  the schleswig-holstein question (; ) was a complex set of diplomatic and other issues arising in the 19th century from the relations of two duchies, schleswig () and holstein (), to the danish crown and to the german confederation. the british statesman lord palmerston is reported to have said: âonly three people have ever really understood the schleswig-holstein businessâthe prince consort, who is deadâa german professor, who has gone madâand i, who have forgotten all about it."lytton strachey, queen victoria, 1921. schleswig was a part of denmark during the viking age, and became a danish duchy in the 12th century. denmark repeatedly tried to reintegrate the duchy of schleswig into the danish kingdom. on march 27, 1848 frederick vii of denmark announced to the people of schleswig the promulgation of a liberal constitution under which the duchy, while preserving its local autonomy, would become an integral part of denmark. this led to an open uprising by schleswig-holstein's large german majority in support of independence from denmark and of close association with the german confederation. the military intervention of the kingdom of prussia supported the uprising: the prussian army drove denmark's troops from schleswig and holstein in the first schleswig war of 1848&ndash;1851. the second attempt to reintegrate the duchy of schleswig into the danish kingdom, initiated by the signing by king christian ix of denmark of the november constitution in 1863, was seen as a violation of the london protocol and led to the second schleswig war of 1864. even though schleswig, holstein, and denmark had all had the same hereditary ruler for some centuries, the inheritance rules in the three territories were not quite the same. the dukedoms of schleswig and holstein were inherited under the salic law which ignored females: the kingdom of denmark had a slightly different inheritance law which included male heirs inheriting through the female line. in the 19th century this slight difference in inheritance law meant that when the childless king frederick vii of denmark died the kingdom of denmark would be separated from the duchies of schleswig and holstein because one man would inherit the kingship and another the dukedoms, as happened on the death of frederick in
History_of_Schleswig-Holstein National_questions