Under his guidance, Johann was very carefully educated, acquiring amongst other things that intimate knowledge of the leading European languages, especially French, which ever afterwards distinguished him.

Supported by the powerful favorite Adam Gottlob Moltke, and highly respected by Frederick V, he occupied for twenty-one years the highest position in the government, and in the Council of State his opinion was decisive.

But his plans were reversed again and again by unforeseen complications, the failure of the most promising presumptions, the perpetual shifting of apparently stable alliances; and again and again he had to modify his means to attain his ends.

It seemed almost as if his wits were sharpened into a keener edge by his very difficulties; but since he condemned on principle every war which was not strictly defensive, and it had fallen to his lot to guide a comparatively small power, he always preferred the way of negotiation, even sometimes where the diplomatic tangle would perhaps best have been severed boldly by the sword.

[1] But just as the Russian and Danish armies had come within striking distance, the tidings reached Copenhagen that Peter III had been overthrown by his consort, Catherine II.

[1] On the accession of Christian VII, in 1766, Bernstorff's position became very precarious, and he was exposed to all manner of attacks, being accused of exploiting Denmark, and of unduly promoting foreigners.

Nine months later, on the 13 September 1770, Bernstorff was dismissed as the result of Johann Friedrich Struensee's intrigues, and, rejecting the brilliant offers of Catherine II if he would enter the Russian service, retired to his German estates, where he died on the 18 February 1772.