The Government
The Archives of the Royal Family
Kongehusarkivet
The Archives of the Royal Family consist largely of private correspondence
with family members and others. The archives, filed according to king, contain
almost no thematically sorted files.
No reigning Danish king or crown prince ever visited the Danish West Indies
until 1917, but Prince Valdemar, son of Christian IX, visited the island in
1879.
Access to the Archives of the Royal Family is governed by special rules. The
archives until Christian VII (ruled 1766-1808) are immediately accessible;
access to the archives of Frederik VI (1808-1839), Christian VIII (1839-1848)
and Frederik VII (1848-1863) is subject to approval by the National Archivist of
Denmark; and access to the archives of Christian IX (1863-1906) and Frederik
VIII (1906-1912) is subject to approval by Her Majesty the Queen. Actually, the
relevant archives are those of the Royal Family and the Realm, Group A.2,
Individual members of the Royal Family. The other groups are not very relevant
to West Indian history, but see Foreign Affairs on the Treaty Collection, which
includes treaties from the archives of the Royal Family and the Realm, Group E,
Foreign relations.
The West Indies
Material concerning the West Indies mainly takes the form of private letters
to the king that bypassed the bureaucracy.
There are practically no examples of this from the 17th and 18th
centuries. One of the few persons in the Danish West Indies who exercised this
option of access to the king was Governor-General Peter von Scholten. There
exist about one hundred letters from him to Christian VIII in the years
1823-1847 and several drafts of royal replies (Christian VIII’s archives, no.
155). Further, there is a single letter of 1848 from von Scholten to Frederik
VII (Frederik VII’s archives, no. 17). Of thematically sorted files, there is
a box of files concerning the Danish tropical colonies 1803-1834 (Christian VIII’s
archives, no. 247), with a small amount of material from 1834 about the
abolition of slavery in the Danish West Indies. A box of legislative material
(Christian VIII’s archives, no. 270) has a little material from 1846-1847 on
the same subject, in which the king took a personal interest.
Queen Louise took a great interest in various charities. Her archives include
a box (Frederik VIII’s archives, no. 74) of the Queen’s correspondence
1903-1928 with nurse Agnes Preuss, who worked for the Red Cross in the hospital
at Frederiksted from 1904 to 1910 (see also Private Individuals
regarding Preuss’
private archives).
A separate category in the Archives of the Royal Family is the so-called
addresses, i.e. written petitions, civic greetings, and the like to the king
from organisations or groups of citizens. This custom of sending addresses to
the king was particularly common in the second half of the 19th
century. A score of such addresses were sent from the Danish West Indies. By way
of example, on the occasion of Christian IX’s Silver Jubilee as Regent in
1888, addresses were sent from the Committee Appointed in order to Celebrate
Your Majesties’ Silver Jubilee on St. Thomas, from the Colonial Council of St.
Croix, from the Colonial Council of St. Thomas and St. John, from the Humane
Society of St. Thomas, and from the Roman Catholic communion on St. Croix. There
is also an address of June 1840 to Christian VIII from the General Anti Slavery
Convention, held in London.
Finding Aids
The period from around 1800 to 1863 is covered by a detailed catalogue in
Vello Helk, Kongehusarkivet fra kongerne Frederik VI’s, Christian VIII’s
og Frederik VII’s tid, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 13, Copenhagen
1963. For the preceding and subsequent periods, there are only the unpublished
catalogues in the reading room of the Danish National Archives. See also the
survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets
benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 57-102.
Literature
On the record group as such, there is no noteworthy literature, whereas a
good deal of the archival material from the Archives of the Royal Family has
been published, e.g. Axel Linvald et al., eds., Kong Christian VIII.s
Dagbøger og Optegnelser, vols. 1-4:3, Copenhagen 1943-1995, which
deals with the period from 1799 until the king’s death in 1848.
The Office of the Private Secretary to the King
Kabinettet
The Office of the Private Secretary to the King was the office or secretariat
handling the king’s correspondence including his resolutions to the many
representations made by the government colleges, or agencies. This secretarial
function gradually increased after 1660, and in 1808 the Office of the Private
Secretary to the King, which still exists, was formally established.
The archives document the king’s role in governmental and legislative
matters. The king’s personal governance through the Office of the Private
Secretary to the King was, in important matters, usually counterbalanced by
consultations and decisions in the government colleges mentioned below. In the
periods 1768-1772, 1775-1784, and 1808-1814, however, the colleges’ influence
was weakened because the king governed without consulting them. The archives of
the Office of the Private Secretary to the King from these periods are,
therefore, of special interest. The documents preserved in the archives of the
Office of the Private Secretary to the King were not systematised until 1784.
The West Indies
In the archives of the Office of the Private Secretary to the King, a
relatively readily accessible source type is the extensive chronologically filed
surveys of departmental representations and the consequent royal resolutions.
These surveys are an excellent introduction to all the royal resolutions
irrespective of which department or ministry made the representation. Once the
presenting institution has been identified, further material can often be found
in the archives of that institution.
