WEBVTT - Queen Caroline Matilda's Personal Doctor 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.760 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:08.280 and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minkie. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.480 Even though it was a masquerade ball, the identities of 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:19.520 Queen Caroline Matilda and Doctor Strunz were immediately obvious to 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:24.160 anyone around them. The doctor was tall over six feet, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.960 and Caroline Matilda hadn't leapt his side the entire evening. 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:35.360 They were flirting in public, and every tiny gesture, every glance, 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:40.080 every hand resting lightly on his arm unleashed a new 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:45.000 shock wave of whispers through the ball room at Christianburg Palace. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:48.920 It was that sort of behavior that made people certain 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.680 that the new royal infant, a girl just over six 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.960 months old, was actually the doctor's daughter and not the 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:02.960 King's of course, and Christian wasn't at this party. He 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:07.880 hadn't attended a social event in weeks. His condition, which 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:12.720 historians sometimes characterized as schizophrenia, meant that there were periods 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.600 of highs and lows when it came to the King's cognition, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.920 but for the winter of seventeen seventy two, it was 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.640 a low period. For the past ten months, the country 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.640 of Denmark had been ruled with almost full control, not 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:34.120 by the king but by Dr Struantz, a German Man 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.279 born as a commoner. But the nobles and the people 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:42.960 of Denmark wouldn't stand for it for much longer. Depending 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.720 on which broadsides you read, the doctor and his harlot, 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:52.720 the Queen had either kidnapped the King or already poisoned him, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.760 and later that very night, the night of the masquerade ball, 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.240 the king's stepmother, the Dowager Queen, would give her go 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:06.559 ahead for Strudents and Queen Caroline Matilda to be arrested 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:11.840 in their beds, unforged evidence of an attempted assassination of 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:17.120 the king. Around the world, the late seventeen hundreds was 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.920 a time of social upheaval. Philosophers like Voltaire and Jean Jacques, 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:26.359 Rousseau and Montesquieu wrote widely read treatises arguing for what 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:30.480 they saw as more rational, more enlightened forms of government. 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:35.000 They argued for individual freedoms and against the powers of 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:40.720 absolute monarchy. Their ideas circulated like the smoke in the 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:45.840 drawing rooms of Paris. It was an intoxicating notion that 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:51.320 nations could achieve a perfectibility, that the brand new scientific 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:56.600 method could also inform a rational approach to governments. Over 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.400 the next decade, Enlightenment thinking would affect nations around the 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.880 world and lead to revolutions. There was one, first in 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:08.840 the United States and then in France, but something strange 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:15.080 happened in Denmark. In America and France, enlightened philosophy took 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:19.400 hold of and inspired the people who revolted in favor 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.400 of more democratic forms of government. But in Denmark there 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:29.679 was a revolution of only one man, Dr Johannes Strums. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.880 Doctor Strunge was in a rare position as the King's 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:40.160 personal doctor. He had authority over the king, a medical 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:45.080 authority at first, but as the king's condition deteriorated, that 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:50.880 authority began to apply to everything. Exerting his control over 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:56.160 the incapacitated King, Strunge became well sort of an enlightened despot. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.000 During his ten months as de facto leader of Denmark, 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:06.520 he enacted over a thousand reforms, including the abolition of torture, 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.800 freedom of the press, ban on the slave trade, and 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:15.360 limiting feudal titles. He singlehandedly decided he would be the 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:19.880 one to pull Denmark into the nineteenth century, even though 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.960 he never really had the authority to do it. The 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.600 country didn't respond well, but those students failed to win 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:33.160 over his adoptive nation. He did manage to seduce someone. 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:39.479 The Queen. Young Caroline Matilda, sister of the British King 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.880 George the Third, fell madly in love with the man 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:47.960 who was treating her infirm husband, and her love would 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:53.720 doom them both. I'm Danis Schwartz and this is noble blood. