Magnus Stenbock

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, 25 kilometres (16 mi) 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.

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 a landowner in Sweden, she supervised the family's finances and the children's upbringing.

They had eleven children, of which five sons and two daughters reached adulthood:

The oldest daughter, Ulrika Magdalena, married Admiral Carl Wachtmeister, while the youngest, Eva Charlotta, married Christian Barnekow, the governor of Kristianstad County. Stenbock's four oldest sons pursued military careers, while the youngest, Gustaf Leonard, became a judge and vice governor of Kronoberg County. The older sons, Bengt Ludvig and Fredrik Magnus, made their joint peregrination from the Netherlands to Paris in 1712 and were presented to King Louis XIV by the Duke of Noailles and Erik Sparre. Bengt Ludvig left his military career when he inherited and moved to the Kolk estate in Estonia, where he became a noble councillor. Contemporary descendants of Magnus Stenbock originate from his sons Fredrik Magnus and Gustaf Leonard.

Regimental commander (1695–1700)

During his military service, Stenbock suffered from growing economic problems. He was forced to support the needs of his family in Frankfurt by sending money exchanges. Stenbock visited Kassel, where he was invited to a princely masquerade ball and received gifts from Landgrave Charles I and his son, Prince Frederick. The Landgrave offered Stenbock a commission as equerry and colonel for a Hessian infantry regiment, but Stenbock rejected the Landgrave's offer for fear of his position with Charles XI. In January 1697 Stenbock courted Elector Frederick III at his court in Berlin to collect an old debt sent by his father to Brandenburg-Prussia in 1655. After Stenbock's audience with the Elector half of the debt was repaid, and Stenbock received the remaining 6,000 riksdaler as a deposit for a later time. He sent most of his compensation to Berlin as a money exchange to his wife. He then returned to Stade to prepare for the family's arrival, but due to sickness and economic problems, the family was forced to remain in Frankfurt.

Charles XI died in April 1697 and was succeeded on the Swedish throne by his son, Charles XII. At the end of May 1697, the young king appointed Stenbock to succeed Jakob von Kemphen as regimental colonel and commandant in Wismar. After redeeming a wage claim of 3,000 riksdaler at the imperial court in Vienna, Stenbock could pay his family's debts to creditors in Frankfurt and in August the family moved into the commandant's residence in Wismar. As commandant, Stenbock was responsible for the repair of Wismar's defenses. His regiment in the city consisted of about 1,000 German infantry recruits. Stenbock also spent time writing a war manual called Den svenska knekteskolan (The Swedish Soldier's School), which described different infantry tactics, march techniques, the use of military barriers, and basic fortification; he never published it. On 2 January 1699 Stenbock was appointed colonel of the Kalmar Regiment. A few weeks later, Stenbock and his family moved to the colonel's residence of Kronobäck in Småland. On 16 February 1700, Stenbock was appointed colonel of the Dalarna Regiment by the King. This was made possible thanks to Count Carl Piper, after his wife Christina Piper's recommendation, when Magdalena Stenbock gave Christina a pair of precious earrings. Before Stenbock was able to move into his new colonel's residence in Näs Kungsgård, close to the Dalälven, his regiment received orders to mobilize and march south to Scania, at the start of the Great Northern War.

Great Northern War (1700–1713)

Campaign in Denmark and the Baltics

The Great Northern War began on 12 February 1700, when the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, August II, besieged the city of Riga in Swedish Livonia. Simultaneously, King Frederick IV of Denmark ordered his Danish troops to invade Holstein-Gottorp. Russia entered the war on August the same year, and on September, Russian troops under Tsar Peter I invaded Swedish Ingria and besieged the outpost of Narva in Estonia.

Stenbock was ordered to immediately join his regiment that was marching towards Scania. He arranged field equipment in Stockholm and joined his regiment in Köping. Stenbock bid farewell to his family in Växjö, and his regiment arrived at Landskrona in July to await embarkation for further transport to Zealand. On 25 July Swedish troops led by the King landed at Humlebæk, where the Danish defenders were quickly routed, and the Swedes established a bridgehead on Zealand. Two weeks after the landing, Stenbock and the Dalarna Regiment arrived on Zealand, strengthening the Swedish force there to about 10,000 men. This forced Frederick IV to withdraw from the war on 8 August 1700 with the treaty of Traventhal. Stenbock and his regiment were shipped back to Scania in late August.

