Struensee. En människoskildring ur historien i tre romaner. III. Korsets väg

(Vol. 3 of 3)The story about the German-born doctor Johann FriedrichStruensee is often-told and well-known: he got into the service of the mentallyill Danish king Christian VII, got the power over the king, became the lover ofQueen Caroline Mathilde and the almighty dictator of the Danish monarchy from1770 till 1772 and thus introduced a series of sweeping and radical, howeverill-prepared enlightened reforms. But in 1772, he was overthrown by a coupd'état and was imprisoned, tried, convicted for lese-majesté and beheaded andafterwards broken on the wheel. The marriage between king Christian VII andQueen Caroline Mathilde was dissolved and the Queen was banished. This story has traditionally had strong interest alsooutside Denmark, partly because it is fascinating in itself, partly because ithas strong international connections as Caroline Mathilde was the daughter ofPrince Frederick of Wales and Princess Augusta and thus she was the sister of kingGeorge III of Great Britain. To basic narratives of Struensee can be seen,namely Struensee as a superficial and foolhardy soldier of fortune or as atragic hero. Most of the research in the period of Struensee has beenconcentrated on his relationship with the Queen and the subsequently sad fateof both of them and many but certainly not all of the accounts in otherlanguages than Danish have been characterized by bias and ignorance of Danishhistory and of Danish politics and society at the age. Struensee's manypolitical and social reforms have more or less been dismissed as superficialand ill-prepared. (...)[excerpt from: Review by Michael Bregnsbo, Published on H-Skand (December,2002)]https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=7056