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Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen: Otto Sperling the younger’s Latin biography of Leonora Christina (ca. 1690) Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen: The Danish antiquarian Otto Sperling the younger (1634‑1715) worked for most of his life on a manuscript titled ‘De foeminis doctis’, now in the collection of the Royal Library, shelfmark GKS 2110 quarto, which containedshort biographies of a total of 1,399 learned women from all ages and nations (cf. Fund og Forskning, 2012, pp. 187‑212). One of these is Leonora Christina (1621‑1698), the daughter of Christian IV and his morganatic wife, Kirsten Munk, and a major figure in Danish literature thanks to her prison narrative Jammers Minde and her so-called ‘French Autobiography’. Sperling’s Latin biography focuses on her literary achievements and contains information not found elsewhere. It has been known to scholarship for generations, and a partial translation from the eighteenth century exists in manuscript, but the text has never been published, probably because it consists of 24 pieces distributed over 18 different pages between pp. 306 and 401 of vol. I of the manuscript. It is here edited and translated into Danish for the first time, and it is argued that Sperling composed it on the basis of a series of interviews with the ageing Leonora Christina after her release from prison in 1685. In other words, Sperling functioned as Leonora Christina’s ghostwriter, and the text should really be considered autobiographical and placed alongside the Jammers Minde and her French Autobiography as an authentic expression of her personality.

The personality and Political Influence of Queen Anna Sophie, 1721-30On 4 April 1721, the day after the interment of his Queen Louise, Frederick IV of Denmark and Norway lawfully married the Danish noblewoman Anna Sophie Reventlow. Actually, she had been the King's morganatic wife and elevated to the rank of duchess of Schleswig since 1712; he had thus been a bigamist for nine years. Two months later, he crowned her, making her his Queen. Subsequently, the extended family of Queen Anna Sophie became the King's key advisors, but scholars have generally agreed that her political influence was negligible. Based on a hitherto unknown but well-informed contemporary account of the events surrounding her elevation, penned by the royal historiographer Andreas Hojer, it is argued that the Queen's political influence on domestic policy was in fact considerable, and that clientelism played a more prominent role in the political culture of Danish Absolutism than traditionally assumed.

Festskrift til Sankt Andreas Kirkes 150-års jubilæum 2023

Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen: The Danish antiquarian Otto Sperling the younger (1634‑1715) worked for most of his life on a manuscript titled ‘De foeminis doctis’, now in the collection of the Royal Library, shelfmark GKS 2110 quarto, which contained short biographies of a total of 1,399 learned women from all ages and nations (cf. Fund og Forskning, 2012, pp. 187‑212). One of these is Leonora Christina (1621‑1698), the daughter of Christian IV and his morganatic wife, Kirsten Munk, and a major figure in Danish literature thanks to her prison narrative Jammers Minde and her so-called ‘French Autobiography’. Sperling’s Latin biography focuses on her literary achievements and contains information not found elsewhere. It has been known to scholarship for generations, and a partial translation from the eighteenth century exists in manuscript, but the text has never been published, probably because it consists of 24 pieces distributed over 18 different pages between pp. 306 and 401 of vol. I of the manuscript. It is here edited and translated into Danish for the first time, and it is argued that Sperling composed it on the basis of a series of interviews with the ageing Leonora Christina after her release from prison in 1685. In other words, Sperling functioned as Leonora Christina’s ghostwriter, and the text should really be considered autobiographical and placed alongside the Jammers Minde and her French Autobiography as an authentic expression of her personality.

Pufendorf is mainly remembered as a natural law philosopher but he was also an influential historian and a public intellectual. Apart from an early phase where his historical interests followed a conventional antiquarian course he focused on recent or contemporary history as evidenced by his popular and much translated, adapted and imitated European History (1680), his acerbic pamphlet History of Popedom (1679), and the monumental ex officio treatments of recent history of Sweden and Brandenburg: History of Gustavus Adolphus and Christina (1686), History of Charles Gustavus (1696) and History of Frederick William (1695). Pufendorf's historical works are informed by a clear and simple vision of states as unified agents acting within a framework of real (moderate) and imaginary (unrealistic), permanent (geopolitical) and temporary (contingent) interests. He combined this vision, informed by his natural law theory, with an abiding interest in diplomacy and decision making and a corresponding disregard for the concrete political players and the action on the battlefield. As royal Swedish and later electoral Brandenburg historiographer he had privileged access to archival sources. He used this to bolster his authority but also to present a firmly streamlined and occasionally biased account in harmony with his religious and political loyalties.