Christian VII: The Royal Affair That Ended in Blood HT

 

Christian IIth’s most trusted adviser,   his doctor, slept with his wife and   tried to usurp his crown. When Christian   finally caught on, the doctor faced one   of history’s most gruesome punishments.   While monarchs like Henry VIII or King   George III get a lot of historical   attention for their mental turmoil and   personal scandals, people often forget   about Christian VI of Denmark.

 

 And if   they do remember him, it’s as a childish   villain who destroyed everything he   touched. But that’s only half the tragic   truth.   Born in 1749 at the Danish royal   residence in Copenhagen, Christian was   the oldest surviving son of the reigning   king of Denmark and Norway, Frederick V,   and his queen Louise of Great Britain.

 

  Louise was a warm shining light at the   Danish court. So when she died in   December 1751, just weeks before   Christian turned three, the royal court   was plunged into mourning. After   pressure from his ministers, Christian’s   rakish father married Juliana Maria of   Brunswick Vulfenb and quickly had a   child with her.

 

 Christian’s   half-brother, Hereditary Prince   Frederick. It was a dizzying turn of   events for the young prince, made even   worse when the new queen all but ignored   her stepson in favor of her biological   son.   As Christian grew up, his father   devolved more and more into alcoholism.   King Frederick neglected himself, his   government, and his children.

 

 It was an   isolated, lonely, and affectionless   existence for Christian, who only saw   his royal tutor, Count Revent, with any   regularity.   Count Revent taught the crown prince   through fear and physicality, belittling   him and likely even brutally flogging   him if he got something wrong. This from   one of the only people Christian might   have looked up to.

 

 Christian was   reportedly a sensitive, intelligent, and   delightful child. But after Revvent   Loe’s systematic beatings, Christian   began exhibiting nervous, frantic   symptoms along with epileptic seizures.   He even had a tendency to foam at the   mouth after Revant Low’s beatings,   perhaps a symptom of perferia.   Count Revent had shown Christian that   the only way to survive this world was   to toughen up.

 

 And the crown prince,   naturally short and slim, took it to   heart. He became obsessed with physical   strength as well as with showing off   that strength to others. Reportedly,   early on, he wandered the streets of   Copenhagen with a spiked club, attacking   innocent bystanders. Yet, perhaps the   most disturbing aspect of his burgeoning   mental illness was just how   unpredictable it could be.

 

  One minute he was trying to maim people   with a spiked club, the next he could be   childlike, naive, and playful. Even into   adulthood, he enjoyed leapfrogging   foreign diplomats as they bowed to him   and liked to play practical jokes. But   this childishness could also veer into   violent petulence.   Christian’s fits of anger became   legendary around the palace.

 

 He once   threw a bowl at his grandmother’s head   and another time stuck pins in the seat   of her throne. Likewise, when he wasn’t   leapfrogging them, diplomats often   complained that Christian would suddenly   stop what he was saying to slap them in   the face. He engaged in some disturbing   acts of self-mutilation as well as   self-destructive behavior.

 

 He often   returned from nights out with black eyes   and cuts. And although he enjoyed public   executions, he also built himself his   own rack where he could have himself   flogged.   As time went on, he also got further and   further detached from reality.   Christian suffered from hallucinations   and delusions, complained of a noise in   his head, and was prone to laughing   wildly for no apparent reason.

 

 Today,   many historians believe he suffered from   schizophrenia, among other ailments.   Throughout his life, people tried to   throw distractions, particularly women,   at Christian to alleviate his   troublesome symptoms. So, in 1765, when   he was around 16 and beginning to be   truly unbearable, his family betrothed   him to his cousin Caroline Matilda of   Great Britain, the sister of King George   III.

 King George III was somewhat   dubious of sending his sister to   Denmark, but only because he thought   she, two years younger than Christian   and heartbroken at leaving her home   country, was still a child. The king of   England knew nothing of Christian’s   deteriorating mental health. And   likewise, neither did Caroline Matilda.   She was about to find out.

