Early Life
Charles Bertram was the son of an English silk dyer who migrated to Copenhagen among the retinue of Princess Louisa, daughter of George II who married Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark in 1743 (he would become King three years later). The father established himself as a hosier, and Charles seemed to have benefited from the warm reception that Louisa and her retinue had received from the Danes. In 1747 Charles' petition to the Consistorium for entry to the University of Copenhagen was granted, even though it should not have been granted, because he belonged to the Anglican Church. He became a friend and protégé of Hans Gram, privy-counselor and librarian to the King of Denmark, a relationship that would be important during subsequent events. In 1748 Bertram petitioned the king to be permitted to give public lectures on the English language, and he became a teacher of English in the Royal Marine Academy at Copenhagen (some accounts say he was a professor, rather than a tutor of students; if so, that would be some years later, as he was a new undergraduate in 1747).
Read more about this topic: Charles Bertram
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“I taught school in the early days of my manhood and I think I know something about mothers. There is a thread of aspiration that runs strong in them. It is the fiber that has formed the most unselfish creatures who inhabit this earth. They want three things only; for their children to be fed, to be healthy, and to make the most of themselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“There is something else which has the power to awaken us to the truth. It is the works of writers of genius.... They give us, in the guise of fiction, something equivalent to the actual density of the real, that density which life offers us every day but which we are unable to grasp because we are amusing ourselves with lies.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)