In early October, Stenbock sailed with the Dalarna Regiment to Pernau, and joined Charles XII and the Swedish main army marching towards Narva. On 20 November, the Swedish army arrived at the outskirts of Narva. Through reconnaissance the Swedes learned that the Russians, who were about 30,000 strong including thousands of camp followers, had built a fortification system in a semicircle between the north and south sides of the city. Lieutenant general Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld took command of the army. He drafted a battle plan where two Swedish columns would attack and break through the fortification line, and each column would then move to the south and north along the line and roll up the Russian defense so that the Russian army would be trapped in two pockets against the Narva River. Rehnskiöld himself commanded the left column while General Otto Vellingk commanded the right column. Within Rehnskiöld's column, Stenbock was appointed to command an advance guard of 516 men, consisting of about fifty grenadiers, a battalion of dalcarlians (soldiers of the Dalarna Regiment) and a supporting battalion from a Finnish regiment. Stenbock and his troops spearheaded the first wave of Swedish attacks.

The Battle of Narva took place on the afternoon of 20 November. The two Swedish columns, hidden by a heavy snowstorm that blew directly into the eyes of the Russians, breached the Russian fortifications. The breakthroughs caused panic among the Russian troops, and after a wild rout the Russian army surrendered and were allowed to withdraw back to Russia. About 9,000 Russian soldiers died during the battle, and their entire command was captured, while the Swedish casualties were estimated to be around 1,900. Among Stenbock's troops, about 60 were killed and 149 were severely wounded; Stenbock himself was hit in the leg by a musket ball. The commander of the Russian army, Duke Charles Eugène de Croÿ, and several senior officers surrendered themselves to Stenbock, who personally brought them to the King's camp as prisoners of war.

Campaign in Poland

With reinforcements from the Swedish mainland, the Swedish main army broke camp in June and marched south towards Riga to confront King Augustus II's Saxon and Russian troops. By 7 July the army was outside Riga. Charles XII and Rehnskiöld planned to cross the Daugava river right next to the city and assault Augustus II troops on the opposite shore. In the Swedish battle plan, drafted by Rehnskiöld, Carl Magnus Stuart and Erik Dahlbergh, the troops were ordered to collect landing boats near Riga and construct floating batteries. The batteries would convey infantry units across the river to establish a bridgehead. During the operation on 9 July, Stenbock assisted in the construction of a floating bridge to allow the cavalry to cross the river. However, strong currents caused the floating bridge to be destroyed, and by the time it was repaired it was too late to influence the outcome of the battle. The main army occupied Courland and overwintered at the castle of Würgen outside of Libau.

Since Charles XII failed to defeat Augustus II during the Daugava operation, he decided to carry out a military campaign on Polish territory to defeat Augustus' army, and secure his own back before attacking Russia. Stenbock received a memorandum regarding the war situation and Sweden's foreign policy from Bengt Oxenstierna, who shortly before his death, entrusted Stenbock to present it to Charles XII and persuade the King to end his campaign against Augustus II and instead direct his attention towards the Russian border. However, Charles XII went his own way and, by the end of January 1702, the Swedish main army had entered the Lithuanian part of Poland. Charles XII marched against Warsaw with the bulk of his army, while Stenbock and the Dalarna Regiment were sent to Vilnius in March along with major general Carl Mörner and the Östergötland Cavalry Regiment. Stenbock and Mörner was tasked with hunting down the troops of Grzegorz Antoni Ogiński and Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki, and with collecting contributions for the main army's maintenance. Vilnius was taken during late March, and the Swedish garrison was subsequently reinforced. During the Battle of Vilnius on 6 April the garrison was overwhelmed by Wiśniowiecki's troops. However, following vicious fighting inside the city, the attackers were repelled with the loss of 100 men, while the Swedish garrison lost 50 men.

Mörner and Stenbock were ordered to bring their 4,000 troops from Vilnius to Warsaw. The march across central Poland was obstructed by skirmishes against Wiśniowiecki's troops and wide rivers. On several occasions Stenbock used his engineering skills to build bridges, and the Dalarna Regiment served as sappers both in Stenbock's and Charles XII's marches. In July 1702 Charles XII and his main army caught up with Augustus II at the village of Kliszów, northeast of Kraków. Mörner and Stenbock reunited with the main army on the evening of 8 July. On the following morning Charles XII attacked Augustus II's Saxon and Polish troops. Stenbock was stationed with the infantry on the center of the first line of attack, under the command of lieutenant general Bernhard von Liewen. When Saxon and Polish cavalry attacked the Swedish left wing, Charles XII reinforced it with some cavalry squadrons and with Stenbock and the Dalarna Regiment. The cavalry attack was repulsed, and the Swedish main forces advanced into the Saxon camp, took control of the Saxon artillery, and threatened to encircle the Saxon center. Augustus II was forced to retreat, and lost about 4,000 men, while the Swedish losses were estimated at 1,100. Later, Stenbock recalled the battle as the most difficult he had ever experienced.