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.080 Being the youngest of nine children, Caroline Matilda was used 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:08.039 to feeling like an afterthought. Her father, who had been 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.120 next in line to be the King of England, died 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.760 just a few months before Caroline Matilda was born, which 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.480 meant that her older brother, the future George the Third, 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.240 would become king upon the death of their grandfather. George 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:24.880 was twenty two when he became the King of England 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:30.120 in seventeen sixty. Caroline Matilda was nine. She would have 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.680 only a few brief years of childhood left before her 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.200 brother would use her for the purpose that princesses are 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:44.680 born for forging political alliances. It was actually Caroline Matilda's 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.400 older sister who was originally supposed to marry their first cousin, 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:53.240 Christian of Denmark. It was important that England solidify its 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.279 relationship with Denmark to make sure Denmark didn't drift too 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:02.960 far away into friendship with France. Heaven forbid. But Caroline 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.920 Matilda's older sister had what people in the eighteenth century 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:13.160 described as a weak constitution, and so, at age thirteen, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.760 young Caroline was the one who became engaged to the 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:21.480 future King Christian of Denmark. Instead, she was told to 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.320 say good bye to England, her home, her mother, her friends, 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.680 and her siblings, and to prepare to spend the rest 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.760 of her life in a place she had never been before. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:38.000 When she turned fifteen years old, Caroline was married to Christian, who, 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:41.880 since their engagement, had become the King of Denmark. He 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:46.240 was seventeen years old. That first marriage was by proxy 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.600 in England, but a few weeks later she arrived in 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.799 Copenhagen and they were married again, this time in person. 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:59.240 Two teenagers bound before God to spend their lives together 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:07.520 and rule a country side by side. Christian was tired 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:12.920 of Caroline Matilda within a week. Caroline Matilda was not unattractive. 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.800 She was a pretty girl with a round figure and 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.240 blue eyes, and she enjoyed talking about books in politics, 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:25.600 Christian didn't care. Unbeknownst to Caroline Matilda, before she arrived, 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.000 King Christian of Denmark was already showing troublesome symptoms of 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.280 mental illness that would only continue to worsen as he 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.880 grew older and was given more power. When his new 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.960 bride arrived, he was polite but entirely cold to her. 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.480 One of Caroline Matilda's new ladies in waiting advised her 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.160 that to get her husband to be more interested in 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.440 her sexually, she should play a little hard to get. 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.080 One night, when one of the king's men came to 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.560 her bed chamber to ask if she was ready for 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.680 a visit from her husband, Caroline Matilda's lady told him 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:07.520 that the queen was indisposed. A little rejection, the lady 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:12.160 told Caroline Matilda will make him want you more. It 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.760 turns out that that was bad advice. From that point on, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.880 Christian baily seemed to regard his wife at all. He 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.920 also didn't seem to regard any notions of dignity or propriety. 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:29.920 He held elaborate orgies, drank obscenely, and coworted so openly 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:35.200 with mistresses that Caroline Matilda became able to identify each 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.600 one by the sound of her laughter as it echoed 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.320 through the Christianborg Palace all the way to her bed chamber. 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.960 The King and Queen spent one awkward night together not 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.360 too long after their marriage, and it led to Queen 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.760 Caroline giving birth to a son, Frederick. She had fulfilled 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.240 her purpose and King Christian had done his duty, which 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.040 meant that in his mind he had absolutely no more 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:06.040 use for his wife, and he would spend his evenings 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:11.120 partying without her as he saw fit. But Christians drinking 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.440 and womanizing provided a smoke screen for how unwell he 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:21.800 actually was. Modern scholars sometimes diagnosed him as schizophrenic. It's 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.600 not really possible to say with any certainty. What we 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.800 do know is that the king's grip on reality would 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:34.400 leave him. Christian would dip in and out of lucidity, 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.800 and when he was out, he was prone to bouts 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:42.840 of rage and violence during his worst moments. At better moments, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.800 he would just humiliate himself and the crown, much to 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:51.760 the shame of Caroline, Matilda and christian stepmother, the dowager 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:58.600 Queen Julianne Marie, partly in order to hide the fact 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.680 that the king was mentally l and partly because a 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.640 change in scenery sometimes seemed to help him. The King 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:10.000 was taken on lengthy diplomatic tours of Europe far away 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:15.120 from Denmark. While he was gone, Caroline Matilda lived a lonely, 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.960 quiet life. She would visit the court of the dowager 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:23.679 Queen Julianne Marie, who was pleasant enough to her, even 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.480 though it was obvious to everyone that Julianne Marie would 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.559 rather that her son be the one on the throne. 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.400 Julianne Marie had been the second wife of Christian's father, 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.040 and she was the mother of Christians half brother, who 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:43.560 by this point was a surly teenager. Everyone in court 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.720 knew that Christian wasn't well, and though it would be 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.720 treason to admit it, well, should he really be the 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.680 one in charge? Julian Marie never said as much while 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.760 she sipped her tea across from Caroline Matilda, but Caroline 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:04.240 Matilda felt it in her sideways glances, her raised eyebrows, 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:09.160 her two long sighs. Caroline Matilda did cause a minor 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:13.520 scandal by leaving the palace and walking around Copenhagen on foot. 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.400 I don't understand, Caroline said, when the dowager Queen gave 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.280 her a stern reprimand I was just trying to see 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:27.679 the city. It simply isn't done, Julian and Marie replied. 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.880 Caroline Matilda apologized, and she spent the next few months 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.680 inside the palace grounds reading the few books that she 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.760 had brought with her from England, the ones that had 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:46.120 managed to make it through the rigorous Danish censorship of print. Meanwhile, 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.520 the king returned from his European tour with a new 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:55.520 member of court, a doctor named Johannes Strudents. The King's 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:59.720 behavior had become so unpredictable that two of his nobles 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.120 had found a local German doctor with a good reputation 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.440 for success. Although they were aware that he had written 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:12.760 some anonymous political pamphlets that were troublingly liberal, Doctor Struntz 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.400 advised lots of exercise for Christian, and the two began 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:21.520 to spend considerable time together. Christian wasn't cured, but he 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.599 seemed to be making an improvement, and so doctor Struntz 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.400 was invited first to finish the European tour and then 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:34.439 to return to Denmark as his personal physician. Caroline Matilda 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.199 dipped low into a curtesy to welcome her husband back 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:42.520 to the palace, and when she rose, she felt Struance's 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.600 eyes focused on her own. He was thirty three years old, 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.120 with blonde hair and lips that turned up at the 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.960 ends in an expression that most people saw as friendly, 0:12:55.640 --> 0:13:00.880 but that Caroline Matilda knew was masking something more mischief obvious. 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:14.360 She saw trouble. She was right. The queen resented the 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.240 doctor at first. While he had been traveling with the king, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.640 Strength had heard for months about what an unattractive bore 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.679 the queen was, But Strung still believed that being with 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.880 a woman would help the king's condition, and so he 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:34.600 casually steered Christian towards one of Christian's favorite mistresses. Of course, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.400 Caroline Matilda presented him for it. She shot him icy 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.959 glances every time she caught him looking at her, which 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.959 was often. Strength couldn't figure it out. Why did the 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.200 queen seem to hate him so much? He racked his 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:53.280 brain and came up empty. When he finally overheard a 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.280 few ladies talking about it a few days later, he 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:01.679 was ashamed of his own stupidity. Of course, by this point, 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.960 the King was spending more time with Struds than with 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:09.640 anyone else. It had almost embarrassed Struands, how readily the 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:15.040 King acquiesced to his suggestions, medical or otherwise. For the 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:20.080 Queen's twentieth birthday, Strude suggested let the King throw her 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:24.840 an elaborate three day party. It was all Strungth's idea, 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.440 and he organized it completely, and the Queen knew it. 