Niels Rosenkrantz (9 September 1757 in

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Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

- 6 January 1824 in Copenhagen) was a Danish-Norwegian statesman, diplomat and prime minister. He was the son of Otto Christian Rosenkrantz and Karen Johanne Rønning. After a short time of service in the military, Niels Rosenkrantz began to serve as a diplomat. In 1783, he was appointed as the Danish minister in

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. In 1784, he was assigned as the Danish minister in St. Petersburg. He became the Danish minister in residence of

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in 1787. He served as the Danish Chamberlain and

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at the

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n court in 1789. In 1795, he served as the Danish ambassador to the Prussian court in

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. In 1800, he was appointed as an ambassador to the Russian court. That same year, he became a knight of the

Order of Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known ...

. In 1801, he was ordered by Czar Paul I to immediately leave Russia. He was re-invited to be the ambassador to the Russian court 1802-04 following Paul I's assassination and the ascension of his successor,

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. In 1808, he served as a messenger between Denmark and Emperor Napoleon. He became a peace agent to Sweden in 1809. In 1810, he began to work with the messengers to Bonaparte again. That same year he was appointed as the head Foreign Minister. In 1811, he became a Knight of the Order of the Elephant. Niels Rosenkrantz was born into a poor family. However, he became a fairly prosperous landowner when his distant relative Prime Minister Frederik Christian Rosenkrantz designated him as his sole heir. He then came into the estates at Ryegaard, Egholm, Krabbesholm and Trudsholm in North Zealand, and Barritskov in Jutland. In 1791, he married Princess Varvara Alexandrovna Vyazemskaya (1774-1849), the youngest daughter of Prince Alexander Vyzemsky, Catherine II's Attorney General. He is buried in Rye churchyard near his manor Ryegård west of

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 51,916 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenkrantz, Niels 18th-century Danish diplomats 19th-century Danish diplomats 1757 births 1824 deaths Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog R