| 14 | DENMARK | DENMARK (Language and Literature) |
Lauenburg and a large sum of money. Serious complications, caused in part by the fact that Denmark by the possession of Holstein and Lauenburg became a member of the German confederation, now arose between the crown and the duchies. The population of Holstein especially sympathized more with Germany than with Denmark, and an antipathy of races sprung up, which various political measures deepened into an alarming disaffection. A prominent subject of complaint was the royal succession. The expected extinction of the male line in the reigning family afforded a prospect of rendering the duchies, in which the Salic law of succession prevailed, independent of the Danish crown, and the project of annexing Schleswig to the German confederation was openly advocated in the provincial assembly. In this state of affairs Christian VIII. in 1846 issued letters patent, proclaiming that with the exception of certain parts of Holstein the laws of succession should be uniform in all parts of his dominions, the effect of which was to add greatly to the popular discontent; and when Frederick VII. mounted the throne in 1848, the duchies, emboldened by the revolutionary outbreaks of the time, resorted to arms, and appealed to their German brethren for assistance. Frederick William IV. of Prussia, then forced to yield to the current of revolution, sent a large force into Schleswig under Gen. Wrangel, which drove out the Danes, who had found little difficulty in putting down the insurgents there, and followed up its success by an invasion of Jutland. Meanwhile England and Russia interfered; an armistice was signed at Malmö, Aug. 26, on terms highly displeasing to the duchies; and although Prussia undertook a second campaign in the spring and summer of 1849, Schleswig and Holstein thenceforth relied mainly on their own resources. They placed their army under Gen. Willisen, and maintained a spirited resistance, until signally defeated at Idstedt, July 25, 1850. Prussia had now definitely withdrawn from the contest, and with Austria gave her influence on the side of Denmark. The Holstein army was disbanded, the duchies were forced to submit, and the question of succession was referred to a convention of the plenipotentiaries of the principal powers of N. and W. Europe. By a treaty signed by these representatives at London, May 8, 1852, the succession was settled upon Prince Christian of the Sonderburg-Glücksburg line and his male heirs; an arrangement which gave great dissatisfaction both to Denmark and to Schleswig and Holstein, as in the event of the extinction of this family Russia reserved the ancient right of succeeding to a portion of the duchies. The new order was announced to the diet in October, 1852, and was at once rejected. It met the same fate before a new assembly in February, 1853; but the king, guided by his new prime minister Oersted, feeling himself pledged to the foreign powers, resolved upon a second dissolution, and the measure was finally adopted by a third parliament, June 24. The settlement of the succession, however, failed to produce a real state of peace. Holstein continued to protest against the acts of the Danish government, and the agitation was communicated to Schleswig, where the German population were a small minority, and which never formed part of the German empire. Holstein carried its complaints before the German diet, which willingly exercised its right of interference and decreed a “procedure of execution,” that is, compelled the Danish government to make concessions. In the midst of these troubles King Frederick VII. died (Nov. 15, 1863), and was succeeded, according to the treaty of 1852, by Prince Christian of Glücksburg, who was crowned as Christian IX.; but Holstein refused to acknowledge the new sovereign, one party supporting the pretensions of the Augustenburg family, another asking the independent union of Holstein and Schleswig, and a third desiring a union with Prussia. An Austro-Prussian army, under the command of the Prussian general Wrangel, entered Holstein early in 1864, crossed the Eider, took Eckernförde, compelled the evacuation of the Dannevirke (Feb. 5), marched through Schleswig and Jutland as far as the Lym fiord, and captured Düppel, a strong position opposite the island of Alsen, fortified with four different lines of trenches, after a two months' siege (April 18). Soon afterward the fortress of Fridericia surrendered to the Austrians. After protracted negotiations, peace was concluded at Vienna, Oct. 30, 1864, by the terms of which Denmark ceded her rights over Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg to Austria and Prussia. By the convention of Gastein (August, 1865), between Austria and Prussia, the temporary management of affairs in Holstein was assumed by Austria and in Schleswig by Prussia, while Lauenburg was sold by Austria to Prussia for 2,500,000 rix dollars; Prussia besides receiving the right to occupy the port of Kiel and Rendsburg, the use of two roads through Holstein, and the right to make a canal through that country. In the treaty of Prague between Austria and Prussia, in 1866, was inserted an article providing for the retrocession of northern Schleswig, if the people by a vote should declare their wish to return to Denmark; but no vote has yet been taken. Denmark was dreadfully exhausted by the war, but has since been gradually recovering from its prostrate condition. The marriage of the Danish crown prince to the only daughter and heir of the king of Sweden in 1869 revived the idea, long cherished by many on both sides of the Sound, of a reunion of the three Scandinavian kingdoms.
DENMARK, Language and Literature of. The Danish language (danske Sprog) belongs to the Gothic family of languages, which early separated into two branches: the Norsk, or Scandinavian, and the Germanic. The former, which was called by the ancient Danes the
