Swedish noble (1664–1717)
Count Magnus Stenbock (22 May 1665 – 23 February 1717) was a Swedish field marshal ("Fältmarskalk") and Royal Councillor. A commander of the Carolean Army during the Great Northern War, he was a prominent member of the Stenbock family. He studied at Uppsala University and joined the Swedish Army during the Nine Years' War, participating in the Battle of Fleurus in 1690. After the battle, he was appointed lieutenant colonel, entered Holy Roman service as Adjutant General, and married Eva Magdalena Oxenstierna, daughter of statesman Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna. Returning to Swedish service he received colonelcy of a regiment in Wismar, and later became colonel of the Kalmar and then Dalarna regiments.
During the Great Northern War, Stenbock served under King Charles XII in his military campaigns in the Baltic and Polish fronts. As director of the General War Commissariat, Stenbock collected substantial funds and supplies for the maintenance of the Swedish army, earning the admiration of Charles XII. In 1705, he was appointed general of the infantry and Governor General of Scania. As acting governor, Stenbock displayed his administrative skills and organized Scania's defense against an invading Danish army, which he defeated at the Battle of Helsingborg in 1710. In 1712, he conducted a campaign in northern Germany and defeated a Saxon-Danish army at the Battle of Gadebusch, which earned him his field marshal's baton. His career plummeted after his merciless destruction of the city of Altona in 1713. Surrounded by overwhelming allied troops, Stenbock was forced to surrender to King Frederick IV of Denmark during the siege of Tönning. During his captivity in Copenhagen, the Danes revealed Stenbock's escape attempt and imprisoned him in Kastellet. There he was the subject to a defamation campaign conducted by Frederick IV and died in 1717 after years of harsh treatment.
Besides his military and administrative professions, Stenbock was regarded as a skilled speaker, painter and craftsman. His military successes contributed to the creation of a heroic cult in Sweden. During the age of romantic nationalism he was consistently praised by Swedish historians and cultural personalities, such as Carl Snoilsky in his poem "Stenbock's courier". His name has inspired streets in several Swedish cities and in 1901 an equestrian statue of Stenbock was unveiled outside Helsingborg city hall.
Early life.
Magnus Stenbock was born on 22 May 1665 in the parish of Jakob, Stockholm. He was the sixth child of Gustaf Otto Stenbock, member of the Privy Council and Field Marshal, and Christina Catharina De la Gardie, daughter of the Lord High Constable Jacob De la Gardie and sister of the Lord High Chancellor Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie. Magnus Stenbock was born a count, since Gustaf Otto Stenbock and his brothers Fredrik and Erik were made counts by Queen Christina in 1651. The Stenbock family originates from the Middle Ages. De la Gardie descended from the French-born General Pontus De la Gardie, who became a Swedish nobleman and Baron during the 1570s.
Magnus Stenbock spent much of his childhood with his siblings in the pleasure palace Runsa in Uppland; in the winters they moved to Bååtska Palace on Blasieholmen in Stockholm. When he was 10 years old, his father Gustaf Otto was deposed as Lord High Admiral after being considered to have failed in his mission and was forced to pay the extended fleet reparation of up to 200,000 daler. Gustaf Otto appeased King Charles XI, who decided to halve his fine and appointed him Admiral and commander of Western Sweden during the Scanian War. After the war, Gustaf Otto faced additional financial bills as a result of Charles XI's reductions and his breakdown of the old authority of the Privy Council. Gustaf Otto and Christina Catharina solved their financial hardships, but were forced to pay huge sums of money to the crown. They sold large parts of the family's properties and estates, retaining only Runsa, Torpa stenhus in Västergötland and Vapnö Castle in Halland. Gustaf Otto had disgraced the Stenbock name and injured the King's confidence towards the family. His family's disgrace impacted Magnus Stenbock on a personal level and motivated him to try to restore the Stenbock name.
Education and military service.
Magnus Stenbock was tutored at home from 1671. Haquin Spegel taught him Christianity, and reading and writing in both Swedish and Latin. After Spegel, Stenbock was lectured by theology expert Erik Frykman. Frykman was succeeded by Uppsala student Olof Hermelin, who taught Stenbock between 1680 and 1684, and had a great influence on his linguistic and intellectual development. From Hermelin, Stenbock received practical oratory exercises and was lectured on leading cultural languages such as German and French, ancient history, geography, political science, law, and physical exercises such as fencing, dancing and equitation. Stenbock developed a strong interest in geometry, especially in the field of fortification, and according to Hermelin, displayed great rhetorical and linguistic talent at an early stage.
In the autumn of 1682 Stenbock entered Uppsala University, where he and Olof Hermelin attended lectures with Olof Gardman, professor of Roman law, and Olof Rudbeck, professor of medicine. To complete his master's degree, Stenbock conducted an extensive educational voyage in Western Europe. Stenbock traveled in the spring of 1684 with a small company, partly financed by Queen Ulrika Eleonora, with Hermelin serving as host. The first destination was Amsterdam, where Stenbock practiced his language skills and took classes in turning. Inspired by the Dutch painters, Stenbock used his spare time to learn how to paint realistic birds. The next destination was Paris, where Stenbock took private lectures in mathematics from Jacques Ozanam. In 1685 Hermelin left Stenbock after Christina Catharina De la Gardie withdrew her financial support.
In the spring of 1685, Stenbock returned to the Netherlands. With the help of his cousin, Countess Maria Aurora von Königsmarck, he attained an audience with Count Gustaf Carlsson, who was commander of a Dutch regiment, and applied for a commission as ensign in his regiment. The following year Stenbock obtained a Dutch commission from William of Orange, which marked the start of his military career and the end of his travels. In 1687 Stenbock served in Stade, in the Swedish province of Bremen-Verden, as captain of an enlisted German regiment under the command of Stade's commandant, Colonel Mauritz Vellingk.
