Robert Nisbet Bain

“ Throughout life he regarded the political situation of Denmark with absolute pessimism. She was, he often said, the cat’s-paw of the Great Powers. While Griffenfeldt would have obviated this danger by an elastic political system, adaptable to all circumstances, Juel preferred seizing whatever he could get in favourable conjunctures. In domestic affairs Juel was an adherent of the mercantile system, and laboured vigorously for the industrial development of Denmark and Norway. ”

“ He died in 1700.
Juel, a man of very few words and a sworn enemy of phrase-making, was perhaps the shrewdest and most cynical diplomatist of his day. His motto was: “We should wish for what we can get.” ”

“ Subsequently the chancellor Griffenfeldt, who had become warmly attached to him, sent him in 1672, and again in 1674, as ambassador extraordinary to Sweden, ostensibly to bring about a closer union between the two northern kingdoms, but really to give time to consolidate Griffenfeldt’s far-reaching system of alliances. Juel completely sympathized with Griffenfeldt’s Scandinavian policy, which aimed at weakening Sweden sufficiently to re-establish something like an equilibrium between the two states. Like Griffenfeldt, Juel also feared, above all things, a Swedo-Danish war. ”