OLDENBURG, HOUSE OF, which lays just claim to being one of the oldest reigning families of Europe, has bean rendered still more illustrious by various matrimonial alliances, which, in the course of ages, have successively been the means of creating new royal dynasties. Thus, for instance, in 1448, a scion of this house being elected king of Denmark, under the title of Christian I., became the progenitor of the Danish house of Oldenburg, the imperial house of Russia, the late royal family of Sweden, and the col lateral and junior Danish lines of Adgustenburg, Kiel, and Sonderburg-Gificksburg. Christian owed his election to the recommendation of his maternal uncle, duke Adolph of Schleswig, who, when the throne was offered to him on the sudden death of king Chris topher, refused, on the ground of age, and proposed Christian of who, as the direct descendant of Eric Glipping's daughter, princess Richissa, was allied to the old extinct house of Denmark. The death, in 1459, of Adolph, duke of Schleswig and count of Holstein, without male heirs, opened the question of succession to those states, which has since become one of such vexatious import. The ancient law of Denmark recog nized hereditary fiefs only in exceptional cases; crowned fiefs being generally held for life or merely for a time ad gratiam. Such being the case, Schleswia. might, on the death of Adolph, have been taken by the crown as a tenure; but Holstein, being held under the empire, would have been separated from it. Adolph and his subjects were alike anxious that Schleswig and Holstein shunld continue united; but although the Schles wig estates, at the wish of the duke Adolph, had recognized Christian as successor to the duchy before his accession to the throne of Denmark, the Holstein chambers were divided on the question of succession, the majority showing a preference for the claims of the counts- of Schimenburg, who were descended from agnates of the Holstein house. Christian in his eagerness to secure both states, was willing to sacrifice his rights ,in Schleswig to his schemes in regard to Holstein; and having bought over the Holstein nobles by bribes and fair promises, he was elected duke of Schleswig and count of Holstein at Ribe in 1400, where he signed a deed, alike derogatory to the interests and unworthy the dignity of his crown. In this compact, by which he bartered away the just preroga
tives and independence of himself and his successors, for the sake of nominal present gain, he pledged his word for himself and his heirs, that the two provinces should always remain undivided, `eioigbliben toosamentle ungedrelt," and not he dismembered by division or heritage. This document, which remained for ages unknown or forgotten, was dis covered by the historian Dahlmann amid the neglected papers of the Holstein state achives at Preetz, and proclaimed in 1848 by that ardent admirer of Germany as the unchangeable fundamental law of the Schleswig-Holstein provinces. The confusion: dis sension, and to which this fatal deed has given rise, are the fruits which Chris tian's unscrupulous desire to secure power at any cost has produced for his descendants, whose complicated claims on the duchies, resulted, in 1864, in a war which cost Den mark a large portion of her territorial possession. From Christian I. descend two dis tinct Weals of the Oldenburg line: 1. The royal dynasty, extinct in the male line in Frederick VII., late king of Denmark, and the collateral branches of Sonderburg Augustenburg and Sonderburg-GRIcksburg; 2. The ducal Holstein-Gottorp line, descended from duke Adolph, who died in 1586, and was the second son of king Fred erick I. This princehad.received, during,his father'slife-time, a portion of the Schleswig and Holstein lauds, Which he was perMitted, on the accession of his elder brother, Chris tian III., to retain for himself and his heirs. This line became illustrious by the mar riage of prince Karl Friedrich, the son of Hedwig-Sofia, eldest sister of Charles XII. of Sweden (a direct descendant of duke Adolph) with the grand-duchess Anna, daughter of Peter the great, and thus gave to Russia the dynasty which still occupies the imperial throne; while Adolph-Friedrich, a cousin prince Karl Friedrich, by his election to the throne of Sweden in 1751, added another crown to those already held by the house of Oldenburg. The conduct of his descendants rendered the new dignity short-lived, for with the abdication of Gustavus IV., in 1809, the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty became extinct in Sweden.