In the wider wave of European unrest in 1848, Denmark’s new king, Frederick VII, accepted a broader coalition government known as the March Ministry. The ministry began preparing a shift away from absolute monarchy and toward a written constitution, while also facing rising conflict over Schleswig and Holstein.
Armed conflict broke out over the “Schleswig-Holstein question,” a dispute about the future of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, which were linked to the Danish crown in a complex personal union. The war quickly became tied to constitutional politics, because Danish leaders feared that losing control in the south would weaken the new constitutional project.
Denmark won an early battlefield success at the Battle of Bov near Flensburg. The fighting showed that the conflict would not be settled quickly and strengthened the urgency, in Copenhagen, of stabilizing the state through new political institutions.
Denmark held elections for a Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution. The assembly mixed elected members with members appointed by the king, reflecting a compromise between democratic demands and traditional authority during a period of war and political uncertainty.
The Constituent Assembly met for the first time in Copenhagen at Christiansborg Palace. Its main task was to design a new basic law that would limit royal power and define representation in a national legislature.
After months of debate, the Constituent Assembly approved Denmark’s first modern constitution. The draft established a constitutional monarchy and created a two-chamber parliament (the Rigsdag) with the Folketing and the Landsting, setting the framework for national politics.
King Frederick VII signed the June Constitution, ending Denmark’s absolute monarchy and making it a constitutional monarchy. The constitution also protected basic civil liberties and formalized the new parliament as a central part of governance.
Denmark held its first election for the Folketing under the 1849 constitutional framework. Voting rights were still limited in practice (for example by age and social status), but the election marked a shift toward representative politics and routine parliamentary life.
Denmark won the Battle of Isted (Idstedt), one of the largest battles in Scandinavian history at the time. Even with this major victory, the war did not immediately end, showing how hard it would be to settle the duchies question through force alone.
European powers and regional states signed the London Protocol, aiming to stabilize the Danish monarchy and handle the succession crisis. The agreement affirmed the integrity of the Danish state while also limiting how closely Schleswig could be tied to Denmark compared with Holstein—constraints that later fueled constitutional conflict.
To manage the multi-part Danish monarchy after the first Schleswig conflict, a “common constitution” (Helstatsforfatningen) was issued for shared affairs across the monarchy. This created overlapping constitutional arrangements: the 1849 constitution for Denmark’s internal matters and a separate framework for common matters, revealing how constitutional design was entangled with the duchies problem.
A new constitutional act, the November Constitution, created common institutions for Denmark and Schleswig. It replaced earlier arrangements for common affairs and was seen by German powers as breaking the rules set in 1852, making a new war more likely.
Prussia and Austria invaded, beginning the Second Schleswig War. The conflict was directly connected to constitutional and legal disputes over Schleswig’s status and the meaning of the 1852 settlement, and it quickly turned into a crisis for Denmark’s state structure.
The Treaty of Vienna ended the war and forced Denmark to cede Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg to Prussia and Austria. The defeat dramatically reduced Denmark’s territory and made it necessary to re-think constitutional arrangements that had depended on governing a composite monarchy.
Denmark adopted the “revised constitution” (1866 Grundlov), ending the 1849 June Constitution as the main operating text and formally superseding the 1863 November Constitution as well. The revision kept constitutional monarchy and a parliament, but reshaped the Landsting in a more conservative direction, setting the stage for long-running disputes between the two chambers and over the limits of democratic influence.
Denmark's constitutional change and the 1849 Constitution (1830–1864)