He was therefore brought up in the home of Juliane Jhøllestrup, his father's maternal aunt, who was wealthy and had become a widow.

[2] Mantzius graduated from the Metropolitan College in 1837 and went to the University of Copenhagen, where he began studying theology, subject which he continued with until 1842.

[5] However, in 1858 he resigned and began working the two following seasons at the Folksteatret instead, where he helped his friend Jens Christian Hostrup stage his student comedy Gjenboerne[3] before returning to the Royal Theater.

Mantzius never gave up and showed he was dissatisfied with the board of the Royal Theater all the time he was working there.

[6] In the autumn of 1877 he became seriously ill, and after eighteen years of progressive infirmity he died of breast cancer on 5 June 1879.