ABSTRACT
Even if Danish absolutism had existed since the 1660s and continued to do so formally until 1848, the second half of the eighteenth century already entailed a profound transformation of the monarchy and its theoretical principles. The outcome of this transformation has been defined in modern research as the idea of an enlightened or opinion-guided monarchy according to which the aim of the absolutist government was to promote the general welfare of the population. This chapter analyses some conceptual aspects of this process by focusing on the Danish reception of Montesquieu’s L’Esprit des Lois and the subsequent transformation of Danish monarchist theory.
