Editing Johann Friedrich Struensee (section)

== In control of the government ==
[[File:Denmark-Norway in 1780.svg|thumb|right|The Kingdom of [[Denmark–Norway]]]]
Struensee was named royal adviser (forelæser) and konferensråd on 5 May 1770.<ref>Edvard, Holm, ''Danmark-Norges Historie'', G.E.C. Gads Forlag, 1902, vol. 4, part. 2, p. 27.</ref> As in the course of the year the king sank into a condition of mental torpor, Struensee's authority became paramount.{{sfn|Bain|1911}} On 15 September the 16-month period generally referred to as the "Time of Struensee" began.

At first, Struensee kept a low profile as he began to control the political machine. However, as the royal court and government spent the summer of 1770 in Schleswig-Holstein ([[Gottorp]], [[Traventhal]], and [[Ascheberg (Holstein)|Ascheberg]]) his power grew. In December 1770, he grew impatient and on the 10th of that month, he abolished the council of state. A week later, he appointed himself ''maître des requêtes''. It became his official duty to present reports from the various departments of state to the king. Because King Christian was scarcely responsible for his actions, Struensee dictated whatever answers he pleased.{{sfn|Bain|1911}} Next, he dismissed all department heads, and abolished the [[governor-general of Norway|Norwegian viceroyship]]. Henceforth, the cabinet with himself as its motive power became the one supreme authority in the state. Struensee held absolute sway for almost thirteen months, between 18 December 1770 and 16 January 1772. During that time, he issued no fewer than 1,069 cabinet orders, or more than three a day.<ref>Henry Steele Commager,  "Struensee and the Enlightenment," in Commager, ''The search for a usable past, and other essays in historiography'' (1967) pp 349-623.</ref>

Reforms initiated by Struensee included:<ref name=Birkner286>{{cite book|last=Birkner|first=Gerhard Kay|chapter=''"Cramer wird doch noch, wie ich hoffe, ein ordentlicher Mensch werden." Cramer, August von Hennings und die "Plöner Aufklärung"''|pages=271–302; 286|editor-last=Schütt|editor-first=Rüdiger|title=Carl Friedrich Cramer. Revolutionär, Professor und Buchhändler|location=Nordhausen|year=2002|isbn=9783892448853|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHlwjhho5A4C&pg=PA286|language=de}}</ref>
*abolition of torture
*abolition of unfree labor ([[corvée]])
*abolition of the [[Freedom of the press|censorship of the press]]
*abolition of the practice of preferring nobles for state offices
*abolition of noble privileges
*abolition of "undeserved" revenues for nobles
*abolition of the etiquette rules at the Royal Court
*abolition of the Royal Court's aristocracy
*abolition of state funding of unproductive manufacturers
*abolition of several holidays
*introduction of a tax on gambling and luxury horses to fund nursing of [[child abandonment|foundlings]]
*ban of [[slavery|slave trade]] in the [[Danish overseas colonies|Danish colonies]]
*rewarding only actual achievements with feudal titles and decorations
*criminalization and punishment of bribery
*re-organization of the judicial institutions to minimize corruption
*introduction of state-owned grain storages to balance out the grain price
*assignment of farmland to peasants
*re-organization and reduction of the army
*university reforms
*reform of the state-owned medical institutions

Other reforms included the abolition of [[capital punishment]] for theft; the doing away with such demoralizing abuses as perquisites; and of "lackey-ism", the appointment of powerful men's domestic staff to lucrative public posts.{{sfn|Bain|1911}}

Critics of Struensee thought that he did not respect native Danish and Norwegian customs, saw them as prejudices and wanted to eliminate them in favour of abstract principles. He also did not speak Danish and conducted his business in German. To ensure obedience, he dismissed entire staffs of public departments, without pensions or compensation, and substituted with nominees of his own. The new officials were in many cases inexperienced men who knew little or nothing of the country that they were supposed to govern.

Initially, the Danish people favored his reforms, but they began to turn against him. When Struensee abolished all censorship of the press, it mostly resulted in a flood of anti-Struensee pamphlets.<ref>John Christian Laursen, ''Luxdorph's Press Freedom Writings: Before the Fall of Struensee in Early 1770s Denmark-Norway'', pp. 61–77 in: ''The European Legacy'', vol. 7, no. 1, 2002.</ref>

During the initial months of his rule, middle-class opinion was in his favour.<ref>Johann Friedrich Struensee. (2014). Retrieved September 7, 2015, from http://www.nndb.com/people/197/000097903/</ref> What incensed the people most against him was the way in which he put the king completely on one side, and the feeling was all the stronger as, outside a very narrow court circle, nobody seems to have believed that Christian VII was really mad, but only that his will had been weakened by habitual ill usage{{clarify|date=December 2023}}. That opinion was confirmed by the publication of the cabinet order of 14 July 1771, which appointed Struensee "gehejme kabinetsminister" or "Geheimekabinetsminister", with authority to issue cabinet orders which were to have the force of royal ordinances, even if unprovided with the royal sign manual.{{sfn|Bain|1911}}

Struensee's relations with the queen were offensive to a nation which had a traditional veneration for the royal [[House of Oldenburg]], and Caroline Matilda's conduct in public scandalized the populace. The society which daily gathered round the king and queen excited the derision of the foreign ambassadors. The unhappy king was little more than the butt of his environment, but occasionally, the king would put up a show of obstinacy and refuse to carry out Brandt's or Struensee's orders. Once, when he threatened his keeper, Brandt, with a flogging for some impertinence, Brandt ended up in a struggle with the King and he struck the King in the face.{{sfn|Bain|1911}}