Governor-General of Scania

On 4 June 1707, Stenbock arrived in Malmö and reunited with his family at Rånäs Manor, which his wife acquired in 1704. He entered the governor's post on 18 September. At that time, the province was severely crisis-ridden, partly because it was close to Denmark and was depleted of able-bodied men throughout the war, and partly because of administrative mismanagement. Stenbock's predecessor, Rehnskiöld, had remained outside of the province since the outbreak of the war in 1700, and hence Scania's administration had passed over to the deputy-governor, Axel von Faltzburg. von Faltzburg was considered an invisible leader due to his weakness, corruption and disinterest, so administrative responsibilities were distributed between various bailiffs and officials, who spent their time in turf wars, despoilments and arbitrary exercises of power, which angered the Scanian peasantry.

Stenbock's first act was to inspect the provincial office reports, where he discovered that the financial accounting was in disarray and that the urbaria had not been updated for over 20 years. He replaced von Faltzburg with his own family companion and accountant, Peter Malmberg. In October and November 1707 Stenbock undertook an extended inspection tour across Scania, to obtain fresh recruits and form an opinion of the situation in the province. He was told that the peasants were pressured to pay unreasonably high taxes by the officials, whose ruthless conduct had caused over a thousand rural settlements to lay desolated. Stenbock reported on the situation to the Privy Council in Stockholm, suggesting that a state commission of inquiry should be assigned in Scania to investigate accusations of corruption. The Privy Council approved his proposal in February 1708, which resulted in several corrupt officials being discharged and arrested. In addition to his work within the commission of inquiry, which occupied much of his time, Stenbock combated shifting sand afflicting coastal farms, erected milestones on the royal highways, planted trees to resolve the growing shortage of wood, and hired land surveyors for the necessary provincial measurement.

Stenbock spent his time with his family in various properties and estates: in the governor's residence in Malmö which was used for representation; in the crown's property of Börringe in Scania; in Rånäs, where the couple controlled a huge farm and built a new mansion; and in Vapnö, where Stenbock spent his time with artistic activities and his wife took care of the daily operation of the estate and its stud farm, and established a wallpaper printing house where they produced wallpaper for sale. The couple congregated with Scanian landlords during dinners and hunting parties. Stenbock visited the mineral spa in the village of Ramlösa, which was inaugurated as a health resort on 17 June 1707 by the provincial physician of Scania, Johan Jacob Döbelius. Since the source of the well, according to Döbelius, had a medicinal effect, Stenbock saw a personal incentive to support it, since he suffered from kidney stone disease. Stenbock supported ground clearance around the spa and its decoration.

War in Skåneland

News of the disastrous defeat of Charles XII at the hands of Peter I and his army at the battle of Poltava in Ukraine, on 28 June 1709, spread across the Swedish empire throughout that summer. Charles XII escaped across the border to the Ottoman Empire, accompanied by roughly 1,000 men, but the remnants of his army surrendered at the village of Perevolochna near the Dnieper river. The defeats at Poltava and Perevolochna resulted in the deaths of 7,000 Swedish soldiers and the capture of 23,000 soldiers and non-combatants. With the Swedish main army destroyed, Denmark and Saxony returned to the war, forming a new coalition against Sweden. Saxon troops entered Poland to recapture the royal crown of Augustus II, while Danish-Norwegian troops under Frederick IV invaded Scania and Bohuslän.

After receiving Leijonkloo's reports of Danish rearmament, Stenbock summoned a meeting with several dignitaries from Malmö. He urged that the city's defenses must be strengthened and food and reinforcements acquired in preparation for a siege, since Malmö formed a strategic key point for the dominion of Scania and the defense of the Swedish mainland. Landskrona was also in need of reinforcement, and Stenbock appealed that a provisional fortress should be built in Kristianstad to prevent the Danes from moving into Blekinge. However, the fortifications of Helsingborg were dilapidated to the extent that the city was deemed impossible to defend. The coastal guard was reinforced, and beacons were erected at Barsebäck, Råå and other exposed stretches along the Öresund coast, where Stenbock expected the Danes would land. Apart from the fortress garrisons, Stenbock had only a few regiments at his disposal, and most of their men were poorly equipped. On 22 August Stenbock reported the Danish threat to the Defense Commission. The commission agreed to send three cavalry regiments from Västergötland to Scania's defense, and in October, they reassembled both the Northern and Southern Scanian cavalry regiments, who previously been wiped out at Poltava. Stenbock himself mustered 3,000 fresh troops. In September he issued a general declaration calling the people of Scania to fidelity to the Swedish King, to prevent pro-Danish guerrilla organization and collaboration. On 27 September 1709, Stenbock made an inspired speech to the citizens of Malmö, dispelling their concerns about the loss at Poltava and reminding them of their duty to their King and fatherland.

