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A47431
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Animadversions on a pretended Account of Danmark
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King, William, 1663-1712.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing K522; Wing K543A; ESTC R2390
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79,308
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234
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from whence we may rationally conclude the Banisht will amount to very near the forementioned number the more Incorrigible were sometimes destroyed There 's five or six sent that way I warrant you others were either formally Eâ—ecuted by the sentence of a high Court of Justice or dispatched without any more Ceremony the best way for Endeavouring to secure themselves against the Insults of their own Subjects A very moderate computation And here how few Kings are left to end their days in Peace One would think a succession would not be much contended for where a Crown is tendred upon such â—icklish conditions yet he tells us p. 45. they always elected a better man in his Roomâ— sometimes the next of Kin sometimes the Valiant man that had exposed himself so far as to undertake the Expulsion or the Killing of the Tyrant at other times a private Person of good Reputation who possibly least dream't of such an advancement I suppose the next of Kin were seldom so desperate as to venture and therefore they oftener threw their voices away upon some private Person who according to this Authors description might possibly be some honest drunken sleepy fellow that had a Crown dropt into his mouth as he lay yawning But generally the Murtherer was likewise the Thief and the Villain who had dispatched his Prince succeeded him hence there arose a well ordered Government and all men became ambitious of Imitating their new King the meanest Subjects duly weighing the faults of their Superiors in their own breasts the proper Tribunal the Servant soon stabs his cruel Master the Tenant shoots his wasteful Lord and the Son poisons his covetous old Father that having so done they may by the common Law and Justice of the Kingdom succeed in their respective Inheritances Having done with that Government the loss of which he so much complains of we enter upon his account of the present State and find him telling us p. 46 47. that about thirty two years ago at one Instant the face of affairs was changed so that the Kings have ever since been absolute and arbitrary not the least Remnant of Liberty remaining to the Subject the first and principal Article in the Danish law being that the King has the Priviledge reserved to himself to explain the Law nay to alter and change it as he shall find good The consequences of this are excessive Taxes in times of peace little regard being had to the occasion of them Poverty in the Gentry Misery in the Peasants and Partiality in the distribution of Justice The occasion of the Change of Government shall be declared in the next Paragraph in the mean time any one that knows Danmark must confess that the King is absolute but no further so than a Christian King of oâ—r own Protestant Religion may be wherefore amongst other of the obligations which he lies under are the Holy Scriptures and the Confession of Aâ—gsburg as is declared in the beginning of the Danish Law Aâ— for that Law which the Author â—â—livers it is declaratory of the Kings Authority and since it is necessary that a legislative Power should be lodged somewhere shows that it is placed in him Pursuant to this the present King has compiled a Book of Laws the Character of which is given by our Author p. 232 233. That for Justice Brevity and Perspicuity they exceed all in the world That they are grounded upon Equity and are all contain'd in one Quarto Volume written in the Language of the Country with so much plainness that no man who can write and read is so ignorant but he may presently understand his own Case and plead it too if he pleases without the assistance of Councilor Attorney Being thus constituted they are so agreeable and adapted to the Danish Nation that they continue still the same the King having never yet changed nor altered much less explained any part to the Prejudice of any particular Person whatsoever the execution of them throughout the whole Kingdom is with great equality and more eminently in the High Court of Justice in Copenhagen where the King himself is President and sits frequently where Causes are often decided in favour of the meanest Peasant against the greatest Favorites who for wrongs done have been condemned to vast Mulcts and Penalties as might be shown by several instances if it were needful or proper to insert them By this Law every man possesses his own Real or Personal Estate without the least Eâ—croachment from the King 't is true that the Subject pays Taxes but they are such only as Necessity requires for Danmark being surrounded with many potent Neighbours who are all in Arms it must for its own preservation support a Fleet and Army unless it could perswade them to disband their Forces The Taxes being for the common good are laid equally upon all and the Kings Moderation in his Expences both as to himself and the Royal Family being so conspicuous the Subject has the greater satisfaction to see what he contributes laid out only for his own Preservation Notwithstanding these Taxes the People live in Plenty wanting nothing either for Conveniency or Pleasure All this they enjoy although the Government is indeed absolute and they with all willingness and due obedience submit themselves to this Government because they are sufficiently satisfied that this absolute Power was not given to his Majesty of Danmark till the necessity for it was unavoidable The Nobility was that part of the Danish Constitution which first broke in upon the Symmetry of the whole in several Ages and by insensible degrees they encroached upon the Kings Prerogative but all along made larger progresses towards the enslaving of the Commonalty insomuch that all burthens and publick Taxes were imposed upon them alone After the War with Sweden the Commons found themselves unable longer to live under such oppressions they had bravely defended their Country with the hazard of their Lives and would have done so with their Fortunes if they had had any remaining but these were wholly swallowed up by the Nobility who yet would contribute nothing toward the maintaining of a just War against foreign Enemy and Invader Danmark being upon the brink of Ruine the Commons in these circumstances as the weaker and more oppresâ—ed part fly to their Head for succour Neither the King alone nor the Commons alone nor both King and Commons joyntly could controul the Nobility so far as to make them pay Taxes therefore it was necessary that all three should consent to a new Government so the Commons proposed it to the Lords and both Lords and Commons offer the King to make him absolute which offer if he had not accepted of neither himself nor the Commons could have supported the State Supplies were of necessity to be raised the Commonalty could not raise them without assistance and there was no other way but this to make the Nobility in some equal measure bear their proportion After this alteration
