March Revolution (Denmark)

On the morning of 20 March 1848, a message reached Copenhagen telling of a meeting held between representatives of Schleswig and Holstein two days earlier in Rendsburg.

Additionally, Hvidt was tasked with calling the Borgerrepræsentation (English: People's Representation) to a meeting at 1800, to formally approve a declaration to the king with demands for system reform and a change of government.

Your advisors, which Your Majesty has inherited from your predecessor, are not in possession of the people's confidence, neither in Denmark proper nor in Schleswig and Holstein; the evermore prominent and sad fruits of their governmental system have undermined all hope that they should carry the wisdom and power to free the land.

The next day (21 March), 15,000-20,000 people gathered at Gammeltorv (Copenhagen's main market square) around midday, from where they walked to Christiansborg to demand a new government.

Both Bardenfleth's attempts and several other suggestions, which involved a cabinet consisting mainly of representatives from the old political school mixed with a few liberal politicians, failed; eventually, on the morning of 22 March (and immediately before the arrival of the deputation from the Duchies), the former finance minister Adam Wilhelm Moltke managed to form a coalition now known as the Moltke I Cabinet or March Ministry.

The National Liberals were in fact displeased with the cabinet but accepted the government based on the king's promise that he was now a constitutional monarch and would yield responsibility to the ministers.

The deputation from the Duchies then received an answer on March 24 (which also served as an announcement of the government's proposed program), which stated that the king refused to allow Schleswig to join the German Confederation.