famine due to the blockade, and this also made Norwegians more negative to the union with Denmark. Treaty of Kiel On 7 January 1814, under the command of the elected crown prince of Sweden, Charles John, Frederick VI of Denmark proposed to cede The Kingdom of Norway to the king of Sweden in order to avoid an occupation of Jutland. He authorized his envoy Edmund Bourke to negotiate a peace treaty with Sweden and Great Britain on these terms, in return for immediate withdrawal of all Coalition troops from Danish territory and certain territorial compensations. In addition, he was to join the allied powers in their fight against Napoleon. These terms were formalized and signed at the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January, in which Denmark negotiated to maintain sovereignty over the Norwegian possessions of Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. Secret correspondence from the British government in the preceding days had put diplomatic pressure on the negotiating parties to reach an agreement in order to avoid a full-scale invasion of Denmark. Bernadotte sent a letter to the governments of Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain thanking them for their support, acknowledging the role of Russia in negotiating the peace, and envisaging greater stability in the Nordic region. These news did not reach Norway until the end of January, in a letter of 18 January from the Danish king to the Norwegian people, in which he released them from their oath of allegiance to him and his dynasty. By special courier, a secret letter of 17 January from the king was delivered on 24 January to his cousin and viceroy of Norway, Prince Christian Frederick with the most important details of the treaty, which the Prince decided to keep to himself while considering his reaction. The letter instructed him to deliver the Norwegian fortresses to Swedish forces and then return to Denmark. The public were informed of the peace treaty on 26 January through a censored article in the newspaper Tiden, under the headline. "Peace, Peace in the North!" It did not inform the public of the fact that the king had ceded his kingdom to the king of Sweden, historically the enemy of Norway. As there was the annual February market in Christiania at the same time, a local priest observed that the entire marketplace swirled with rumours of the treaty, and with tension. As news spread, it was apparent