The Privy Council in Stockholm received the Danish declaration of war on 18 October. By then the fortifications along the Öresund coast had been made moderately defensible, especially in Malmö where the garrison had been expanded to 3,550 men. Three cavalry regiments were positioned along the Öresund coast under Colonel Göran Gyllenstierna's command, and both Malmö and Landskrona had enough ammunition and supplies to withstand a six-month siege. On 31 October more than 250 transport vessels sailed from Copenhagen, escorted by 12 warships led by Admiral Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve. The Danish invasion army consisted of 15,000 men with Christian Ditlev Reventlow as commanding general. Stenbock discovered the fleet from Malmö Castle on 1 November, and a signal shot from Landskrona reported that the Danish armada had anchored at Råå. The cavalry regiments marched towards the site and positioned themselves at the villages of Raus, Katslösa and Rya; Stenbock establishing his headquarters at the latter. Upon discovering elite Danish troops at Råå, covered by Danish warships, Stenbock decided to retreat to the southeast, destroying all the bridges along the way. By 5 November the invasion army was in full force, and took Helsingborg without resistance.

Plague outbreak

Stenbock's field army garrisoned in the Scanian cities and villages, to defend against Danish marines, who looted the coastal villages between Kullen and Barsebäck during the spring. In the summer of 1710 Sweden had a bad harvest, and starving soldiers in Scania were forced to steal food from the peasants. Stenbock could not maintain their discipline and demanded food deliveries from other parts of the Kingdom. At the same time, he received news from Stockholm and Blekinge about strange deaths. On 10 September the Privy Council sent a message to all governors that Stockholm was suffering from a severe infection that was killing people by the hundreds. The Collegium Medicum determined that the epidemic in Stockholm was the bubonic plague, that had ravaged the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea since autumn 1708. These signs forced Stenbock to isolate the entire Scanian region to keep the epidemic at bay. On 28 October armed barricades were placed on the major highways to Scania from Halland, Småland and Blekinge, and sentries were posted at Margretetorp, Markaryd and Kivik. Smoking stations were erected at the barricades and travelers to Scania were forced to present a valid bill of health and to allow their belongings to be fumigated with cleansing herbs before they could enter. Letters from postal offices were also fumigated. Between 1710 and 1713, 100,000 people in Sweden succumbed to the plague, of which 20,000 were in Stockholm. Thousands of people died in Scania, mainly in Göinge and the northeastern parts of the region, while neighboring villages were free from plague-related deaths.

Royal Councillor

In February 1711 Stenbock received a royal order from Charles XII to resign from his governor post and install himself in Stockholm as Royal Councillor and member of the Privy Council. His letter of appointment as field marshal was omitted and Burensköld was appointed as the new governor. Stenbock regarded this as an insulting downgrade, partly because, due to the Kingdom's poor economic state, he would now receive an uncertain salary as royal councillor compared to his stable income and benefits as Scanian governor, and partly because, unlike his subordinate generals, he was not promoted after the victory at Helsingborg. However, Stenbock would still be responsible for Scania's border defense, and received a royal order to build fortifications outside Barsebäck, Höganäs and Mölle, as well as a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) mound at Råå. Between 1711 and 1712 Stenbock was appointed chancellor of Lund University.

In Bender, Charles XII made revenge plans against Russia, and convinced the Ottoman government in the Sublime Porte to ally with Sweden. He gave orders to the Privy Council to send a field army to Pomerania, which would enter Poland from the west, while Charles XII would march from the south in command of an Ottoman army. The united armies would once again dethrone Augustus II, march against Moscow, and force Denmark to an unfavorable peace treaty. Council President Arvid Horn and Field Marshal Nils Gyllenstierna opposed the King's plans and, in spring 1710 ratified a declaration of neutrality with the Western powers of Europe in The Hague, favoring the Swedish dominions in Germany. Since Charles XII regarded Horn as unreliable, he entrusted Stenbock with putting together and overseeing a new field army. In his first council session in April 1711 Stenbock pleaded for the King's order, which was criticized by Horn and several other council members. Stenbock was supported in this matter by Hans Wachtmeister and Stanisław Leszczyński, who had sought protection in Swedish Pomerania, and was granted an annual appanage by the King, a decision which angered the council. When Denmark, Russia and Saxony learned of Charles XII's dismissive attitude towards the declaration of neutrality, a Danish army of 30,000 men entered Pomerania through Mecklenburg in August 1711, while Saxon troops marched from the south. Frederick IV and Augustus II converged outside of Stralsund, to which they later laid siege. King Stanisław traveled to Sweden, met with Stenbock in Kristianstad, and went to the Privy Council to ask for reinforcements.

