Christian VII

Christian VII was King of Denmark-Norway from 1766 until 1808. He was supposed to be King, in any event, but because of his mentalhealth problems he was in fact unable to rule. He acceded to the throne when he was not quite seventeen years old, and his accession was followed by a few years of major scandals and dramas at the court. To begin with, the physician J. F. Struensee took complete control of Christian VII, and at the same time Struensee began an affair with Queen Caroline Mathilde. Struensee was executed in 1772, and the King subsequently had to accept being controlled by members of his own family—first by Dowager Queen Juliane Marie and Hereditary Prince Frederik and then by Christian VII’s own son, Crown Prince Frederik (VI).

This book is part of the Crown Series, a series of small books on the Danish monarchy and related subjects published in cooperation with the Royal Danish Collection.