Nine Years' War (1689–1695).
In September 1688 Stenbock was appointed major in the Swedish auxiliary corps led by General Nils Bielke in the Nine Years' War against France. At that time Sweden was in an alliance with the Netherlands. In January 1689 Stenbock and the Swedish auxiliary corps, under the command of lieutenant colonel Johan Gabriel Banér, were sent to the garrison of Nijmegen. Stenbock stayed in Nijmegen while large parts of the Swedish troops were sent back to the Swedish provinces in Germany, due to tensions between Denmark and the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp. The duchy lay south of Denmark, and was allied with Sweden. In early June Stenbock and his regiment were sent to the garrison of Maastricht. In September he was granted permission by Prince Georg Friedrich of Waldeck to volunteer in the allied army. He experienced no battles, and when the army established winter quarters Stenbock traveled home to Stockholm.
Stenbock returned to Maastricht in April 1690, and was immediately commissioned to the front lines in Wallonia in the Spanish Netherlands, where the Swedish auxiliary corps united with the 30,000-strong allied army of Prince Waldeck. On 29 June of the same year Waldeck was briefed that a French army of 40,000 men under the Duke of Luxembourg was positioned at the town of Fleurus, which came as a huge surprise in the allied field camp. The next day Waldeck's army marched towards the Sambre river, and on 1 July the bloody battle of Fleurus took place. Stenbock stood with the Swedish auxiliary corps on the right wing of the allied army, and witnessed the defeat of Waldeck's army at the hands of Luxembourg. During the retreat Stenbock took over the command of a Swedish battalion, which he brought to safety from the battlefield, taking some French prisoners and a French standard. Waldeck suffered heavy losses, with the Swedish relief corps effectively destroyed.
After the battle, King Charles XI appointed Stenbock lieutenant colonel in Mauritz Vellingk's regiment in Stade. There he worked on administrative and disciplinary tasks for the regiment. In the spring of 1692, a new Swedish auxiliary corps was sent to Heidelberg to support the German troops at the Rhine. Hundreds of men from Vellingk's regiment were assigned to the corps, including Stenbock. Stenbock was commissioned to apply for a transit permit from the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, Charles I. At the beginning of July 1692 the commander of the allied troops at the Rhine, Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, decided to cross the river to face Field Marshal Guy Aldonce de Durfort de Lorges in open battle. The Margrave commissioned Stenbock to take command of a battalion of 300 men and two cannon, and bring a transport fleet via the river route from the town of Gersheim, south of Mainz, to the allied headquarters at Ladenburg near the Neckar's inflow into the Rhine. The journey to Gersheim was carried out without hindrance, however, halfway on the way back Stenbock was bombarded by French artillery batteries positioned at Westhofen, Mannheim and Worms. With minor casualties and several damaged ships, Stenbock was able to return to the allied camp and his operation was hailed as a success.
At the end of August the allied army crossed the Rhine to face the French troops at the fortified town of Speyer. After two days of heavy bombardment from French cannons, the allied troops were forced to retreat, and Stenbock ended up among the troops securing the retreat. In June 1693, Stenbock returned to Heidelberg and enlisted with Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, with whom he participated in the relief of Heilbronn. Stenbock searched for commissions in Celle, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel, and was encouraged by Louis William to court Emperor Leopold I in Vienna, to obtain imperial employment. In September Stenbock was appointed colonel of the imperial army, but without a regiment, and was forced to recruit by himself. On the other hand, Stenbock was also promised a position as adjutant general in Louis William's army, which was participating in numerous operations around the Electoral Palatinate. In the spring of 1695, Stenbock was sent by the Emperor to Stockholm to present the Emperor's demand for Swedish auxiliary troops to King Charles XI, but, due to the King's indignation regarding imperial military operations in his own duchy of Palatine Zweibrücken, Stenbock returned empty-handed. In September 1696 Stenbock parted ways with the Margrave and the imperial army.
Marriage and family.
During his stay in Stockholm in 1686, Stenbock courted Eva Magdalena Oxenstierna, daughter of Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna, President of the Privy Council Chancellery, and Magdalena Stenbock, a politically active countess. Magnus and Eva exchanged letters during his garrison service in Stade and in the Netherlands. Their affections were conveyed, on behalf of Stenbock, by his mother, and on behalf of Eva Oxenstierna, by both her parents and her older brother Bengt. He sent her a written proposal of marriage on 11 January 1689. As part of the arrangement, Stenbock sent his first self-portrait to her on 29 March 1689. Eva accepted his proposal in late spring, when Stenbock received the portrait of Eva from her brother Bengt. In November Stenbock traveled to Stockholm to meet his future wife. The wedding took place on 23 March 1690, with the members of the Privy Council and the royal family participating. Stenbock became a favorite of Charles XI, and particularly of Queen Ulrika Eleonora. Stenbock's parents-in-law would assist him in his future career, including his imperial employment and his appointments as colonel in several Swedish regiments. Bengt Oxenstierna also used him for diplomatic assignments, to secure his influence on Swedish foreign affairs.
Magnus Stenbock and Eva Oxenstierna were married for twenty-seven years, but because of Stenbock's military service, the couple only lived together for seven years. Nevertheless, they maintained a regular correspondence and Eva visited Stenbock several times in army camps. During the first ten years of their marriage they lived off Stenbock's poor officers' salary, but during the early 18th century, Stenbock was able to collect a fortune. He sent the money, along with expensive interior decors, to Eva, which she used to buy and decorate several estates. As