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COUNT ADAM GOTTLOB MOLTKE (1710-1792)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 677 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COUNT See also:ADAM GOTTLOB See also:MOLTKE (1710-1792)  , Danish courtier, was See also:born on the loth of See also:November 1710, at Riesenhof in See also:Mecklenburg . Though of See also:German origin, many of the Moltkes were at this See also:time in the Danish service, which was considered a more important and promising opening for the See also:young See also:north German noblemen than the service of any of the native principalities; and through one of his uncles, young See also:Moltke became a See also:page at the Danish See also:court, in which capacity he formed a See also:life-See also:long friendship with the See also:crown See also:prince See also:Frederick, afterwards Frederick V . He never had any opportunity of enriching his mind by travel or study, but he was remarkable for a strongly religious temperament and seems for some time to have been connected with the Moravians . Immediately after his See also:accession, Frederick V. made him hofmarskal (court See also:marshal), and overwhelmed him with marks of favour, making him a privy councillor and a See also:count and bestowing upon him Bregentved and other estates . As the inseparable See also:companion of the See also:king, Moltke's See also:influence soon became so boundless that the See also:foreign diplomatists declared he could make and unmake ministers at will . Fortunately he was no See also:ordinary favourite . Naturally tactful and considerate, he never put difficulties in the way of the responsible ministers . Especially interesting is Moltke's attitude towards the two distinguished statesmen who played the leading parts during the reign of Frederick V., Johan See also:Sigismund Schulin and the See also:elder See also:Bernstorff . For Schulin he had a sort of veneration . Bernstorff irritated him by his See also:grand airs of conscious superiority . But though a Prussian intrigue was set up for the supersession of Bernstorff by Moltke, the latter, convinced that Bernstorff was the right See also:man in the right See also:place, supported him with unswerving See also:loyalty . Moltke was far less liberal in his views than many of his contemporaries .

He looked askance at all projects for the emancipation of theserfs, but, as one of the largest landowners of See also:

Denmark, he did much service to See also:agriculture by lightening the burdens of the countrymen and introducing technical and scientific improvements which greatly increased See also:production . His greatest merit, however, was the guardianship he exercised over the king, whose sensual temperament and weak See also:character exposed him to many temptations which might have been very injurious to the See also:state . Frederick had the See also:good sense to appreciate the honesty of his friend and there was never any serious See also:breach between them . On the See also:death of See also:Queen Louisa the king would even have married one of Moltke's daughters had he not peremptorily declined the dangerous See also:honour . On the decease of Frederick V., who died in his arms (See also:Jan . 14, 1766), Moltke's dominion was at an end . The new king, See also:Christian VII., could not endure him, and exclaimed, with reference to his lanky figure: " He's See also:stork below and See also:fox above." He was also extremely unpopular, because he was wrongly suspected of enriching himself at the public expense.l In See also:July 1766 he was dismissed from all his offices and retired to his See also:estate at Bregentved . Subsequently, through the See also:interest of See also:Russia, to whom he had always been favourable, he regained his seat in the See also:council (Feb . 8, 1768), but his influence was slight and of brief endurance . He was again dismissed without a See also:pension, on the loth of See also:December 1770, for refusing to have anything to do with See also:Struensee . He lived in retirement till his death on the 25th of See also:September 1792 . His See also:memoirs, written in German and published in 187o, have considerable See also:historical importance .

See H . H . Langhorn, Historische Nachricht fiber See also:

die dl nischen Moltkes (See also:Kiel, 1871) . (R . N .

End of Article: COUNT ADAM GOTTLOB MOLTKE (1710-1792)
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