The queen and her personal physician. Fictional evocation of a historical Danish eighteenth scandal

• Main Author: Alberto Enrique D’OTTAVIO
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca 2016-04-01
• Series: Revista de Medicina y Cine / Journal of Medicine and Movies
• Subjects: dinamarca; escándalo; historia; real; médico; viruela
• Online Access: https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/medicina_y_cine/article/view/13655

A Royal Affair/ En kongelig affære (2012) by Nikolaj Arcel recalls a historic political and moral scandal, with underlying philosophical and theological implications, occurred in the Danish Court during the XVIII century. The film specifically comprises six years in the life of two young adolescents: Queen Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, married to Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, and the German physician Johann Frederich Struensee. Both, two free minds living in a tumultuous epoch succumb to a forbidden passion and, in the midst of noticeable noble and ecclesiastic power relationships, undergo tragic consequences. The role played by the Struensee’s progressive political measures imposed in Denmark, prior to the French Revolution, become relevant for the story ending