Jens Juel (diplomat)

Jens Juel
A painting of Jens Juel in the 1600s
Born	15 July 1631
Died	23 May 1700 (aged 68)
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Jens Juel (15 July 1631 – 23 May 1700) was a Danish diplomat and statesman of great influence at the Danish court who was created Baron and granted Juellinge in 1672. He was the brother of Admiral Niels Juel.

The son of Erik Juel and Sophie Sehested, both descendants of Danish noble families, Jens Juel was born on 15 July 1631 at Nørtorp, an estate in Thy in the north of Jutland. He studied at Sorø Academy and then set out on a four years journey abroad to further his education. There he met Count Christian Rantzau in Vienna and started a diplomatic career when he accompanied him to the Reichstag in Regensburg in 1652. In August 1657 Juel was appointed Ambassador to Poland, and though he failed to prevent King John Casimir from negotiating separately with Sweden, he was made a privy councillor on his return home.

But it was the reconciliation of Juel's uncle Hannibal Sehested with King Frederick III which secured Juel's future. As Sehested's representative, he concluded the peace of Copenhagen with Charles X, and after the Danish revolution of 1660 was appointed Danish minister at , where he remained for eight years. Subsequently the chancellor Peder Griffenfeld, who had become warmly attached to him, sent him in 1672, and again in 1674, as ambassador extraordinary to Sweden, ostensibly to bring about a closer union between the two northern kingdoms, but really to give time to consolidate Griffenfeld's far-reaching system of alliances.