| The Royal Skandinavism
| | The end of the many wars between Denmark and Sweden and the Scanian countries´ definitive transition to Sweden, created a “blue wall” through the Sound. A passport was now required to cross the Sound and communication across the Sound was limited for a number of years.
Marriages between the royal families re-established the connections, but during the Napoleonic wars the two countries ended up on different sides in the conflict and the transition of Norway to Sweden in 1814 chilled the relationship once again. |
The Roots
The attitude towards Sweden in Denmark after the end of the Great Nordic War in 1720 was relatively conciliatory. Denmark had definitively come to terms with the fact the Scanian countries were lost, while Sweden had a harder time of facing the lost status of big power. Both parties were at an early stage alert to the Russian big power ambitions in the Baltic area and in 1740 the Danish public officer said that: “the three Nordic kingdoms would gain in power and independence and happiness” when united. Efforts to create a Nordic union with a Danish crown prince as a starting point did not succeed, but in 1756 the two states entered into a federation of neutrality.
A Married Royal Couple
In 1766 the Swedish King Gustav III married the Danish Princess Sofie Magdalene. Gustav visited Denmark as a crown prince as early as 1770 and as Swedish King he visited briefly in 1786. July 9th King Gustav was received at Marienlyst Castle in Elsinore, where the king had arrived at 12 o´clock. He dined accompanied by Turkish chamber music from oboists of the Royal Life Guards and oboists from Kronborg. At 6 PM he went to Hellebæk to visit the rifle factory and in the evening he returned to Sweden.
Gustav III at Fredensborg |
Inoffical Visit
King Gustav came back in October 1787, this time on an unannounced visit to Copenhagen. The periodical “Minerva” wrote, that every “Scandinavian “ must feel great joy over the sense of community that this visit stood for. Thus “Scandinavian” became a household word.
But the Danes were a bit worried at this latest visit, which took the court by surprise, and they feared a hidden agenda with regards to foreign policy. At the first visit the Danish king had spat in the soup and left the meal abruptly, so they feared what the autocratic, but deranged king would do or be persuaded to do. Gustav had plans to expand in the east, but Denmark had formed an alliance with Russia and in 1788 the two parties as a result of the alliance fell out with each other.
Gustav III Murdered
However, in 1792 the Swedish king was murdered during a masked ball at Stockholm’s Castle and the threat of war blew over for the time being. That same year the Danish professor Sneedorf held a lecture in the Nordic Society in London saying how important it was that the three Nordic countries united and in 1794 another federation of neutrality was signed by Denmark and Sweden. At that occasion the Danish foreign minister Bernsdorff said: “Everything that brings Denmark and Sweden closer to each other is natural; all that separates them in unjust and unnatural”.
Swedes Hiding in Denmark
Count Horn, who was implicated in the murder of Gustav 3., had to spend his days in Danish exile and he is buried in the Assistens Churchyard in Copenhagen. The plight of the exiled was often wretched and he lived on the mercy of others. The high official Johan Bülow found a note written by Count Horn, probably addressed to the Danish king, in a vase at Marienlyst Castle, and it shows his condition:
“Noble owner of these places, the love of your people! Do not refuse the honest homage of a fugitive, a fugitive, who from foreign shores beholds his native country, lamenting his fate and that of all other nations governed by kings, who do not know how to imitate you.”
To be part of a conspiracy to commit murder is of course a serious matter, but Claes Horn and the nobleman Ehrensvärd were tolerated and were happy in Denmark and apparently it didn’t affect the relationship between Denmark and Sweden at the turn of the century.
The Napoleon War
In spite of the federation of neutrality Sweden and Denmark took different sides during the Napoleonic war and it came to minor incidents between the two parties in 1808-09 and later in 1813. After the dethroning of the Swedish King Gustav IV Adolf a Danish Prince Christian August was elected heir to the throne, but after his sudden death a former French general Bernadotte took the throne. Bernadotte converted to the Protestantism on the Swedish consulate in Elsinore and then travelled across the Sound.
The outcome of the Napoleonic wars meant that Sweden lost Finland in 1809 and Denmark lost Norway, which instead was united with Sweden in 1814. Norway’s transition to Sweden entailed that the mutual relationship was cooled down, but in the course of a few decades the contact was increased considerably among other things because of the improvement of the means of communication.
Monument in memory of Christian August | 
The Swedish consulate in Elsinore | 
The Swedish consulate in Elsinore | 
Bernadotte disembarks in Helsingborg | 
The Bernadotte Monument in Helsingborg |
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