The Privy Council agreed to send four infantry regiments of 4,000 men to Stralsund's defense. With the council's approval, Stenbock traveled to Karlskrona in October to assist Wachtmeister with the preparations and execution of the troop transport. The transport fleet sailed on 24 November and a few days later the troops were debarked at Perd on the island of Rügen. Stralsund's commandant, lieutenant general Carl Gustaf Dücker, regarded these reinforcements as less than he had hoped for, since he was informed that the Danes and the Saxons would carry out a major offensive the following year. Stenbock returned to Karlskrona in early December, and at Christmas received a royal order to guard the Swedish west coast, while lieutenant general Gustaf Adam Taube would lead Scania's defense in Stenbock's absence.

Order of mobilization

In Gothenburg, on 19 May 1712, Stenbock received a new order from Charles XII, this time that he would immediately transport a field army to Pomerania. He was authorized to carry out the transport independently of the Privy Council. He would also submit to King Stanisław Leszczyński and consult with Mauritz Vellingk, who was now governor of Bremen-Verden and commanding general of the Swedish troops in Germany. Stenbock and King Stanisław were to organize the transport in consultation with Wachtmeister and the Admiralty in Karlskrona.

In mid-June 1712 Stenbock spoke with King Stanisław and the council members Horn and Gyllenstierna in Vadstena, where he presented the financial requirements from Karlskrona for a contribution of 200,000 daler silver coins and 1,500 experienced sailors. Horn and Gyllenstierna were able to obtain only a quarter of the requested amount, citing the Kingdom's general distress and shortage of funds. Stenbock accompanied them to Stockholm and together with Gustaf Cronhielm, Stenbock spoke with the head of the Agency for Public Management to find out about the Kingdom's financial situation. Together they set up a financing proposal that would address the population with appeals for money loans, mainly from the wealthier subjects. Throughout July, Stenbock undertook his borrowing campaign by sending letters to the Swedish governors and magistrates, and holding speeches and banquets in Stockholm. He appealed to the bourgeoisie for money and cargo vessels to bring the King back to Sweden, as well as to improve the badly damaged Swedish foreign trade. In a short time, Stenbock and his helpers collected 400,000 daler and a loan of nine double-decked bulk carriers. With this contribution, the Swedish high command was able to send decampment orders to the regiments, purchase grain, muster sailors and assemble a transport fleet in Karlskrona at the end of July, while the war fleet was made combat-ready.

Stenbock left Stockholm and spent a week in Vapnö to say goodbye to his family. In August, Wachtmeister sailed with a fleet of 27 warships from Karlskrona. Stenbock joined the transport fleet at anchor in Karlshamn on 23 August, and set sail for Rügen. The following day, Wachtmeister chased off a Danish fleet led by Admiral Gyldenløve, who retreated to Copenhagen, while Wachtmeister dropped anchor in Køge Bugt.

Campaign in Northern Germany

On 25 August Stenbock landed at Wittow on the north coast of Rügen and toured for the next few days between Stralsund and various places on Rügen. On 14 September the rest of the transport fleet anchored at Wittow, and two days later, 9,500 men and twenty guns disembarked from the ships. Most of the troops were accommodated on Rügen, while some were sent to Stralsund. On the night between 18 and 19 September, the transport fleet that was anchored at Langkenhoff suffered a surprise attack from Gyldenløve's fleet, who bypassed Wachtmeister's battle fleet. Over 50 Swedish transport ships were lost during the attack, half of which were captured by the Danes, and most of the winter storages were lost.

The loss of the transport fleet was a major logistical problem for Stenbock and the Swedish troops in Germany. Stenbock sent a message to the Privy Council to send a new transport fleet with fresh winter supplies and 4,000 cavalry units that had not yet been transported from Sweden. Meanwhile, Stenbock was ordered by King Stanisław to begin secret negotiations with the Saxon Field Marshal Jacob Heinrich von Flemming to investigate the possibility of a separate peace with King Augustus II. The meeting took place on 11 October in Pütte, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of Stralsund, where Stenbock, together with major generals Georg Reinhold Patkul and Fredrik von Mevius, negotiated with Flemming and his companions, the Russian Master-General of the Ordnance Jacob Bruce and the Danish colonels Bendix Meyer and Poul Vendelbo Løvenørn. Because Flemming rejected King Stanisław's demands regarding Lithuania the negotiations were inconclusive. Stenbock held a council of war with his generals and colonels to decide by which route they should march. Since the road to Poland was devastated and blocked by between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian and Saxon troops, Stenbock decided to go west to Mecklenburg where the troops could establish reliable supply lines.

