Frederick V of Denmark

Frederick V
Frederick V. portrayed in armour by court painter, the Swedish Carl Gustav Pilo
King of Denmark and Norway
Reign	1746–1766
Predecessor	Christian VI
Successor	Christian VII
Consort	Louise of Great Britain Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Issue
Sophia Magdalena, Queen of Sweden Caroline, Electress of Hesse Christian VII of Denmark Louise, Princess Charles of Hesse-Kassel Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark
House	Oldenburg
Father	Christian VI of Denmark
Mother	Sophia Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
Born	(1723-03-31)31 March 1723 Copenhagen Castle
Died	14 January 1766(1766-01-14) (aged 42) Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen
Burial	Roskilde Cathedral
Religion	Lutheranism

Frederick V (31 March 1723 – 14 January 1766) was king of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1746 until his death, son of Christian VI of Denmark and Sophia Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. "Prudentia et Constantia" (By prudence and steadfastness) was the motto he chose for his reign.

Background and early life

Frederick as a child wearing the Order of the Elephant

Frederick was born on 31 March 1723 at Copenhagen Castle. He was the grandson of King Frederick IV of Denmark and the son of Crown Prince Christian and Sophia Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. On 12 October 1730, King Frederick IV died and Frederick's father ascended the throne as King Christian VI. Frederick himself became Crown Prince.

Christian VI and Sophia Magdalene were deeply devoted to Pietism, and Frederick was given a strictly religious upbringing. Although not unfamiliar with religious sentiments, Frederick grew into a hedonist who enjoyed the pleasures of life such as wine and women.

Marriages

First marriage

Frederick (first from left) and Louise (last from right), then crown princes of Denmark, with King Christian VI and Queen Sophie Magdalene sitting, painted by Marcus Tuscher ca. 1744

He was first married at Altona, Holstein, on 11 December 1743 to Princess Louise of Great Britain, daughter of King George II and Caroline of Ansbach. They were the parents of six children, but one was stillborn. Louise died on 19 December 1751 at Christiansborg Palace, predeceasing her husband by fourteen years, and was buried at Roskilde Cathedral. At the time of her death, she was pregnant with her seventh child, who also died.

Second marriage

Frederick married a second time at Frederiksborg Palace on 8 July 1752 to Frederick the Great of Prussia's sister-in-law Duchess Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, daughter of Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Their notable child was the Hereditary Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway, who was, in his turn, father of King Christian VIII of Denmark and grandfather of Louise of Hesse, the future queen of Denmark. She died in 1796 having been regent for her son Prince Frederick.

King Frederick was also the father of five illegitimate children by Else Hansen.

Reign

The personal influence of Frederick was limited. He was afflicted by alcoholism and most of his rule was dominated by very able ministers like A. G. Moltke, J. H. E. Bernstorff and H. C. Schimmelmann marking his reign by the progress of commerce and the emerging industry of gunpowder plant and cannon foundry in Frederiksværk, built by Johan Frederik Classen. They also avoided involving Denmark in the European wars of his time. The country remained neutral even for the duration of the Seven Years' War (1756–63), despite its proximity to combatants Russia and Sweden.

In the same period was created the Royal Frederiks Hospital and the Royal Orphanage (Det kgl. Opfostringshus) a school intended for poor boys that still exists today, opened in Christianshavn on 1 October 1753. On 29 June 1753 Frederick V created Denmark's first lottery called the Royal Copenhagen Lottery, a lottery that still exists to this day as Klasselotteriet.

Art and science were in good conditions under Frederick V, public entertainment and freedom of expression which had been banned under his Pietist father's reign, was again permitted, and in 1748 Nicolai Eigtved's Komediehus (Playhouse) on Kongens Nytorv was opened, he also founded the Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) in Copenhagen, which officially opened on 31 March 1754, his 31st birthday. Frederick purchased what would become known as the Danish West Indies from the Danish West India Company in 1754.

