Christian VIII of Denmark

The Royal Navy set about blockading Denmark and Norway, just as they did France, Italy, the Netherlands, and all the rest of Napoleon's empire.

Late in the afternoon of March 22nd, 1808, six months after the attack on Copenhagen, a Royal Navy squadron caught up with a Danish ship of the line, the Prince Christian Frederick, off the coast of the island of Zeeland.

The Danes tried to fight their way out of this engagement and make a run for safe anchorage, but they were outnumbered four to one.

The battle raged into the night, lit only by lanterns and muzzle flashes from the cannons.

Finally, the Prince Christian Frederick was outmaneuvered, surrounded, and forced into shallow water where it ran aground.

The Danes had no choice but to surrender.

They brought their wounded ashore, then set fire to the ship to deny it to the British.

At about 9pm, the flames reached the gunpowder magazine, and the night was suddenly illuminated by a massive explosion.

But the Norwegians declined to see things that way.

But the Danish Crown Prince, acting as Viceroy in Norway, Christian Frederick, strangely convened an assembly of prominent Norwegians at Eidsvoll in February.

By the 17th of March, which is still celebrated as Norway's National Day, they drafted their own constitution and declared Norway an independent kingdom with Christian Frederick as king.

However, Bernadotte, who'd spent considerable Swedish blood securing Norway as a prize, was not inclined to let a constitution get in the way of his ambitions.

A short, sharp, Swedish-Norwegian war followed that summer.

Eighteen thirteen to eighteen fourteen, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden, ended by Peace of Kiel.

Christian VIII, eighteen thirty-nine to eighteen forty-eight.

Frederick VII, eighteen forty-eight to eighteen sixty-three.

Eighteen forty-eight to eighteen fifty-one, revolts in Schleswig-Holstein.

And these are the stories of the two princes, which was kind of interesting.

The first one, Princess Charlotte Frederica, was a German noblewoman and the first wife of Christian VIII of Denmark.

The couple married in 1806 and divorced in 1810.

She was the daughter of Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Sharon, and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.