So far from the Empress being appeased by the King of Denmark’s letter, she received it with derision. The form, the manner, the style, the contents, all showed her that it was not composed by her royal brother of Denmark, but, as she coarsely said to her whole court, by the Queen’s cicisbeo. The relations between the courts of Copenhagen and St. Petersburg were strained to breaking-point and Struensee was at a loss what to do next. It was at this juncture that he appointed Count Osten to the foreign office at Copenhagen.
Osten was a Dane of noble family, but poor. He was educated at court as a page in the household of Christian VII.’s father. As the youth showed much ability, Count Moltke, who was then Prime Minister, sent him to Leipsic to study languages, with the view of making use of him in the diplomatic service. During his residence at Leipsic, Osten made the acquaintance of Count Stanislaus Poniatowski (afterwards King of Poland), and the two became great friends. On returning to Copenhagen Osten became involved in some petty palace intrigue, which was directed against the men who had benefited him, Moltke and Bernstorff. They overlooked his ingratitude in consideration of his talents, but, thinking it advisable that he should leave Copenhagen, they sent him to St. Petersburg, as an attaché to Malzahn, at that time Danish minister in Russia. Malzahn died suddenly, and the secretary to the legation being ill at the same time, Osten seized the opportunity to receive and answer despatches, and to confer with the Russian ministers. So well did he acquit himself that Bernstorff appointed him Danish envoy at St. Petersburg, and told him that he must humour the Grand-Duchess (later the Empress) Catherine, whose favour, as he was a handsome and a brilliant youth, he had already won. Bernstorff already foresaw the elevation of the Grand-Duchess to a prominent position in councils of state. Osten paid his court assiduously to Catherine, and during his residence at St. Petersburg Poniatowski came there. The friendship between the two young men was renewed, and when there sprang up an intrigue between Poniatowski and Catherine, Osten acted as a go-between, and the lovers used to meet at his house.
Perhaps because of the part he had played in this matter, the Danish court found it necessary to remove Osten from St. Petersburg to Dresden, so that he had nothing to do with the plots which led to the assassination of the Emperor Peter, and the elevation of Catherine to the throne. But as soon as the Empress found her position assured, she asked the King of Denmark to send Osten back to St. Petersburg as Danish envoy, and her request was at once complied with. The handsome young diplomatist returned, and for two years enjoyed the friendship of the Empress, who not only admitted him to her confidence, but even allowed him sometimes to be present at the councils which she held with her ministers and her generals. Suddenly, without warning, Osten fell out of favour. The Empress wrote to the King of Denmark to request his instant recall, and the Russian minister for foreign affairs informed all the foreign envoys at St. Petersburg by a circular note that the Empress had withdrawn her favour from Count Osten, and regarded him as “a vile and odious person”. The cause of Osten’s disgrace was not a political one, but referred to some secret infamy.
Bernstorff did not wish to bring Osten back to Copenhagen, as his talent for intrigue was so great that he might prove dangerous, nor did he wish to lose his services altogether, for he had proved himself a very able diplomatist; he therefore sent him as Danish envoy to Naples. Osten went there for a time, but he never ceased to agitate for his promotion from a post which he considered to be exile. Eventually Bernstorff promised Osten the post of minister at The Hague; but before his promise could be fulfilled, the once-powerful minister was himself dismissed from office by Struensee and the Queen.
The office of minister of foreign affairs rendered vacant by the dismissal of Bernstorff, whose knowledge of the tangled threads of European diplomacy was very great, was no easy one to fill—at least, from such material as Struensee was able to command. Rantzau, who wanted it, was impossible, and Struensee at first thought of keeping it in his own hands; but after the ridicule poured upon his letter by Catherine, which threatened to make the Danish court the laughing-stock of Europe, Struensee came to the conclusion that there were some things he did not know, and he must find some one who was, at any rate, conversant with forms. No statesman of repute in Denmark would accept the post on Struensee’s terms, so he went through the list of Danish envoys at foreign courts, and finding in Osten a man whose record was unscrupulous enough for his purpose, he recalled him from Naples and placed him at the foreign office in the hope that he would bring the Empress Catherine to reason.
Osten’s appointment was regarded as a notable accession of strength to Struensee’s administration. His knowledge of Russian affairs was unrivalled—a great advantage at this juncture—and Gunning, the English envoy, who had a high opinion of the new foreign minister’s abilities, seems to have thought that he would not only restore friendly relations with Russia, but would aid him in bringing about an alliance between England and Denmark. “I think him well qualified for the post he is in,” he wrote, “and the only one here capable of retrieving the affairs of this unhappy country.”[150] Osten, who had to take office on Struensee’s terms, was really desirous of establishing good relations with Russia, and one of his first acts was to write a statesmanlike despatch to St. Petersburg, “with such representations as he hoped would dispel the Empress’s scruples regarding the late transactions of this court, would explain all suspicious appearances, and satisfy her Imperial Majesty”.[151]
[150] Gunning’s despatch, Copenhagen, April 4, 1771.
[151] Ibid., January 1, 1771.
Though Osten’s despatch was treated with more respect by the court of St. Petersburg than the King of Denmark’s [so-called] letter, the Empress refused to be mollified. Her pride had been wounded by the flouting of her representative at Copenhagen, but as her interference in the internal affairs of the Danish court had been quite unwarranted, she could not well ascribe her resentment to the fact that it was no longer permitted. She therefore seized upon Osten’s appointment as an excuse for maintaining her irreconcilable attitude, and declared that if the conduct of foreign affairs continued in the hands of that “vile and odious person,” she would break the treaty of 1768, and end all negotiations with Denmark. Osten did not heed the Empress’s abuse; he knew from experience that her outbursts of passion did not last long, and believed that in time she would take a more reasonable view. But Rantzau and Gahler urged Struensee to anticipate Russia by a declaration of war, and Struensee was half-persuaded, for he knew that at the moment Russia was unprepared. Osten used all his eloquence to convince Struensee of the folly of such a proceeding, which would give offence to England as well, and probably bring the King of Prussia into the quarrel. In this he was ably supported by Falckenskjold, who had great knowledge of Russian affairs, but for a time it seemed that Osten would not succeed. As Gunning wrote: “The hopes I for some time entertained of Mr Osten gaining a proper ascendency over the Favourite are not greatly raised by the manner in which I see the former is obliged to act. It seems to manifest Mr Struensee’s aim, whom every circumstance deigns to favour, to grasp the whole power of the administration into his own hands, and as his experience in business is of a very short date, so long as Count Osten’s knowledge and abilities shall be found necessary for his information and assistance, so long this gentleman may have some appearance of power.”[152]
[152] Gunning’s despatch, February 12, 1771.