Sumptuousness and Magnificence as that wherewith her Burial was accompanied Fifthly Whatever he ominates concerning the Swedes avoiding a further Matrimonial Tye with Danmark p. 193. Yet it is true that the general report of the World is concerning a double Marriage between the Prince Royal of Danmark and the Princess of Sweden as also between the Prince Royal of Sweden and the Princess of Danmark If so where is this Gentlemans assurance of the impossibility of a further Matrimonial Tye or the certainty of the Prince of Holstein's being contracted to the Princess of Sweden whom he falsly cal's p. 193. the only Daughter of the King of Sweden this King having two Princesses living by the lately deceased Queen Sixthly As the Author is pretty near in guessing that the King of Danmark would not sit down with the Duke of Zell's thrusting himself into the Dutchy of Saxe Lawenburg so he is out of the way when he says that the King of Sweden would uphold the Lunenburg Family though secretly For the Swede was one of the chief Mediators that made the Duke of Zell demolish Raâ—eburg last year and give the King of Danmark the satisfaction which he desired Seventhly When he says that the Duke of Holstein has by the Sister of the King of Danmark issue a very hopeful Prince one should think he has no more issue than this only Son whereas the Duke of Holstein has several Children of both Sexes CHAP. XIII The Manner of Dispossessing and Restoring the Duke of Holstein Gottorp ANY one who reads this and the foregoing Chapter will see the Authors partiality for the Duke of Holstein He seems to have undertaken his Cause and to display it in all its best Colours and Brightness It were an easy thing in answer to all this to transcribe the King of Danmark's Manifesto upon this occasion which those who are curious may consult if they please it having been spread about all Germany But I shall avoid meddling with any Justification of the King of Danmark upon this Account The reason is because there is at present an intire Reconciliation between the King and his Brother-in law the Duke and last year they met together with great Friendship in Holstein Now Reconciliation clears up a thousand things which Distruâ—â— Jealousy or Misunderstanding may have cast before one What hereâ—ofore may have seem'd unkind or unjust then will appear to have been necessary but especially upon thâ— renewing of Friendship there should be no Justification of former Proceedings made by either Party for such Justification shows as if the breach were not thoroughly repair'd and will give a handle for future disputes and difficulties Since no reconcilement will be perfect but such as carries along with it an entire oblivion of past differences and all their circumstances CHAP. XIV The Interests of Danmark in Relation to other Princes I Shall be very short in relation to this Chapter because it is of the same nature with the former What he says of Danmark that it resembles a Monster that is all Head and no Body all Soldiers and no Subjects p. 224. has been sufficiently confuted However if I were to have a Monster I would rather have one that is all Head and no Body than such a one as he would make which is all Body and no Head Neither am I of opinion that Danmark bears no greater proportion to France than the little Republick of St. Marino does to Venice and that Danmark is the least and poorest Kingdom in Europe p. 225. for as to its poverty I have given him an account and as to the Littleness of this Kingdom I must a second time make bold with the first words of his Book against him That if we consider the Extent of the King of Danmark's Dominions he may with Justice be reckon'd among the greatest Princes in Europe CHAP. XIV Of the Laws Courts of Justice c. THE Danes are sprung from the Goths who have always been a most warlike Nation they have left no Northern People free from their Incursions at least if not their Conquests and extended them from Island to the warmer Climates of Spain and Italy and the burning Shores of Africa Krantzius in Daniâ— Lib. 1. c. Meursius Hist. Dan. Lib. 2 3. Isaac Pontanus Rer. Dan. And have the honour never to have submitted to the Roman Empire nor to have any just pretences made from thence of Superiority or Dominion over them Their Historians affirm that they have had a continued Succession of Princes from a thousand and forty Years before Christ who have continually governed them They have always been ruled by their own Laws without foreign impositions These Laws and Customs were so agreeable to the Northern People that Roger Hoveden in his Annals of Hen. 2d of England says that when William the Conqueror was to give Laws to the English he made the greatest use of the Danish Laws to that purpose from the Love he bore to the Danes from whom the Normans took their Original Under the forementioned Laws and Customs the Danes lived which they might possibly explain or improve by the Civil or Roman Law that Pontanus Lib 6. says they made use of and which the Governors of their Monasteries understood and studied having learnt them in the Universities of France and Italy Georg. Lorich in addit ad cons. poster n. 92. Helmold Lib. 3. Chron. Slavorum c. 5. King Waldemar in the Year of Christ one thousand two hundred thirty two collected the Statutes of his Predecessors whâ—ch with the ancient Customs of the Danes and Cimbers he reduc'd into writing and adding several others together with the Consent of the States he made an entire Body of the Danish Law Pontanus Lib 6. Duck de Authoritate juris civilis Yet this was but for one Province for formerly each Province Jutland Sealand c. had their own particular Laws differing from one another And indeed since his present Majesties Collection and Reformation of the Laws the Danish and Norsh Law is still distinguished so that there is just such another Volume comprehending the Norsh Law as that of the Danish but there is no difference except in such things where the nature and situation of Norway require another Regulation than Danmark In Norway likewise is another high Court of Justice where the Viceroy is resident to which all Causes may come by Appeal But if the Parties be not contented with the Decision of that Court they have a further Appeal to the highest Court in Copenhagen Holstein is ruled by the Imperial Law as a Fier of the Empire and there is at Copenhagen two Chanceries the Danish for Danmark and Norway the German for Holstein and the other German Provinces belonging to the King of Danmark He has said nothing of the Ecclesiastical Courts in Danmark which are in every Diocess where the Bishop is Resident and several of the chief of the Clergy are his Assistants and the Governor of the Province always