The two adjacent dukedoms of Schleswig and Holstein, which constitute a sort of natural bridge about 150 miles long and 50 miles wide, between Denmark and Prussia, are, by the way, the land of nativity for the Anglo-Saxon race, the Angles having inhabited Schleswig, and the Saxons Holstein, at the time they so kindly protected the Britons from the Picts and Scots. So it is probable that every member of the Anglo-Saxon family has some ancestral root running back to that fertile strip of pasture land. It had for many years been under the Danish protectorate, the King of Denmark being, by virtue of his position, also Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, just as the German Emperor is now King of Prussia by virtue of his imperial office. But this little people was by no means merged with the Danish by this arrangement; on the contrary, they preserved very jealously their own traits and ancestral traditions. Among these was the exclusion of women from the royal succession--the Salic law, framed by their Frank ancestors centuries before on the banks of the river Saale, being part of their constitution. Hence, when King Frederick VII. of Denmark died in 1862 without male heir, and King Christian IX. became King, the people of the two dukedoms hotly refused to recognize him as their lawful ruler, but claimed their right of reversion to Duke Frederick VIII., who was in the direct male line of succession. Had the Salic law prevailed in Denmark, this Duke Frederick (father of the present young Empress of Germany) would now be King of Denmark instead of Christian IX. But it did not exist, so Christian, father of the Dowager Empress of Russia--of the Princess of Wales--and of King George of Greece--became, in 1862, lawful King of Denmark, with rights unimpaired by female descent. Schleswig-Holstein revolted against being held by a ruler who, according to her constitution, was not the terminal of the royal line, and insisted upon bestowing herself instead upon the German Duke Frederick VIII. Denmark naturally resisted. Salic law or no Salic law, the dukedoms were hers, and should stay. Of course Austria, as the head of the German confederation, had to be consulted, and she thought well of uniting with Prussia to compel the cession of the twin dukedoms, which would have been quickly absorbed had not the European powers intervened and forbidden this encroachment upon the rights of Denmark. It was just at this crisis that Bismarck was appointed prime minister of Prussia, and commenced his series of brilliant moves upon the European chessboard. King Christian of Denmark, pleased with his success in retaining the refractory states, determined to go still farther; that is, to adopt a new constitution separating these Siamese twins, which should, in fact, detach Schleswig from Holstein, incorporating it permanently with Denmark. This was in direct violation of the treaty with the Great Powers made in London, 1852, and afforded the needed pretext for war.