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Historical person

Frederick VI of Denmark

1768–1839

Frederick VI was the effective ruler of Denmark-Norway from 1784, when he displaced the court faction governing for his mentally ill father Christian VII, and formally became king in 1808. His early regency is associated with significant reforms, including changes to agricultural labour and the 1792 decision to end Danish participation in the transatlantic slave trade after a transition period. These measures coexisted with an increasingly cautious and authoritarian style as European war placed the composite monarchy under severe strategic pressure.

Denmark’s effort to remain neutral failed during the Napoleonic Wars. British attacks on Copenhagen in 1801 and especially the bombardment and seizure of the Danish fleet in 1807 pushed Frederick’s government into alliance with Napoleon. Defeat proved disastrous: under the Treaty of Kiel in 1814 Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden, ending the centuries-old union. Frederick continued as king of Denmark until 1839, ruling more conservatively after the war while confronting economic weakness and growing pressure for representative political institutions.

Julian Stockwin’s Inferno places Frederick VI—then crown prince and long-serving regent—behind the Danish government confronted by Britain’s 1807 attack on Copenhagen. The British expedition aims to seize the Danish fleet before Napoleon can gain control of it, forcing a formally neutral monarchy into an impossible strategic position. Frederick’s state is therefore the political object of Kydd’s naval campaign and Renzi’s attempted diplomacy, making the bombardment a clash between British security calculations and Danish sovereignty rather than a conventional war between declared enemies.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Frederick VI of Denmark (1 series)

Thomas Kydd in Order

by Julian Stockwin 27 books 4.2(24,001)

The Thomas Kydd series follows a Guildford wig-maker pressed into the Royal Navy in 1793 and traces his rise from inexperienced landsman to admiral. Across twenty-seven novels, Kydd learns the work of the lower deck, crosses to the quarterdeck and commands increasingly important ships during the French Revolutionary…

All books in this series