A Royal Affair (Danish: En kongelig affære) is a 2012 drama film[1] directed by Nikolaj Arcel, starring Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander and Mikkel Følsgaard.

The story is set in the 18th century, at the court of the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark, and focuses on the romance between his wife, Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, and the royal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee.

Christian has very little influence in the Privy Council, and the laws of the country are mostly decided by statesmen, but Struensee tells the king that he can have more power by "acting".

Meanwhile, Struensee is appointed a Royal Adviser and eventually persuades Christian to assign him the right to pass any law, making him Denmark's de facto leader.

Juliana and the prominent statesman Ove Høegh-Guldberg are strongly against Struensee's reforms, while the Danish people also grow unhappy when it becomes clear an immoral foreigner has power over the country.

Christian refuses to hand Struensee over to the people, but Høegh-Guldberg lies that the doctor and Caroline are planning to murder him and take control of Denmark.

Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg started the writing process by reading the 1999 novel The Visit of the Royal Physician by Per Olov Enquist, which is based on the events surrounding Johann Friedrich Struensee's time at the Danish court.

Research continued and the film was eventually credited as based on Bodil Steensen-Leth's erotic novel Prinsesse af blodet, which tells the story from the perspective of the queen, Caroline Mathilde.

To avoid conflicts about rights, Enquist was contacted to clarify some instances of what he had made up and what was based on documented events, and a person was employed specifically to compare the screenplay and the novel to guarantee that they were dissimilar enough.

Brown also notes that "The exiled Queen's letter to her children makes a good frame story to the film, however had she in reality written such a letter – frankly admitting Princess Louise Auguste's true parentage – it might have easily fallen into the wrong hands and caused the young princess to be declared a bastard".