Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/21

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DENMARK
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ments; the artillery of 2, forming 12 batteries, and 2 battalions of sappers and engineers. The numerical strength of the army on a peace footing is 36,782 rank and file, with 1,058 officers; on a war footing, 47,925 rank and file. The navy in September, 1872, comprised 25 screw steamers (6 ironclads, 12 unarmored vessels, and 7 gunboats) and paddle steamers. The commercial navy in 1871 numbered 2,735 vessels (exclusive of those of less than 4 tons) with an aggregate tonnage of 181,494. The principal arsenal for both army and navy is at Copenhagen, the capital and principal town.—There is no authentic account of the early settlement of Denmark, but the Cimbri seem to have occupied the continental part of it toward the end of the 2d century B. C. Some three centuries later the country was occupied by the Goths, whose chief Skiold, according to the legends the son of Odin, is mentioned as the first monarch of Denmark. During the 8th and 9th centuries the Danes, then the foremost among the Northmen (see Northmen), began to acquire renown by their maritime expeditions, in which they invaded England and Scotland and conquered Normandy. In the 9th century the different states of Denmark became united under one monarch, and in 1000 and 1014 Norway and the greater part of England were added to the kingdom. In 1017 Canute, under whom Denmark became Christian, completed the conquest of England, where his race continued to rule till 1042. The feudal system was introduced into Denmark in the 12th century, and contests took place here between the sovereign and the barons similar to those which convulsed England during the same period. In 1387 Margaret, styled the northern Semiramis, widow and successor of Haco, king of Norway, and daughter of Waldemar III., a descendant of Canute, mounted the thrones of Denmark and Norway, and, claiming the Swedish crown also in right of her husband, vanquished a competitor in that country, and united the three powers by the compact of Calmar in 1397. But the Swedes always resisted this union, and after a series of contests, which they were finally led by Gustavus Vasa, seceded from it in 1523. During this period the population dwindled, the seas swarmed with pirates, commerce fell away, and incessant quarrels between the king and his nobles or the latter and the clergy added to the disasters of the kingdom. On the deposition of Eric, Margaret's successor, in 1439, the states elected Christopher of Bavaria, and in 1448 Christian, count of Oldenburg, king, from whose grandson, Christian II. (since whose time all the kings have been alternately named Frederick and Christian), the crown passed in 1523 to Frederick I., duke of Schleswig and Holstein. Frederick's son, Christian III., united these two duchies to the crown 11 years later, and divided the greater part of them between his brothers, a measure which caused a long series of disturbances. In his reign a code of laws called the “Recess of Kolding” was promulgated. In the 17th century Christian IV. sided with the Protestants in the great religious war, but was worsted by Wallenstein in 1626-'7, and compelled to sue for peace. Toward the end of his reign he waged several wars with Sweden, which lasted till 1645, and cost Denmark some of its provinces. A few years later the Swedes under Charles Gustavus overran Holstein, crossed the frozen Belt into Fünen, took Odense, and invested Copenhagen, but were successfully opposed by Frederick III. In 1658 they again besieged Copenhagen, and continued their operations until the death of Charles Gustavus in 1660, when Denmark secured a peace by the sacrifice of territory. The same year was marked by the restriction of the power of the nobility and the extension of the royal prerogative. The succession, too, which had formerly been to some extent elective, was by the commons, who sided with the king in his struggle with the nobles, acknowledged hereditary in the family of Frederick. A new war with Sweden terminated in 1679, and another was occasioned in 1699 by an attempt of Frederick IV. to invade the dominions of the duke of Holstein, an ally of Sweden. Copenhagen again became the seat of war, when the Danes, terrified by the energy of the young Charles XII. of Sweden, bought peace by the payment of a sum of money, and remained neutral until the disasters of the Swedes in the Ukraine tempted them to renew hostilities. The war lasted until the death of Charles XII. in 1718, after which Sweden began to decline and Denmark to pursue the wise policy of peace. The latter half of the 18th century, embracing most of the reigns of Frederick V. and Christian VII., was the period of great reforms, under the lead of the two Bernstorffs and the unfortunate Struensee. But by a defensive alliance with Russia, Prussia, and Sweden in 1801, Denmark involved herself in a quarrel with England, suffered severely in the naval battle off Copenhagen, and lost her colonies in the East and West Indies, which were restored to her, however, by the treaty of peace which followed. In 1807, when England suspected Denmark of entering into an alliance with Napoleon, an English fleet was sent to the Baltic to compel the surrender of the entire Danish navy. The British landed near the capital, and soon forced the government to give up its fleet. A war of exasperation naturally followed. Hostilities were carried on by sea, partly at the entrance to the Baltic, partly off the Norwegian coast, the Danes fighting with spirit, and sometimes with success, and both parties suffering severely in their commerce. After the reorganization of Europe by the treaties of 1814 and 1815, Denmark was obliged to cede Norway to Sweden, as an equivalent for Pomerania, which province Denmark had received from Sweden, and which in 1815 she made over to Prussia, in exchange for the duchy of