Frederick VI of Denmark

Biography

Frederick was born at Christiansborg Palace in 1768, the only son of Christian VII and Caroline Matilda of Great Britain. His father's mental illness left the court to favourites, and after the fall of Struensee in 1772 power passed to the Queen Dowager Juliana Maria and her allies.

In April 1784, days after being declared of age, he seized the regency in a palace coup, and he governed in his father's name until 1808. With the minister Andreas Peter Bernstorff he carried out reforms in the spirit of enlightened absolutism, abolishing stavnsbånd, a form of serfdom, in 1788, ending hanging as a punishment and withdrawing Denmark-Norway from the transatlantic slave trade.

Britain attacked the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in 1801 and bombarded the city in 1807, after which he declared war on Britain and allied with Napoleon. He became king of Denmark and Norway in 1808 and stayed loyal to France, and after France's defeat he lost Norway to Sweden under the Treaty of Kiel in 1814.

His later reign was conservative and authoritarian, with censorship and economic hardship, though in 1834 he created consultative provincial assemblies. He was a patron of astronomy and died in 1839, succeeded by his cousin Christian VIII.