On 1 November, 16,000 men marched out of Stralsund under Stenbock's direct command. They moved parallel to the enemy lines, which were concentrated south of Stralsund. They crossed the Recknitz river at Damgarten on 4 November, and entered Rostock without a fight ten days later. Stenbock set up headquarters in Schwaan, south of Rostock, and established communications with Wismar. In Mecklenburg, the contribution collection commenced under the command of General War Commissar Peter Malmberg, and the Swedes confiscated significant quantities of food, wagons and horses. At the same time, Danish troops remained around Hamburg and Danish Holstein, while Saxon and Russian troops advanced from the east. On 5 November Stenbock and King Stanisław negotiated with Flemming. Stanisław announced his thoughts on giving up the Polish crown, which created opportunities for an armistice. On 24 November Stenbock was ordered by King Stanisław to discuss a three-month armistice with the enemy alliance. The negotiations, between Stenbock and major general Carl Gustaf Mellin on one side and Flemming, the Russian commander Prince Alexander Menshikov and Colonels Meyer and Løvenørn on the other, took place a few days later in Lüssow. Stenbock was also given the opportunity to discuss directly with Augustus II, who was not a participant at the talks, but as a guest of the widowed duchess Magdalena Sibylla in Güstrow. The parties agreed to a two-week ceasefire, starting on 1 December, which allowed the Swedes to collect food reserves and gave them more time to assemble a new transport fleet. On 29 November, King Stanisław departed towards Bender to inform Charles XII about the negotiations. Stenbock remained in Wismar for two weeks due to severe colic attacks. He was informed that a transport fleet under Admiral Gustaf Wattrang had assembled in Karlskrona and tried to sail to Wismar, but due to frequent storms, the fleet failed three times.

Captivity (1713–1717)

Letter correspondence

During the captivity, General War Commissar Malmberg was responsible for prisoner exchange talks, while Stenbock paid 8,000 riksdaler out of his own pocket for the prisoners' needs. By Christmas of 1713, about half of the 10,000 Swedish prisoners had died of hunger and exhaustion, escaped, or entered Danish service. In his quarters in Flensburg, Stenbock devoted his time to his artistic interests, and wrote new defensive statements in which he blamed Vellingk, Görtz and the Privy Council in Stockholm for his surrender. Colonel Carl Cronstedt and major general Carl Gustaf Wulfrath were sent to Sweden to carry out fundraising and assemble means of transport, and at the same time, they visited Vapnö to give presents and letters from Stenbock to Eva and their children. In June, Wulfrath was able to transfer 100,000 riksdaler to Vellingk in Hamburg, and a smaller Swedish transport fleet was sent to Åbenrå. However, the sum of money was first reduced by a poor rate of exchange in Hamburg, then Vellingk used some of the money for Wismar's rearmament, on the orders of the Privy Council. The remaining amount was not enough to free the prisoners, and on 18 August Vellingk was told that the Privy Council had given up hope of procuring the prisoners' release, and that Sweden's remaining resources must be used for the defense of the kingdom's borders.

On 20 November, Stenbock was brought with his servants to Copenhagen and moved into the Marsvin Estate, a palace located at Højbro Plads not far from Strøget. Four Danish grenadiers were posted outside the palace windows, and two Danish colonels were Stenbock's personal wardens. In the company of the colonels, Stenbock was able to move freely in Copenhagen, and the Danes reviewed all his letters and books. Immediately after his arrival, Stenbock began to write yet another defensive statement, this time directed at Görtz and Frederick IV, and addressed to all "revered brothers, loving and highly honored Swedish compatriots". Stenbock's stay in Marsvin Estate attracted people from Copenhagen's richer circles, who wanted to see and exchange words with him, including Frederick IV's councillors Ditlev Vibe, Christian Christophersen Sehested, and Valentin von Eickstedt, as well as foreign envoys such as Prince Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov and Poussin, an envoy from France. The latter received direct orders from Versailles to assist the Swedish Crown's interests in Copenhagen. Poussin's benevolence and respect helped to make Stenbock's captivity more bearable, and from Poussin, Stenbock received rumors and gossip from Frederick IV's court. With this information, Stenbock sent letters with Poussin's seal to the Privy Council and Princess Ulrika Eleonora.

Planned escape

After his arrival at Marsvin Estate, Stenbock received a letter from Malmberg, in which he inquired about the opportunities to escape from captivity. Initially, Stenbock rejected a plan of escape, since a failed attempt would seriously harm his reputation. But when the prospect of a release became unrealistic, and Stenbock's surveillance tightened, he reluctantly changed his attitude. On 1 May 1714 Stenbock sent a letter to Charles XII discussing a potential escape. Shortly thereafter, he gave Malmberg approval to rent a ship to transfer him to Sweden during the summer of 1714. In Lübeck, on 5 July, Malmberg signed a formal contract with Prussian skipper Christian Rötke. The escape plan was that Rötke and his crew would sail to Copenhagen under Prussian flag to deposit a cargo of firewood from Stralsund. The skipper would then visit Stenbock, smuggle him out of his home, and put him ashore on the Scanian coast. However, Stenbock sent a letter to Malmberg on 13 July calling off the project, as he thought the plan was too risky and unclear. On 27 July, he informed Malmberg that Marsvin Estate was patrolled at night by over three guards, and that the guards strip-searched all who went in or out of the building. On the same day, he wrote a letter to the city commandant Hans Christoph von Schönfeldt, in which he complained about the harsh surveillance and that, as a man of honor, he was unaccustomed to seek escape. At the same time, he helped his secretary Andreas Peter Wiingren to burn the drafts of all his letters and notes from the past six months, and with Poussin's help, he smuggled sensitive documents to Hamburg.

