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| The
Danish Godt Family History -by Mogens Godt |
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| A few brief notes about Danish
History will help you to understand the history of the
Godt Family, as our history is closely linked to that of
the nation. The Danish language is part of the old Nordic Language that is spoken in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Finnish is closer to Estonian and Hungarian. Danish belongs to the same family of languages as English, Dutch and German. The Roman Empire which covered most of Europe - even to the Scottish border - never came to Scandinavia. The earliest reports of Denmark as a nation go back to the 6th or 7th century. The first recorded King was Gorm the Old. From the early days, and through the Middle Ages, Denmark was the Superpower of Scandinavia, ruling over Iceland, Norway, southern Sweden and the northern part of Germany. The southern border was around Altona, which is today part of Hamburg. For centuries Denmark and Sweden have been fighting each other in Scandinavia as well as on the European continent. The peace treaty of Roskilde (1643) meant that southern Sweden (Skane, Halland and Blelinge) was taken over by the Swedish King. Those areas had been Danish territory since the 9th century and contained a Danish speaking and Danish minded population. (There are still people in Skane talking about a re-unification with Denmark - mainly because of the very high Swedish taxes and the restricted sale of alcohol - I think!). England and France have also been fighting each other for centuries, and during the Napoleonic War Denmark and Sweden were forced to join Napoleon against England to cut off English trade with the continent. In 1801 Lord Nelson arrived off Copenhagen with the British fleet. For several days the naval bombardment went on, and a large part of the city was destroyed. Finally, Lord Nelson sailed away with the entire Danish fleet. At the same time, one of Napoleon's Generals (Duke Bernadotte) was elected King of Sweden. He immediately changed sides and joined with the British. When the war ended, the peace treaty decided that Norway, which had been part of Denmark for 400 years, should form a Union with Sweden. It was 100 years later when the Norwegians finally gained their Independence. In 1815, partly as a consequence of the war, the Danish Government went bankrupt. And now to the southern border region, because this is where the Godt family originates. South Denmark consisted of 3 regions: Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. From about the 12th century those regions were given as Duchies to sons of the Danish Kings, because the eldest son would become the King of Denmark. Holstein and Lauenburg had always contained a German speaking population, whereas Schleswig was a mixed language population. Around the year 1800 the northern part of Schleswig was a completely Danish speaking area, middle Schleswig was a mixture of Danish and German speaking people and southern area was mainly German speaking. The Duchies were ruled jointly by the Danish King and the Dukes.
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