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:34.800 Caroline Matilda warmed to him. If King Christian noticed or 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.480 cared that his wife and his best friend seemed to 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:42.120 be spending a lot of time exchanging flirtatious glances, he 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.560 didn't show it. In fact, he encouraged them to spend 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.560 time together one on one, volunteering Struds to help treat 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.160 Caroline Matilda when she came down with a case of dropsy. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.400 For the first time in her life, someone was paying 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.480 attention to Caroline Matilda, not just to the idea of 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.200 Caroline Matilda as a princess to be deployed to whichever 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.280 European country with a marriageable prince happened to be the 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:13.160 most convenient, but to Caroline Matilda as a person. She 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.040 and the doctor talked and rode together. He spoke to 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.680 her of philosophy and thinkers like Descartes and Rousseau. When 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.920 she was with him, she felt alive with potential, as 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.280 if her life might have meaning outside of those four 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.520 gilded walls. Maybe she could do more than just sit 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.760 and read and tend to her son and walk around 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:48.240 the palace aimlessly. Strudents's influence over the royal family would 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:52.480 be solidified a year later, when an outbreak of smallpox 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:58.040 ravaged Copenhagen. Outside of palace walls, Young Frederick, the heir 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.000 to the throne, was at a delicate at age. He 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:06.040 was vulnerable. Struns, with his more modern conceptions of medicine, 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.560 suggested to the King and Queen that Frederick be inoculated. 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:17.040 The suggestion outraged the other nobles. A common country doctor 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:21.240 pricking and infecting their crown prince. Think of the risk, 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.920 Think of the fear if something went wrong, Trust me, 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:31.200 strund said, and Caroline Matilda did. She gave her nod 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:37.240 of assent, and Struent successfully inoculated the crown prince. From 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.680 that point on the crown of Denmark more or less 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:47.640 belonged to Struns. As the king's condition deteriorated, Struns's influence grew. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.960 He became a Privy Counselor and influenced the king into 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:56.160 firing his most senior conservative minister, the one who had 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:00.000 scoffed and shamed Struments for all of his liberal suggestions. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.680 It was around this point that the flirtation between Caroline 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:10.080 Matilda and doctor Struns went from subtle to blatant. King 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.880 George the Third wrote from England telling his sister not 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:18.119 to make a scene. Julian Marie turned up her nose 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:23.439 at Caroline Matilda in court. Servants had begun dusting sand 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:28.240 along the corridor between Caroline Matilda's chambers and the doctors 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.280 so that they could check for footprints in the morning. 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:34.840 For his part, King Christian was too far gone in 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.800 his madness to have any stake in what or whom 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:44.840 his wife was doing. While Caroline Matilda was on tour 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.119 in the Hanover region, her mother, Princess Augusta, came to visit. 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:54.120 Caroline's mother had heard the rumors about her daughter's relationship 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.880 with the doctor, and she spent the entire visit waiting 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.000 to get Caroline alone so it could tell her that 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:06.800 her behavior was causing a scandal. Unfortunately, Princess Augusta never 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:11.600 got the chance for the entire weekend. Doctor Stearns never 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:16.119 left Caroline Matilda's side, and so Augusta had no opportunity 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.240 to speak to her daughter alone. All she could do 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.879 before she left was begging Advisor to pass along a 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:27.680 message to her daughter, telling her to be careful. It 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.560 wasn't until a much later visit that her mother, Princess Augusta, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.440 was finally able to see her daughter one on one. 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.120 By this point, it was far too late. What are 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.399 you wearing, Augusta gasp as soon as she stepped out 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:46.080 of her carriage. Her daughter was wearing breeches like a man. 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.399 Do you like them? Caroline Matilda replied. Doctor Stearns says, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.480 Queen Catherine in Russia wears men's clothing and rides a 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.680 horse in public, and her people adore her for it. 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:04.040 A Agusta took a deep breath, but she started before 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:08.120 faltering off. She was going to say, but you are 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:13.080 not Queen Catherine of Russia. Instead, she said, but Denmark 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:18.840 is not Russia. Caroline Matilda just laughed, but Augusta didn't. 