A few days later Stenbock received a reply from Schönfeldt, with a royal order to confine Stenbock into two interior rooms in Marsvin Estate and separate him from all but two of his servants. Schönfeldt appointed seven colonels to take turns guarding Stenbock, and the guard force was increased to ten posts. On 6 August Christian Rötke arrived in Copenhagen and explored the possibilities for Stenbock's escape. A few days later, Rötke and his crew were arrested by Danish soldiers and imprisoned at Holmen. Frederick IV was aware of Stenbock's escape plan thanks to his royal post spy, the postal inspector Christian Erlund. He had controlled Stenbock's secret correspondence and had deciphered his encrypted correspondence with Malmberg. Later, Erlund learned how to plagiarize the different cursive methods in the letters to be able to manipulate the mail to and from Marsvin Estate. Erlund was then able to tip a Danish Vice Admiral posted at Prøvestenen about Rötke's ship, trace Stenbock's secret documents in Hamburg, and seize Stenbock's field archive, which had been placed, along with secret documents, in a coffin at the Swedish agent Herman Fock's hideout in Lübeck. The coffin was presented to Frederick IV and his councillors; it contained 45 folders of letters from, among others, Charles XII, King Stanisław, Christian August and the ministers of the Ducal Holstein, the Swedish Privy Council, and Vellingk. The biggest find for the Danes was Stenbock's treaty with Christian August regarding the entry of the Swedish army into Tönning. As evidence, the secret agreement constituted a significant propaganda tool against Stenbock, Sweden and Holstein-Gottorp. Frederick IV presented the information to the emissaries from the Holy Roman Empire, England, The Netherlands, Prussia and Russia. When the commission of inquiry interrogated Stenbock's servants, his secretary Wiingren and the kitchen scribe Johan Anton Bon revealed that they were responsible for the encryption and security of Stenbock's letters.

Imprisonment and defamation

On 17 November 1714 Stenbock was transferred in a covered wagon to Citadellet Frederikshavn, also known as Kastellet, where Commandant Jacob Peter von Bonar received him and declared that he could no longer communicate with the outside world. Stenbock was accommodated with two chamber servants in Bonar's house. The dwelling had a tiled stove and Stenbock received four to five daily meals with wine and bread from the Commandant's kitchen. Upon arriving at Kastellet, Stenbock immediately begun a new petition to Frederick IV, wherein he accused Malmberg of producing the escape plan and denied that it was his intention to escape. On 20 November the petition was sent to the king at Christiansborg Palace. At the same time, Stenbock completed two secret letters addressed to Charles XII and Ulrika Eleonora, in which he blamed the Danes for their rudeness and espionage. When he tried to send the letters through one of his chamber servants, they were seized by a Danish guard, who handed the letters over to Bonar. Stenbock learned about this the same day, and quickly wrote an anxious letter to Bonar in which he appealed to the commandant not to report the matter further. Stenbock's letter had no effect, and on 4 December Bonar was ordered to arrange a special prison for Stenbock.

Stenbock was moved into the residence of the fortress chaplain, which was converted into a high-status prison, with barred windows and exterior doors. The residence had stoves in each room for heating and Stenbock could furnish it as he pleased. However, the rooms were darkly lit, and the whole residence lacked floor insulation, tormenting Stenbock since moisture and odors came up from the basement. Frederick IV appointed a new commission against Stenbock and his servants and collaborators. The commission began to question Stenbock on 20 December 1714. The commissioners showcased his correspondence with Malmberg, revealing their escape plan. Three days later, his secret treaty with the ministers of Holstein was revealed, along with his field archive with all his secret documents. Stenbock was frightened by the Danes' discovery, since his reputation was at stake. On 25 January 1715 Stenbock was questioned for the second and last time by the commissioners. They explained that Stenbock's documents were now the property of Frederick IV and that his servants had been released. Stenbock, on the other hand, was accused of committing espionage and defaming the Danish regent, thus being guilty of lese-majeste. Stenbock quickly wrote a detailed appeal to Frederick IV, confessing his correspondence and implored the King to not brand him as a spy.

