ABSTRACT

In 1854 and 1855 measures governing the constitution were issued in Denmark by royal decree without consultation with the Estates of the duchies. The King of Denmark might perhaps have been willing to meet Prussian and Austrian demands by agreeing to a personal union which would have given the duchies complete autonomy. Bismarck’s whole attitude was that of a Prussian, and he preferred the King of Denmark as ruler of the duchies to a German prince who, probably through fear of the Hohenzollern state, had joined the Opposition to its leadership in Germany. Austria agreed to the dissolution of the Germanic Bund as well as to the setting-up of a North German and South German Bund, which Bismarck had previously agreed on with Napoleon. Early in October 1865 Bismarck visited the French Emperor in Biarritz to ensure the latter’s neutrality, and although Napoleon gave no definite promise he received him cordially enough.