 

 In January of   1766, Christian’s father, King Frederick   V, still struggling with alcoholism,   died at the age of 42, and his son   became King Christian VIth of Denmark,   just shy of the boy’s 17th birthday.   When the 15-year-old Caroline Matilda   married him later that year, she became   the Queen of Denmark.

 

 But it was a   fundamental mismatch. Caroline Matilda   was temperamental and vivaceious and   many at court were instantly drawn to   her. Her husband, however, was not.   Christian treated her dismissively and   joked that it was unfashionable to love   one’s wife. Juliana had been a cold   stepmother to Christian, and now that he   was king, he gave that coldness right   back.

 

 Whenever she dined with the royal   couple, they made sure to ignore her   very obviously, thus indicating to   everyone around them how low she was in   their estimation. Accordingly, Juliana’s   position at court plummeted. She would   get her revenge, but for now, Christian   only got worse.   Around this time he became involved with   the cortisan stoolith Catherine and   paraded her around at court events and   other parties.

 

 He appeared to be in love   with her nicknaming her the mistress of   the universe all while still staunchly   ignoring his wife. Although Christian   spent most of his time with mistresses,   his advisers did eventually convince him   to pay a visit to his wife’s bed   chamber. And on January 28th, 1768,   Caroline Matilda gave birth to a son and   heir, Frederick.

 

 A few months later,   Christian took a tour of Europe,   ostensibly to visit dignitaries, but   also because his unpopularity had   reached alarming levels in Denmark.   While on tour, he came into contact with   the progressive physician Yan Friedrich   Strunzi. Impressed with Strun’s ability   to treat some of his issues, Christian   ended up bringing him back to Denmark   and set him up as his own personal   physician.

 

 Even Christian’s minders saw   a positive change. And before long,   Strunzy earned the honorary title state   counselor, which made him third in rank   at court. Christian’s wife, Caroline   Matilda, was initially deeply suspicious   of her husband’s new doctor. For one,   after Christian’s mistress, Catherine   was exiled from court, Strunzy worked to   set him up with a new woman who might   equally distract him and make him   malleable.

 

 A mistress wasn’t the   doctor’s only prescription. He also   encouraged the king to pay more   attention to his wife, even convincing   him to throw her a 3-day celebration for   her birthday. Then, when the queen   experienced an attack of dropsy, Strunzy   successfully treated her ailments,   earning her trust. Suddenly, Caroline   Matilda quite liked Dr. Struzy.

 

  All but ignored by her husband and still   very young, Caroline Matilda soon fell   in love with the doctor, and the pair   began a passionate affair by the spring   of 1770. It doesn’t seem like Christian   cared much about his wife’s affair, but   then again, it doesn’t seem like he   cared much about anything during this   time.

 

 As his mental health deteriorated,   he became more and more passive and more   and more distant from the goings on of   the government. And it was Struny and   Caroline Matilda who stepped right into   this power vacuum.   As King Christian fell into dissipation,   Struny rose to power with his lover   Caroline Matilda supporting him. By the   end of 1770, he’d earned enough   influence over Christian to push through   his own laws and have the king sign   them.

 

 In the so-called time of strugy,   the royal physician along with his aid,   Enavald Brandt, issued more than three   cabinet orders a day, many of them   progressive changes like the abolition   of torment and censorship, ousting many   people from their positions in the   process.   Caroline Matilda flourished in her   elicit affair, going from a naive girl   to a woman in full bloom.

 By then,   people were whispering that between the   king and queen, Caroline Matilda was the   better man. But she was playing a very   dangerous game. Throughout 1771,   Caroline Matilda and Strengzi carried on   their affair. And that July, the queen   gave birth to a daughter, Louise   Augusta. Yet, while Christian VI   officially recognized the princess as   his own, most people, including modern   historians, believe she was really   Strun’s child.