It took over a year for Frederick IV to reply to Stenbock's appeal. During 1715 the King entrusted historian Christoph Heinrich Amthor with compiling his public accusation against Stenbock, using examples from Stenbock's own letters to describe his planned secret escape to Scania, his forbidden correspondence with the King's enemies, and his mocking letters about the King, his councillors and the Danish nation as a whole. Stenbock's appeals to Frederick IV were also used in the script, where Amthor made them appear false and opportunistic, and characterized Stenbock as not living up to his own criteria of being an honorable man. In the spring of 1716, Amthor's script was presented to Stenbock. Several months earlier, Stenbock had begun to write a long defensive statement, explaining his failed campaign in Germany, that Vellingk forced him to burn Altona, that Görtz tricked him into surrendering Tönning, and that Frederick IV violated the surrender agreement and treated Stenbock and the Swedish prisoners of war as "wicked criminals". Stenbock also lamented his own failures, especially the destruction of Altona, and his lack of time and love for his family. He wrote that he was ready to die and wished that God would give "a quick, gentle and gracious end upon my current misery." He completed the script on his twenty-sixth wedding anniversary, 23 March 1716.

Death and funeral

Stenbock died on 23 February 1717 in his cell at Kastellet. The cause of death has not been determined with certainty, but it was probably due to his long illness and lifestyle-related fragility. His defense script, along with other belongings, were hidden in a double-bottomed coffin that was brought to Sweden, and it took several decades before his writings came to public knowledge. On Frederick IV's orders, Stenbock's effects were registered and sealed, and his residence was draped in black velvet. Stenbock lay in state for a few days until he was buried "with all the conventional military honors" in the Garrison Church in Copenhagen. His coffin was later transported from Helsingør to Helsingborg in November 1719 and then, after a solemn procession across the city, taken to Vapnö Castle Church. Stenbock laid there until the death of his wife on 11 May 1722, when they were interred side by side in the Oxenstierna family crypt in Uppsala Cathedral.

Legacy

Stenbock is one of the few figures in the history of Sweden to be described as a hero by Swedish historians and become a figure in Swedish folklore. Through his open letters, speeches and defense scripts, Stenbock was able to defend his reputation and spread the image of a bold and far-sighted military leader in 18th-century Europe. The mystique around Stenbock continued to spread throughout the emergence of romantic nationalism during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was called "the great Carolean" by historians such as Erik Gustaf Geijer, Anders Fryxell, Claes Annerstedt, and Carl Grimberg. Among romantic nationalistic cultural personalities, Stenbock has been portrayed in Gustaf Cederström's historical paintings and in Carl Snoilsky's poems "Stenbock's courier" and "By the Lathe", as well as in the poem "Stenbock" by Oscar Patric Sturzen-Becker and in the play "Magnus Stenbock" by Arnold Munthe. The opinion of Stenbock has been less positive abroad. Polish historians called him a war criminal and in Schleswig-Holstein, he was associated with the burning of Altona. However, Danish historians such as Knud Fabricius, August Tuxen, and Palle Lauring have written more positively about Stenbock; Lauring wrote: "at that time in Denmark, we had not a single man who possessed the skill, intelligence and human carat of Stenbock". The Swedish memory of Stenbock faded after the Second World War and the long period between 1932 and 1976 when the Swedish Social Democratic Party were in power.

Some of Stenbock's writings were assembled in 1721 by Joachim Christoph Nemeitz in French called Mémoires de Stenbock. Stenbock has been the subject of several biographies. The first was written by Samuel Loenbom on behalf of Stenbock's son, Gustaf Leonard Stenbock, and was printed between 1757 and 1765 in four parts of 1,200 pages in total. Subsequent biographies and memoirs have been written by Anders Magnus Strinnholm in 1821, Emilie Risberg in 1866, Claes Annerstedt in 1906, Samuel Ebbe Bring in 1910, Sven Wikberg in 1931, Ingvar Eriksson in 2007, and Andreas Marklund in 2008.

An equestrian statue of Magnus Stenbock was unveiled on 3 December 1901 at Stortorget in Helsingborg, with large festivities gathering thousands of people. It was rumored that King Oscar II declined to attend the inauguration, claiming that only members of the royal family should be allowed to be depicted on equestrian statues. However, the king sent a telegram for the inauguration, which read: "Although prevented from attending today's memorable feast, I am pleased to say that henceforth, Stenbock's memorial shall adorn Helsingborg's town square, always reminding all descendants to serve and protect this beloved motherland just as he did. Oscar." It is one of very few non-royal equestrian statues in Sweden. The statue was created by sculptors John Börjeson and Carl Johan Nilsson in Otto Meyer's foundry in Stockholm. Börjeson's original proposal for the statue was that Stenbock would raise his hand against Denmark, but this was changed since the gesture was considered an unnecessary provocation. For traffic reasons, the statue was moved on 14 May 1959, about 20 metres (66 ft) to the right close to Helsingborg's city hall. The statue is highly debated among Helsingborg's municipal politicians. By tradition the city's newly graduated students walk seven laps around the statue every June.