its import was generally guessed. The Princess-Dowager was said to have told her daughter that the dismissal of Bernstorff would be much regretted by George III., as he had always been a friend of England and its royal family, and it would, moreover, be disastrous to Denmark. Whereupon the Queen haughtilyrejoined: “Pray, madam, allow me to govern my kingdom as I please”. The Princess, annoyed by this want of respect, unmasked her batteries forthwith, and roundly scolded her daughter for the extraordinary favours she gave to Struensee. Matilda at first would not listen, but when her mother persisted, and declared that her conduct would end in disgrace and ruin, she retorted with an allusion to the supposedliaisonbetween her mother and Lord Bute, which wounded the Princess past forgiveness. The interview only widened the breach. As a matter of form the King had invited his mother-in-law to Copenhagen, but the invitation was now curtly refused. The Princess saw that she could do no good, and she did not care to countenance by her presence a state of affairs of which she did not approve. The King and Queen of Denmark left Lüneburg in the afternoon, the Princess a few hours later; mother and daughter parted in anger, and they never met again.

Struensee must have felt a great sense of relief when the King of Denmark’s coach rolled out of Lüneburg on the way back to Altona. He had dreaded the meeting between the Queen and her mother, and had striven to prevent it by every means in his power. But when that was no longer possible, he had long and anxious consultations with the Queen, and prompted her how she was to act and what she was to say. Even so he could not be quite sure of the line the Princess-Dowager might take. If she had spoken to her daughter gently,reasoned with her, pleaded with her in love, and appealed to her with tears, she might have had some effect, for Matilda was very warm-hearted and impressionable. But these were not the stern Princess’s methods; she had been accustomed to command her children, and her haughty, overbearing tone and contemptuous reproaches stung the spirited young Queen to the quick, and made her resent what she called her mother’s unjust suspicions and unwarrantable interference. So the result was all that Struensee wished. Woodford, who had been commanded by George III. to attend the Princess-Dowager during her stay in Lüneburg, writes in a despatch of “the agitation that was visible in Mr. Struensee upon his arrival first at Lüneburg, and the joy that could be seen in his countenance as the moment of departure approached”.[134]

[134]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, marked “private,” Hamburg, August 21, 1770.

[134]Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, marked “private,” Hamburg, August 21, 1770.

Struensee now felt that the time was ripe for him to come forward as the exponent of a new foreign policy for Denmark, and as the reformer of internal abuses. He was no longer the doctor, but the councillor and adviser of the Crown. He had flouted Russia and prevailed against the influence of England. What power was there to withstand him?

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