Masonry

The Norwegian Masonic historian Karl Ludvig Tørrisen Bugge claim that Frederik V as crown prince was included in the Copenhagen Masonic Lodge St. Martin. This was probably third June 1744, and inspired by the Prussian king Frederick the Great which were also included in a masonic lodge in his youth. They both had fathers who were violently opposed to the Masons, but unlike the Prussian king, Frederik V never published his membership of the lodge.

As an active Freemason, he set up on 24 June 1749 the first Masonic lodge in Norway.

Death and burial

Frederik V's sarcophagus at the Roskilde Cathedral

The king died at the age of 42, and after twenty years of reign. His last words were reportedly: "It is a great consolation to me in my last hour that I have never wilfully offended anyone and that there is not a drop of blood on my hands."

King Frederick V is interred in Roskilde Cathedral next to Queen Louise.

Legacy

Statue of Frederick V on horseback by Jacques Saly at the centre of the Amalienborg Palace Square the equestrian statue was commissioned by Moltke, as Director for the Danish Asiatic Company

On 1 August 1771, five years after the king's death, an equestrian statue of Frederick V dressed in the garb of a Roman emperor by the French sculptor Jacques François Joseph Saly was unveiled at Amalienborg Square in Copenhagen.

The town of Frederiksværk on the island of Zealand, the town of Frederiksted on the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as the district Frederiksstaden in Copenhagen are named after Frederick V. The city of Serampore in the Indian state of West Bengal was known under the name Frederiksnagore from 1755 to 1845 when it was part of Danish India, and the city of Paamiut in Greenland was formerly known as Frederikshaab, both in his honor.

Succession crisis

Within one hundred years of his time, Denmark faced the crisis of his male issue (the main branch of the Royal House) becoming extinct. This created a succession crisis beginning from his grandson's reign that affected both Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein. Finally, his great-grandson through the female line, Christian IX of Denmark, who was married to his great-granddaughter Louise of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), became the designated heir.

In Fiction

Frederick V appears in the early part of The Visit of the Royal Physician (Livläkarens besök), a 1999 historical novel by Per Olov Enquist, which mainly deals with his son Christian VII. As depicted in the book, Frederick's contemptuous and overbearing attitude to his son had a significant part in causing the mental instability which characterized Christian's life and reign.

Titles and styles

• 31 March 1723 – 12 October 1730: His Royal Highness Prince Frederick
• 12 October 1730 – 6 August 1746: His Royal Highness The Crown Prince
• 6 August 1746 – 14 January 1766: His Majesty The King

The full title of the sovereign was: By the Grace of God, King of Denmark and Norway, the Wends and the Goths, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.

Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Prince Christian	Copenhagen, 7 July 1745	Frederiksborg, 3 June 1747	died in infancy
Sophia Magdalena, Queen of Sweden	3 July 1746	21 August 1813	married, 1766, Gustav III, King of Sweden; had issue
Caroline, Electress of Hesse	10 July 1747	19 January 1820	married, 1763, William I, Elector of Hesse; had issue
King Christian VII	29 January 1749	13 March 1808	married, 1766, Princess Caroline Matilda; had issue
Louise, Princess Charles of Hesse	30 January 1750	12 January 1831	married, 1766, Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel; had issue
Hereditary Prince Frederick	11 October 1753	7 December 1805	married, 1774, Duchess Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; had issue

His officially recognized children by Else Hansen:

• Frederikke Margarethe de Hansen, Countess of Destinon (1747–1802)
• Frederikke Catherine de Hansen, Countess of Lützau (1748–1822)
• Anna Marie de Hansen, Mrs. Fehmann, later Mrs van Meulengacht (1749–1812)
• Sophie Charlotte de Hansen, Countess d'Origny (1750–1779)
• Ulrik Frederik de Hansen (1751–1752)

References

Frederick V House of Oldenburg Born: March 31 1723 Died: January 13 1766
Regnal titles
Preceded by Christian VI	King of Denmark and Norway Duke of Schleswig Count of Oldenburg 1746–1766	Succeeded by Christian VII
Preceded by Christian VI and Charles Peter Ulrich	Duke of Holstein 1746–1766 with Charles Peter Ulrich (1746–1762) Paul (1762–1766)	Succeeded by Christian VII and Paul