Frederick VII of Denmark
Frederick VII was the last absolute king of Denmark and the first constitutional one, the childless, thrice-married, hard-drinking prince who came to the throne in January 1848 and within weeks, as revolution reached Copenhagen, gave up absolutism without a fight, signed the June Constitution of 1849 that made Denmark a parliamentary monarchy with one of the widest franchises in Europe, and said that from then on his only wish was to be the first citizen. His death in November 1863, a few days after signing a constitution that bound Schleswig to Denmark, was the occasion of the war of 1864 in which Prussia and Austria took the duchies. He had been a difficult heir, divorced twice by royal order, exiled to Jutland for his debts and his women, and regarded by his father Christian VIII as unfit. His third marriage, morganatic, to a milliner's daughter he made Countess Danner, scandalised the court and endeared him to the country. The Schleswig-Holstein question defined the reign. The German population of the two duchies rose in March 1848 for union with Germany, the Danish national liberals wanted Schleswig incorporated into Denmark, and the first Schleswig war ran for three years with Prussian intervention until the powers imposed the status quo in the London Protocol of 1852, which also settled that the childless king's heir would be Christian of Glucksburg. He was popular as no Danish king had been, going among the people, opening the railway, and saying, when the constitution was proclaimed, that it was given and not taken. The ministers governed and he enjoyed being loved. In November 1863 his government put the November Constitution before him, a common constitution for Denmark and Schleswig that broke the 1852 promises, and he signed it on the 13th, fell ill at Glucksburg castle in Schleswig, and died on the 15th, so that the signing and the crisis fell on his successor. Bismarck had his war. The Frederick VII who stands on horseback outside the Christiansborg palace is the giver of the constitution, and the Danes date their democracy from his June day.
- Lived: 1808 CE – 1863 CE
- Nationality: Danish
- Roles: king, monarch
