Absolute Monarchy in Later Eighteenth-Century Denmark

Centralized Reform, Public Expectations, and the Copenhagen Press

Bibliographic Data

ID8957933
AuthorsThomas Munck (0000-0002-8856-4112, University of Glasgow, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume41
Issue1
Pages201-224
Publication date1998-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x9700770x
OpenAlexW2148080543
LanguageEN
Citations received7

By the later eighteenth century, the Danish–Norwegian monarchy had a convincing track record for stability and the near-absence of domestic unrest. That stability, despite the wide-ranging claims of the Royal Law of 1665, depended less on force than on a consensus derived from religious unity, a traditionally approachable monarch, and a fairly accessible system of justice. But the crown also relied on a widespread loyalty which was bound to come under strain at the accession of the demented Christian VII in 1766. Despite the removal of censorship restrictions in 1770, however, a convincing public discussion of social and political issues was slow to emerge. Only after the resolution of the political crisis in 1784 did the government feel sufficiently secure not only to tolerate, but even to come to rely on, an unprecedented if moderate public debate. That debate, as reflected through samples of the Copenhagen press studied here, remained even in the 1790s largely supportive of the view that absolutism offered a viable way to lasting reform

Absolute monarchy · Constitutional monarchy · Economic history · Economic Justice · Monarchy · Plural · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Unrest · European and International Law Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · Historical Legal Studies and Society · History · Law · Philosophy

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