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GRIFFENFELDT, PEDER, COUNT (Peder Schumacher) (1635-1699) , Danish statesman, was born at Copenhagen on the 24th of August 1633, of a wealthy trading family connected with the leading civic, clerical and learned circles in the Danish capital . His tutor, Jens Vorde, who prepared him in his eleventh year for the university, praises his extraordinary gifts, his masteryThe brilliant way in which he sustained his preliminary examination won him the friendship of the examiner, Bishop Jasper Brokman, at whose palace he first met Frederick III. The king was struck with the lad's bright grey eyes and pleasant humorous face; and Brokman, proud of his pupil, made him translate a chapter from a Hebrew Bible first into Latin and then into Danish, for the entertainment of the scholarly monarch. In 165,4 young
young
On his return to Copenhagen, in 1662, Schumacher found the monarchy established on the ruins of the aristocracy, and eager to buy the services of every man of the middle classes who had superior talents to offer. Determined to make his way in this " new Promised Land," the young adventurer contrived to secure the protection of Kristoffer Gabel
On the death of Frederick III. (February 9th, 167o) Schumacher was the most trusted of all the royal counsellors. He alone was aware of the existence of the new throne of walrus ivory embellished with three silver life-sizelions, and of the new regalia, both of which treasures he had, by the king's command, concealed in a vault beneath the royal castle. Frederick III. had also confided to him a sealed packet containing the Kongelov, which was to be delivered to his successor alone. Schumacher had been recommended to his son by Frederick III. on his death= bed. "Make him a great man, but do it slowly !" said Frederick, who thoroughly understood the characters of his son and of his minister. Christian V. was, moreover, deeply impressed by the confidence which his father had ever shown to Schumacher. When, on the 9th of February 167o, Schumacher delivered the Kongelov to Christian V., the king bade all those about him withdraw, and after being closeted a good hour with Schumacher, appointed him his " Obergeheimesekreter." His promotion was now almost disquietingly rapid. In May 167o he received the titles of excellency and privy councillor; in July of the same year he was ennobled under the name of Griffenfeldt, deriving his title from the gold griffin with outspread wings which surmounted his escutcheon; in November 1673 he was created a count, a knight of the Elephant and, finally, imperial chancellor. In the course of the next few months he gathered into his hands every branch of the government: he had reached the apogee of his short-lived greatness. But if his offices were manifold, so also were his talents. Seldom has any man united so many and such various gifts in his own person and carried them so easilya playful wit, a vivid imagination, oratorical and literary eloquence and, above all, a profound knowledge of human nature both male and female, of every class and rank, from the king to the meanest citizen. He had captivated the accomplished Frederick III. by his literary graces and ingenious speculations; he won the obtuse and ignorant Christian V. by saving him trouble, by acting and thinking for him, and at the same time making him believe that he was thinking and acting for himself. Moreover, his commanding qualities were coupled with an organizing talent which made itself felt in every department of the state, and with a marvellous adaptability which made him an ideal diplomatist. On the 25th of May 1671 the dignities of count and baron were introduced into Denmark " to give lustre to the court "; a few months later the order of the Danebrog was instituted as a fresh means of winning adherents by marks of favour. Griffenfeldt was the originator of these new institutions. To him monarchy was the ideal form of government. But he had also a political object. The aristocracy of birth
In the last three years of his administration, Griffenfeldt gave himself entirely to the conduct of the foreign policy of Denmark. It is difficult to form a clear idea of this, first, because his influence was perpetually traversed by opposite tendencies; in the second place, because the force of circumstances compelled him, again and again, to shift his standpoint; and finally because personal considerations largely intermingled with his foreign policy, and made it more elusive and ambiguous than it need have been. Briefly, Griffenfeldt aimed at restoring Denmark to the rank of a great power. He proposed to accomplish this by carefully nursing her resources, and in the meantime securing and enriching her by alliances, which would bring in large subsidies while imposing a minimum of obligations. Such a conditional and 'tentative policy, on the part of a second-rate power, in a period of universal tension and turmoil, was most difficult; but Griffenfeldt did not regard it as impossible. The first postulate of such a policy was peace, especially peace with Denmark's most dangerous neighbour, Sweden. The second postulate was a sound financial
supply in the shape of subsidies to be spent on armaments. Above all things Denmark was to beware of making enemies of France and Sweden at the same time. An alliance, on fairly equal terms, between the three powers, would, in these circumstances, be the consummation of Griffenfeldt's " system "; an alliance with France to the exclusion of Sweden would be the next best policy; but an alliance between France and Sweden, without the admission of Denmark, was to be avoided at all hazards. Had Griffenfeldt's policy succeeded, Denmark might have recovered her ancient possessions to the south and east comparatively cheaply. But again and again he was overruled. Despite his open protests and subterraneous counter-mining, war was actually declared against Sweden in 1675, and his subsequent policy seemed so obscure and hazardous to those who did not possess the clue to the perhaps purposely tangled skein, that the numerous enemies whom his arroganceand superciliousness had raised up against him, resolved to destroy him.On the lrth of March 1676, while on his way to the royal apartments, Griffenfeldt was arrested in the king's name and conducted to the citadel, a prisoner of state. A minute scrutiny of his papers, lasting nearly six weeks, revealed nothing treason-able; but it provided the enemies of the fallen statesman with a deadly weapon against him in the shape of an entry in his private diary, in which he had imprudently noted that on one occasion Christian V. in a conversation with a foreign ambassador had " spoken like a child." On the 3rd of May Griffenfeldt was tried not by the usual tribunal, in such cases the Hojesteret, or supreme court, but by an extraordinary tribunal of so dignitaries, none of whom was particularly well disposed towards the accused. Griffenfeldt, who was charged with simony, bribery, oath-breaking, malversation and lese-majeste, conducted his own defence under every imaginable difficulty. For forty
capital offence, while the charge of treason had not been substantiated. Griffenfeldt was pardoned on the scaffold
See Danmark's Riges Histoire, vol. v. (Copenhagen, 189719o5); Jorgenson, Peter Schumacher-Griffenfeldt (Copenhagen, 18931894); 0. Vaupell, Rigskansler Grev Griffenfeldt (Copenhagen, 18801882); Bain, Scandinavia, cap. x. (Cambri ge, 1905). (R. N. B.) End of Article: GRIFFENFELDT, PEDER, COUNT (Peder Schumacher) (1635-1699) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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