CHRISTIAN VII. (1i49-1808), king of Denmark and Nor way, was the son of Frederick V., king of Denmark, and his first consort Louise, daughter of George II. of Great Britain. He became king on his father's death on Jan. 14, 1766. Badly edu cated, systematically terrorized by a brutal governor and hope lessly debauched by corrupt pages he grew up a semi-idiot. After his marriage in 1766 with Caroline Matilda daughter of Frederick, prince of Wales, he abandoned himself to the worst excesses. He ultimately sank into a condition of mental stupor and became the obedient slave of the upstart Struensee (q.v.) who, after the dismissal of Bernstorff in 177o, controlled all af fairs of State. After the fall of Struensee (the warrant for whose arrest he signed with indifference) in 1772, for the last 26 years of his reign, he was only nominally king, his half-brother, Prince Frederick, acting as regent. He died on March 13, 1808. In 1772 the king's marriage with Caroline Matilda, who had been seized and had confessed to criminal familiarity with Struensee, was dis solved, and the queen, retaining her title, passed her remaining days at Celle in Hanover, where she died on May i o, 1775. See E. S. F. Reverdil, Struensee et la tour de Copenhague, 176o 1772 (1858) ; Danmarks Riges Historie, vol. v. (Copenhagen, 1897 1905) ; and for Caroline Matilda, Sir F. C. L. Wraxall, Life and Times of Queen Caroline Matilda (1864) , and W. H. Wilkins, A Queen of Tears (19o4).