British fears that Denmark would join Napoleon's continental blockade resulted in a British attack led by Admiral Nelson which destroyed the Danish fleet in Copenhagen. The pact between france and Russia left Denmark in a difficult situation. To oppose this alliance would leave them exposed to a French invasion of Jutland. To oppose the British and join with the French would adversely affect trade. As the Danes tried to stall w time, the British lost patience, occupying «aland and commencing a threeday bombard Z th leir inevitable surren ioin Ц «'sre left with little option but to clear л although it was becoming hj'Г be the losing side. Sweden ™ aligned with the British and was demanding defem"® if Denmark were to be t SpenT' Treaty of Kiel, is ¦ The age of liberalism The Napoleonic Wars destroyed Denmark's international prestige and left the country bankrupt, and the period up until 1830 was spent in recovery. But the king remained popular, believed to have the welfare of his subjects at heart. Meanwhile, in the arts, a national romantic movement was gaining pace. The sculptor Thorvaldsen and the writer Kierkegaard are perhaps the best known figures to emerge from the era, but the most influential domestically was a theologist called N.F.S. Grundtvig, who, in 1810, developed a new form of Christianity one that was free of dogma and drew on the virtues espoused by the heroes of Norse mythology. In 1825 he left the intellectual circles of Copenhagen and travelled the rural areas to guide a religious revival, eventually modifying his earlier ideas in favour of a new faith in the wisdom of "the people" something that was to colour the future liberal movement. On the political front, there was trouble brewing in Danishspeaking Schleswig and Germantongued Holstein. The Treaty of Kiel had compelled the king to relinquish Holstein to the Confederation of German States although, confusingly, he remained duke of the province. He promised the setting up of a consultative assembly for the region, while within Holstein a campaign sought to pressure the king into granting the duchy its own constitution. The campaign was stamped on hard, but the problems of the region still weren't resolved. Further demands called for a complete separation from Denmark, with the duchies being brought together as a single independent state. The establishment of consultative assemblies in both Holstein and Schleswig eventually came about in 1831, though they lacked any real political muscle. Н I S то R YH9 Although absolutism had been far more benevolent toward the ordinary people in Denmark than to their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, interest was growing in the liberalism that was sweeping through the continent. In Copenhagen a group of scholars proffered the idea that Schleswig be brought closer into Danish affairs, and in pursuit of this they formed the Liberal Party and brought pressure to bear for a new liberal constitution.