CHRISTIAN VIII. king of Denmark and Norway, the eldest son of the crown prince Frederick and Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was born on Sept. 18, 1786 at Christiansborg castle. His first marriage with his cousin Char lotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was dissolved in 1810. In May 1813 he was sent as stadtholder to Norway to promote the loyalty of the Northmen to the dynasty, which had been very rudely shaken by the disastrous results of Frederick VI.'s ad hesion to the falling fortunes of Napoleon. Though his en deavours were opposed by the so-called Swedish party in Norway, which desired a dynastic union with Sweden, he was elected regent of Norway by an assembly of notables on Feb. 16, 1814. This election was confirmed by a Storthing held at Eidsvold on April 10 and on May 17 Christian was elected king of Norway. On being summoned by the commissioners of the allied powers at Copenhagen to bring about a union between Norway and Sweden in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Kiel, he replied that, as a constitutional king, he could do nothing without the consent of the Storthing, to the convocation of which a suspen sion of hostilities on the part of Sweden was the condition pre cedent. A short campaign ensued. in which Christian was easily worsted by the superior skill and forces of the Swedish crown prince (Bernadotte). The brief war was finally concluded by the convention of Moss on Aug. 14, 1814 (see NORWAY : History) . Henceforth Christian's alleged democratic principles made him suspect, and he and his second wife, Caroline Amelia of Augusten burg, whom he married in 1815, lived in comparative retirement. It was not till 1831 that old King Frederick gave him a seat in the council of state. On Dec. 13, 1839 he ascended the Danish throne as Christian VIII. The Liberal party had high hopes of "the giver of constitutions," but he disappointed his admirers by steadily rejecting every Liberal project. He came into conflict with the German element in the duchies of Schleswig and Hol stein by issuing (March, 1844) a patent permitting, under cer tain circumstances, the use of the Danish language in the estates. By his Open Letter of July 8, 1846, in which he declared that the Kongelov, Danish royal law in the matter of the succession ap plied to Schleswig and Lauenburg, though its application to parts of Holstein was doubtful, and by the Constitution of Jan. 28, 1848, he raised the Schleswig-Holstein question in a form which involved his successor in the War of 1848. (See SCHLESWIG HOLSTEIN QUESTION.) He died at Pion on Jan. 20, 1848.