For the kings up to 1808 there exist fragmentary representation and
resolution registers, often for each respective college, e.g. 8 volumes for the
Chamber of Revenue in the reign of Frederik IV 1699-1730, with a few years
missing. From the regency of Crown Prince Frederik, which began in 1784, and
during which he was the de facto ruler, there are extensive surveys of royal
orders and resolutions. From his accession to the throne in 1808 and up to
around 1905, there are complete surveys of all royal resolutions and the like,
in hundreds of volumes and boxes, with designations such as representation
registers, presentation transcripts, journals, etc., in most cases with
alphabetical indexes. The archives of the Office of the Private Secretary to the
King also contain a large collection of addresses to the crown.
Finding Aids
Summary surveys of archival contents are to be found in Wilhelm von Rosen,
ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1,
Copenhagen 1983, pp. 121-127, and Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og
hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. II:1, Copenhagen 1991, p. 51.
Literature
In Holger Hansen, ed., Kabinetsstyrelsen i Danmark 1768-1772. Aktstykker
og Oplysninger, vols. 1-3, Copenhagen 1916-1923, the introduction in vol. 1,
pp. V-XVI, contains information about the organisation and staff of the Office
of the Personal Secretary to the King. This work also includes the texts of the
approximately two thousand orders, etc., issued by the Office of the Personal
Secretary to the King in the years 1768-1772.
The Royal Councils During the Absolute Monarchy
Enevældens regeringskollegier
The various royal councils of the absolute monarchy functioned as links
between the autocratic king and the central administration until 1848. These
were named the Privy Council (Statskollegiet) 1660-1676, the Royal Advisory
Commissions 1690-1705, the Privy Council (Gehejmekonseillet) 1670-1770, which
was succeeded by another Privy Council (Gehejmestatsrådet) 1773-1848. From the
end of 1770 until the beginning of 1773, there were no such royal councils.
These royal councils debated a range of important issues. They would
typically submit their opinions on request, but had, in fact, no executive
powers. They created only very small archives, because no minutes were taken of
their debates.
The small archives of these royal councils contain hardly anything on the
Danish West Indies.
The Council of State 1848-(1917)
Statsrådet 1848-(1917)
In 1848, the absolute monarchy was abolished in Denmark, and a new Privy
Council (Gehejmestatsrådet) assumed responsibility for the governance of the
land. From 1866 on, this college was named the Council of State (Statsrådet),
and its meetings were in time completely devoted to affairs routinely presented
by ministers for the king’s signature.
The West Indies
West Indian issues were often submitted to the Council of State. They were
usually new acts and decrees that required the king’s signature in order to
take effect, e.g. when, on 26 March 1852 in the Council of State, he endorsed
the Parliament’s and the ministry’s proposal for a new colonial act for the
Danish West Indies. In the Privy Council, the king would often reduce severe
punishments meted out by the courts of law in specific cases. By way of example,
he reduced the sentence for burglary imposed by the West Indian Superior Court
on Maria Louisa Abraham of St. Thomas on 24 July 1861 from two years of
imprisonment to one year.
Finding Aids
See the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne
til dets benyttelse, vol. II:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 49-51.
Literature
The Council of States’ proceedings are printed in Harald Jørgensen, ed., Statsrådets
Forhandlinger 1848-1912, vols. 1-12, Copenhagen 1954-1976.
The Prime Minister’s Office 1848-(1917)
Konseilspræsidiet 1848-(1917)
The president of the Council of State was the head of the government. He and
his secretariat handled primarily affairs concerning the constitution, the royal
family, ministers, and the Parliament. From 1914, the Prime Minister’s Office
was organised as an ordinary ministry.
The West Indies
There are not many West Indian files in this archival group. But of
particular notice is a box of appendices to the report submitted by the special
government commissioner for the Danish West Indies 1867-1883, which mainly
consist of material concerning the intended referendum on the scheduled sale of
the islands to the United States in 1867. In addition, there are two boxes of
material from the parliamentary commission appointed in the autumn of 1916 to
examine the issue of ratifying the recently concluded sales treaty. After
thorough hearings of expert witnesses, the Commission finally recommended that
the treaty be ratified. Its detailed recommendations, including many appendices
are printed as a separate book entitled Betænkning afgiven af den i Henhold
til Lov Nr. 294 af 30. September 1916 nedsatte Rigsdagskommission angaaende de
Dansk-Vestindiske Øer, Copenhagen 1916.
Please note that, for example, the archives of the similar parliamentary
commission in 1902 are located in the archives of the Ministry of Finance (see Finance).
Finding Aids
See the surveys in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne
til dets benyttelse, vol. II:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 71-79.
Literature
A thorough introduction is to be found in Per Fischer, ed., Statsministeriet
i 75 år, Copenhagen 1989, especially August Wiemann Eriksen’s
contribution on the history of the Ministry, pp. 29-58.
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