Person
Queen Caroline Mathilde (1751–1775)
J. F. Struensee had an affair with Queen Caroline Mathilde.
J. F. Struensee
Johann Friedrich Struensee was born in Germany in 1737 and died in Copenhagen in 1772, convicted of lese-majesty, offences against The King. From 1770 until his arrest on 17 January 1772, Struensee was the de facto regent, governing in Christian VII’s name.
Struensee acquired great power and introduced many reforms. In 1772, he was executed for lese-majesty, offences against The King, due to his affair with Queen Caroline Mathilde.
Physician and a man of the Enlightenment
Struensee was a trained physician. After earning his medical degree in 1757, he served as a doctor in the city of Altona, outside Hamburg, on the border to the Danish realm, which at the time included the North-German Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
In Europe, the 18th century was the height of the Enlightenment, a period influenced by new philosophical ideas about the relationship between people and the society they lived in. The period culminated with the French Revolution in 1789–1799, which toppled the nobility and the monarchy and introduced the First French Republic – a system of government based on democratic ideals of individual freedom and equality. The traditional European society was a hierarchical system of estates, meaning that people were divided into separate tiers: nobility, clergy (the Church), bourgeoisie or burghers (merchants in the cities) and peasants. Most of the inhabitants of a country were categorised as peasants.
In his youth, Struensee was very inspired by reform ideas, particularly utilitarianism, which aims to maximise happiness for the maximum number of people. From 1757 to 1768, Struensee served as a civil servant in Altona with responsibility for public health, in addition to his private practice as a doctor.
Christian VII’s physician
In 1768, Christian VII went on a journey abroad. Thanks to his excellent reputation as a doctor, Struensee was chosen to accompany The King as his physician. He proved to have a calming influence on The King, and when the journey was over, Struensee returned to Denmark with him and was then appointed to be his personal physician. Because of his role as The King’s physician, Struensee had a close relationship with Christian VII. The King was mentally ill, and as one of the consequences, he showed little interest in his marriage to Caroline Mathilde. After arriving at the Danish royal court in 1766, at just 15 years of age, The Queen had soon become isolated and lonely, and when Struensee came to Denmark, the two initiated an illicit romantic affair. In 1771, Caroline Mathilde gave birth to her second child, Louise Augusta, who was officially recognised as Christian VII’s daughter, although it is widely assumed that Struensee was her biological father.
Close to The King – and to The Queen
Given his close relationship with both The King and The Queen, Struensee was in fact in a position to govern the country. Laws and decrees required The King’s signature to come into force, and Struensee had considerable say over which documents were placed before The King.
Inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, Struensee initiated a large number of reforms, including the abolition of government censorship. Subsequently, some restrictions were reintroduced to clamp down on criticism directed at Struensee himself.
Struensee’s appetite for reforms made him unpopular with more conservative groups, and in the early hours of 17 January 1772, he was arrested on charges of lese-majesty, offences against The King, due to his affair with The Queen. Along with his friend, Count Enevold Brandt, he was decapitated, drawn and quartered. Most of his reforms were rescinded after his execution.