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.280 She told her daughter that she was causing a scandal 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.719 by fraternizing so openly with that Doctor Strums and that 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.720 minister who had been dismissed, did she have anything to 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:36.320 do with that? Caroline Matilda's laugh fell from her face. Pray, Madam, 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.560 she said to her mother, Allow me to govern my 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.760 own kingdom as I please. It was the last time 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:54.879 Caroline Matilda would ever see her mother. From March seventeen 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:59.560 seventy one to January seventeen seventy two, Denmark entered a 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:04.000 period it known as the time of Strunds. The doctor, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:08.480 once a common German Man not even Danish, had eliminated 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:12.760 his rivals from the cabinet, made himself account and passed 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.160 a statute that meant that his signature on documents would 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.880 have the same effect as the king's. For that ten 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:26.320 month period, doctor Strutz wielded basically unlimited power, signing one 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.600 thousand sixty nine cabinet orders, or the equivalent of more 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:35.600 than three per day. His reforms were sweeping and progressive. 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:41.920 Struns was committed to using his unusual opportunity to craft 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.600 Denmark into a nation that would embody the principles of 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.960 the French and English Enlightenment thinkers. He abolished torture, the 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:55.639 slave trade, and capital punishment. He ensured full freedom of 0:20:55.680 --> 0:21:01.119 the press, and removed penalties for illegitimate children, reduced the army, 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:06.919 reorganized courts to prevent corruption, and reformed universities and medical institutions. 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.760 But perhaps his mistake was cracking down on the indulgences 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:19.040 of the nobles. He reduced their privileges, He criminalized bribery, 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:23.840 he taxed gambling, and taxed luxury horses to fund orphanages. 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:33.360 They were all well meaning and progressive, forward looking reforms, 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.800 but for some reason the other people in power in 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:41.000 Denmark didn't care for them, and they didn't care for 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.880 this doctor Strumps, who waltzed his way into a country 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:50.720 he didn't know and took over with absolutely no qualifications. Sure, 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.359 a king didn't really have qualifications, but a king was 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:59.120 anointed by God. Strunge was just treating the king, who 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.639 was Strums to be making all of these changes. He 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.800 had no idea what Denmark was or what it should be, 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.280 and the same one for that foreign queen who seemed 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.560 to love him so much. The two of them were 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:17.560 probably in on it together. The nobles knew that the 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:23.159 king actually was incapacitated, but that information had been protected 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.800 from the people for so long that most Danish people 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:31.080 didn't understand why this random doctor was now ruling in 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:35.240 place of King Christian. The king hadn't been sick before, right, 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:40.480 so maybe the doctor had been poisoning him. Maybe the 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:43.920 doctor and the queen were planning on murdering the king 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:49.760 so they could be together and take over Denmark. Meanwhile, 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:53.440 the queen during all of this, happily read philosophy and 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:58.280 spent her nights with the man she loved. They really 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:03.159 were another Catherine the Great and Tempken, she thought. That summer, 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.080 the pair left Copenhagen to live at her Shawn Palace 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:08.879 to enjoy a few months of lounging in the sun 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:13.680 in one another's company. In July, Caroline Matilda gave birth 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.920 to a daughter, Louise Augusta. Though everyone at court knew 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:21.600 that the daughter was almost certainly struns, the king still 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:25.000 accepted her as his official daughter, and the dowager Queen 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:29.440 Julianne Marie agreed to stand as godmother. But the idyllic 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:35.000 summer wouldn't last. The truth was, Caroline Matilda's mother had 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:39.320 been right about her being no Catherine the Great. Catherine 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:43.000 the Great had united a nation behind her and inspired 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:47.840 them the country resented Doctor Struns, and it had begun 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:53.520 to hate Caroline Matilda. Public sentiment was so vitriolic that 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:58.560 in October of sevent Struns had no choice but to 0:23:58.640 --> 0:24:01.640 pull back on the freedom of the press in order 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:04.720 to prevent the waves of criticism being printed about him 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:10.840 and the Queen. The wind had changed in Denmark. Struent's 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:16.280 window of opportunity was closing. Sometime that winter, when the 