The Regency of A.P. Bernstorff

Recalled to office in April 1784, Bernstorff, until his death, served as foreign minister in a moderate liberal government. He supported a series of reform measures including the regulation of landlord-peasant relations and the emancipation of the serfs. In foreign affairs, Bernstorff carefully pursued a policy of neutrality. When the French Revolution broke out, he condemned any interference in the domestic affairs of France and avoided every anti-French coalition. In March 1794 he negotiated a neutrality treaty with Sweden for protecting the merchant shipping of both countries by combined squadrons. Bernstorff's foreign policy won him the respect of European diplomats - his domestic policy gained him such popularity among the Danes that his death (June 21, 1797) was regarded as a national calamity.