Problems related to ethnicity and religion also loomed large in some of
Europe’s surviving monarchies. There was the Irish question in the United
Kingdom, of course, and a lesser-known but explosive ethnonational matter
in Denmark. The Danes had adopted a relatively liberal constitution
in 1849, but not until 1901 did King Christian IX agree to form a government
that would have the confidence of the elected national legislature’s
lower house. In 1919, his grandson Christian X formally declared that he
would not form any government without a lower-house majority. But just a year later, he violated the spirit of this pledge. The Treaty of Versailles
called for Germany and Denmark to hold plebiscites in North and Central
Schleswig, respectively (areas that Denmark had lost to Prussia in an 1864
war). North Schleswig voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Denmark, while in
Central Schleswig the result was the reverse. Christian X sided with Danish
nationalists and ordered the premier to ignore the Central Schleswig
vote and claim the area for Denmark. When the premier said no, the king
sacked him and his cabinet.