 

  Strengi and Caroline Matilda’s rapid   turnover of the government from   conservative to progressive made them   many enemies, and not all of them were   as ineffectual as King Christian. In   particular, Christian’s stepmother   Juliana, who was a conservative figure   in court, despised Struzy. By 1772, one   of the doctor’s former allies, Count   Ransau, decided enough was enough.

 

 Using   fake evidence to suggest that Caroline   Matilda and her lover were going to   overthrow the king, Ransau convinced   Christian’s stepmother to act.   Strunzy and Brandt were arrested while   Caroline Matilda was held in a castle.   On January 17th, Juliana went into evil   stepmother mode. Meeting with the   unstable Christian, she used him as a   puppet and convinced him to sign the   arrest order, not telling him that it   was all already done without his   knowledge.

 

 After lengthy interrogations,   Christian’s one-time favorite, Dr.   Strunzi and his associate Brandt had   their right hands chopped off before   being beheaded. Afterwards, their bodies   were drawn and quartered.   After pressure from Juliana, Christian   officially divorced Caroline Matilda,   and she was exiled to Germany, never to   see her children again.

 

  Juliana was now more certain than ever   that her stepson needed her controlling   hand to properly run the country. After   all, left to his own devices, he’d   chosen a cuckleding commoner doctor as   his proxy. If 1772 was the fall of   Strunzy, it was the rise of Juliana and   every hope she’d ever had when she   married Christian’s father.

 

 Capitalizing   on her momentum, she installed her own   son, Christian’s half-brother,   Frederick, as regent. Of course,   everyone knew that she was the real   power behind the throne.   Over the following years, Juliana fully   turned back many of the progressive   reforms Struzy had brought in. All the   while, Christian continued to experience   periods of agitation mixed with   Catatonia, none of it making him a more   able ruler.

 

  Even though Juliana had ousted her,   Christian’s ex-wife Caroline Matilda   remained a significant influence on   politics as the mother of the future   king of Denmark and Norway. In fact, she   once more became Juliana’s rival as   dissident from the Danish court began   plotting for her to reunite with her son   and take over the regency.

 

 But before   that could happen, tragedy struck. In a   cruel twist of fate, Caroline Matilda   never did get to attempt to reclaim her   position. On May 10th, 1775,   she was struck by a violent bout of   scarlet fever and died swiftly and   suddenly at the tender age of 23.   As Juliana’s regency wore on, and   Christian remained incapacitated, she   claimed she was doing everything she   could to usher Christian’s son and heir,   Frederick, into his own regency.

 

 when he   came of age. Except that when Frederick   did come of age, Juliana postponed the   confirmation right bestowing him adult   status. When Christian’s son turned 16,   Juliana couldn’t delay any further in   handing him the regency, but she still   tried to keep the power. When the crown   prince finally had his confirmation, she   gave him a document instructing him on   how to rule, which included the idea   that not only King Christian, but also   herself and her son were all part of the   same governing body.

 

  Frederick knew very well what his   stepgrandmother was doing, and   completely ignoring her instructions, he   rested power back from the government   into his own hands, using his own   ministers and influence.   The Crown Prince’s coup took Juliana   completely by surprise. Perhaps she   thought she was the only one with any   sway over Christian, and some even   claimed that the Crown Prince and his   stepuncle got into a physical   altercation as the events unfolded.

 

  In the end, all the drama in Christian   II’s life happened in his early 20s, and   he then spent the next 30 plus years as   a puppet king. so mentally ill he   couldn’t rule himself.   Despite the short lives of both his   father and mother, Christian lingered   for a long while. On March 13th, 1808,   the king died from a stroke at the age   of 59, finally handing his son the   kingdom at the age of 40.

 

 In his nearly   six decades on Earth, he’d been both   puppet master and puppet, both villain   and victim.   Thanks for watching History Expose. If   you love uncovering the best stories in   history, hit like and subscribe to keep   exploring with us. If you enjoyed this   video, check out the others on screen   for more amazing history content.