..
Frederick VII. wanted to incorporate the two German Dukedoms
into Denmark.... Then the people stood up and expressed the
desire to remain with the German Federation.
Such an assertion is a summary, inaccurate, and unfair manner of dealing
with perhaps the most complex series of diplomatic, legal, and racial
questions that arose in the nineteenth century. It would appear from the
best evidence that Schleswig was indissolubly united with the Crown of
Denmark. To maintain this principle Christian VIII. in 1846 issued
letters patent declaring that the royal line of succession (female) was
in full force, as far as Schleswig was concerned. As to Holstein, the
King stated that he was prevented from giving an equally clear decision,
and the reason of his hesitation lay in the assumption that the law of
the Salic Saxons excluding women from the throne would naturally prevail
in Holstein, where the Germans, their customs, and their language were
dominant. Two years later, Prussia sought to restore her prestige, lost
in the Revolution of 1848, by sending troops into the Duchies in order
to enforce the principle that this territory constituted two independent
and indivisible States, the government of which was hereditary in the
male line alone.
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