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332
HIRSCHHOLM.
Chap. XXII.
with difficulty. In the spring of 1721 Queen Louisa
died, and in the autumn of the same year Christian,
then twenty-two years of age, espoused Sophia
Ma-dalena, daughter of the Margrave of Brandenburg.*
She was proud as she was poor; and, without loving
her husband, tormented him by her eternal jealousy.
From her portraits, I should judge her to have been a
perfect gentlewoman—one of those women to whom
beauty was no object if she only chose to be pleasant and
agreeable. Vain she was, but she never painted. The
somewhat dissolute court of King Frederic was thrown
into positive convulsions of amusement when the
i Gazette ’ first appeared announcing the appointments
in the household of the newly-married couple.
Mada-lena has selected as her hof-ladies the four ugliest women
of quality to be found in the capital of Copenhagen.
They now retire to the small castle of
Hornings-holm, accompanied by their ugly attendants, where
we will leave them to bicker and squabble until the
death of their royal father,! which occurred some nine
* The king, wishing to celebrate the occasion with the greatest
possible rejoicings, ordered a display of fireworks of unprecedented
magnificence. The paper necessary for their fabrication being
difficult to procure, Frederic issued orders to all the towns, governments,
cloisters, &c., to forward their archives to Copenhagen. Carts upon
carts arrived from all quarters full of the ancient records of the
kingdom, which were quickly sacrificed for the enjoyment of one
moment.
f Frederic IV. saw with his own eyes, and, with all his liberal ideas
of matrimony, governed well. Every Tuesday from 10 till 11, and on
Sundays before going to church, he went to a chamber where
everybody could go to him and lay their complaints before him. On the
table stood a box to receive petitions ; and when the hour of audience
was over, the box was carried to his cabinet, and he looked over its
contents himself in the evening. His economy was great, and he did
not wantonly give away pensions, which in 1729 only amounted to
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