His ancestor, Dohna family came from Carwinden, then in Brandenburg-Prussia, now part of modern Poland, but he was born in the Dutch Republic and spent much of his life in the service of the Swedish Empire.

His father was a Calvinist member of the Brandenburg nobility, with close ties to Frederick Henry (1584-1647), hereditary Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of six Dutch provinces, including Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht.

The relationship between Dohna and Christina is hard to assess; he clearly benefitted from frequent promotions but she was notorious for an indiscriminate distribution of posts and titles, while many historians consider her either asexual or homosexual.

[9] Their involvement arose from concerns over retaining control of the Baltic grain trade; the envoys sought to remove commercial concessions imposed by the Dutch Republic in the 1656 Treaty of Elbing, and end its alliance with Denmark.

[11] On 31 January 1668, England signed a treaty of friendship with the Dutch Republic and Sir William Temple, English ambassador in The Hague, invited Sweden to join them.

The Triple Alliance collapsed in 1672 but his memorial in Uppsala includes his role in negotiating it; his monument was designed and executed by the Flemish sculptor Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder and still exists.