Molesworth's Shadow: Robert Molesworth's Account of Denmark and its Impact on British Descriptions of Denmark in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

A majority of British descriptions of Denmark in the eighteenth century portrayed the Danish constitution negatively and depicted the people as degenerate. While the negative perception of Denmark up to the 1760s could largely be attributed to the success of Robert Molesworth's An Account of Denmark as it was in 1692 , the descriptions of Denmark in the late eighteenth century were rather independent in language but consistent in meaning. Many British authors still characterized Denmark in the same way as Molesworth had done in 1694. Like a ghost from the past century, Molesworth haunted the British descriptions of Denmark of the eighteenth century. Travellers like Joseph Marshall, William Coxe and Mary Wollstonecraft, who visited the country by the end of the century, portrayed the country and its inhabitants in terms of slavery and despotism. An Account of Denmark was more about the British Isles than Denmark. It was written as a political manifesto against Jacobitism in particular and absolutism in general. However, the sad story of a people who, out of a desire of revenge, gave up their liberties and put themselves in a situation that was even worse than the previous one, became a powerful stereotype that lingered in British publications throughout the eighteenth century. From this perspective, the British descriptions of Denmark served as mirrors to a British audience; mirrors that confirmed the superiority of the British constitution.