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:19.399 streets of Copenhagen that Caroline had once walked as a 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:24.000 new queen turned slick and wet. Doctor Strunt asked her 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:28.080 for permission to flee. He needed to leave and get 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:32.760 to safety. She was taken aback, first that he would 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:36.159 want to leave their adoptive country, but second that he 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:41.480 was planning on leaving without her. Caroline Matilda paused and 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:47.040 sized up her lover. She refused, she simply loved him 0:24:47.080 --> 0:24:50.960 too much. Any shred of hope she had for a 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:54.359 bright future as queen had come from him, and she 0:24:54.400 --> 0:25:01.560 didn't want to let him go. In January, a group 0:25:01.600 --> 0:25:07.160 of disgruntled nobles presented manufactured evidence to Julian Mrie implicating 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:10.639 students in Caroline Matilda in a plot to murder the 0:25:10.720 --> 0:25:15.040 King of course, the claim was ridiculous. The pair had 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:19.320 absolutely no reason to murder the king. King Christian being 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:23.000 alive protected them. He was an ally and his holding 0:25:23.040 --> 0:25:26.240 power was the one thing that afforded Caroline Matilda and 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:31.919 Struents their power and positions. But that didn't matter. The 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:37.280 night of January six, after a masquerade ball, Caroline Matilda, 0:25:37.720 --> 0:25:41.560 doctor Struns, and one of Struent's closest allies were all 0:25:41.680 --> 0:25:46.360 arrested in their beds. Because the queen had an infant 0:25:46.440 --> 0:25:49.439 daughter that she was still breastfeeding, she was permitted to 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:52.840 take her with her, but otherwise she was brought to 0:25:52.920 --> 0:25:55.679 her new chambers, where she would be kept under house arrest, 0:25:56.200 --> 0:26:02.880 completely alone. The next morning, the conspirators paraded King Christian 0:26:02.920 --> 0:26:07.240 around Denmark, showing him off, proving that the King had 0:26:07.280 --> 0:26:12.560 been quote unquote rescued. He was as much upon as 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:18.360 he had ever been. Despite her arrest, Caroline Matilda refused 0:26:18.359 --> 0:26:22.880 to confess or implicate her lover in any way. It 0:26:22.960 --> 0:26:26.320 was only when they showed her the signed confession from 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:32.480 doctor Strund's that she relented. In his confession, he blamed 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:36.240 the queen for seducing him and gave her full power 0:26:36.359 --> 0:26:42.760 and control. Over their entire relationship. Caroline Matilda finally relented 0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:47.160 and agreed to co operate. She signed the paper they 0:26:47.160 --> 0:26:50.960 put in front of her. While she was still imprisoned, 0:26:51.280 --> 0:26:56.240 she learned that her mother died. After doctor Struande was 0:26:56.280 --> 0:27:00.359 found guilty of usurpation of royalty and less majeste, his 0:27:00.560 --> 0:27:04.959 right hand was cut off, then he was publicly beheaded 0:27:05.280 --> 0:27:10.480 and drawn and quartered. Within a matter of weeks, two 0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:13.760 people that Caroline Matilda loved most in the world were 0:27:13.800 --> 0:27:22.040 both gone. The scandal of Queen Caroline Matilda's arrest meant 0:27:22.080 --> 0:27:25.240 there was no end of the delighted gossip around Europe 0:27:25.520 --> 0:27:30.359 about George the Third's criminal sister. Though her lawyer argued 0:27:30.480 --> 0:27:34.280 during her trial that Caroline Matilda was completely innocent and 0:27:34.359 --> 0:27:37.960 had only signed her confession to protect Struns, no one 0:27:38.040 --> 0:27:42.520 really believed that, But as Great Britain attempted to negotiate 0:27:42.600 --> 0:27:46.720 her release and casually threatened in attack at Sy, the 0:27:46.840 --> 0:27:50.119 judge made what I think is a fairly generous ruling. 0:27:51.800 --> 0:27:56.720 Caroline Matilda's marriage with Christian was dissolved, her dowry would 0:27:56.720 --> 0:28:01.000 be returned to England. The Queen would retain her right 0:28:01.040 --> 0:28:04.360 to a pension and her royal title, and she would 0:28:04.440 --> 0:28:07.720 go off to live in Hanover quietly in one of 0:28:07.760 --> 0:28:13.879 her family's holdings, cell Castle. In her exile, Caroline Matilda 0:28:14.000 --> 0:28:18.159 lived a simple life. She was visited by relatives, She 0:28:18.320 --> 0:28:21.679 built a small theater, and she filled a library with 0:28:21.760 --> 0:28:25.399 books in both English and German. She spent most of 0:28:25.440 --> 0:28:29.600 her days working at charities for poor children. As for 0:28:29.680 --> 0:28:33.199 her own children, her son and her daughter, because they 0:28:33.240 --> 0:28:36.720 were the official royal heirs of Denmark, she would never 0:28:36.760 --> 0:28:40.640 be permitted to see them again. Back in Denmark, the 0:28:40.720 --> 0:28:44.640 dowager Queen Julianne Marie took over as regent with her son, 0:28:44.920 --> 0:28:50.640 King Christian's half brother. The pair eliminated every single progressive 0:28:50.680 --> 0:28:54.360 cabinet order that Strength had signed in his time as 0:28:54.440 --> 0:28:59.520 unofficial regent. There was a point when she was an 0:28:59.520 --> 0:29:04.040 exile where a politician visited Caroline Matilda and tried to 0:29:04.080 --> 0:29:07.560 convince her that he could rally enough power to overthrow 0:29:07.640 --> 0:29:12.320 the regency and reinstate her as Queen. Caroline Matilda agreed 0:29:12.560 --> 0:29:15.680 in the abstract, but she wanted her brother George the 0:29:15.760 --> 0:29:20.520 Third support. The politician went to England, but while he 0:29:20.560 --> 0:29:23.560 was waiting for an audience with the king he lost 0:29:23.600 --> 0:29:29.360 his chance. Caroline Matilda died, maybe of scarlet fever, just 0:29:29.520 --> 0:29:33.560 three years into her royal exile. She was twenty three 0:29:33.680 --> 0:29:37.280 years old, just a few months away from turning twenty four. 0:29:39.520 --> 0:29:43.600 For the duration of her short life, from princess to 0:29:43.760 --> 0:29:47.880 queen to lover, there was only a brief window when 0:29:47.960 --> 0:29:53.040 Caroline Matilda picture a beautiful vision of her future, one 0:29:53.080 --> 0:29:56.200 where she was beside a man she loved, changing a 0:29:56.280 --> 0:30:01.760 country for the better. That vision lasted ten mon The 0:30:01.880 --> 0:30:06.960 infirm King Christian lived for another thirty three years, occasionally 0:30:07.040 --> 0:30:12.200 expressing regret at having lost his friend Dr Strunz. Three 0:30:12.280 --> 0:30:17.640 years after Struntz's brutal execution, the King doodled a little 0:30:17.720 --> 0:30:21.840