Background and Early Life
Christian was born in Christiansborg Palace on 29 January 1749 during the reign of his father Frederik V. He became king on 14 January 1766 on the death of his father, just weeks before his 17th birthday. All earlier accounts agree that he had a winning personality and considerable talent, but he was poorly educated, systematically terrorized by a brutal governor, Detlev Count Reventlow, and hopelessly debauched by corrupt pages. He seems to have been intelligent and certainly had periods of clarity, but suffered from severe emotional problems, possibly schizophrenia as argued in doctor Viggo Christiansen's book Christian VII's mental illness (1906). Recent historians have, however, refrained from making a diagnosis.
Read more about this topic: Christian VII Of Denmark
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