Arvid Horn

Arvid Bernhard Horn af Ekebyholm (Finnish: Arvi Bernard Horn af Kanckas), (born April 6, 1664 in Vuorentaka , Finland ; † April 17, 1742 in Ekebyholm , Sweden ) was Chairman of the Chancellery from 1710 to 1719 and from 1720 to 1738 Imperial Council of Sweden. He also served in 1720, 1726 and 1731 as land marshal (president) of the state parliament and was the leading politician in Sweden during the first phase of the "freedom period" (1720–1772). Arvid Horn is one of the first modern prime ministers alongside the Englishman Robert Walpole .

Arvid Horn, portrait by Lorenz Pasch the Elder Ä. after an original by Georg Engelhard Schröder (1684–1727)

Finnish postage stamp from 1936

Life

1664 to 1704

Arvi (d) Bernhard Horn was born as the son of Colonel Gustav Horn af Kanckas and his wife Anna Helena von Gertten in Vuorentaka (Finland). His parents were among the most influential families in Finland and Estonia. An important member of the extensive Swedish-Finnish family Horn was the general Gustaf Horn (1599-1657).

As a young man, Arvid Horn studied in Turku . He joined the Swedish army in 1682 for economic reasons, but mainly to advance his career, and then served as a musketeer in the royal bodyguard . He later fought in the army of Prince Eugene in Hungary and from 1690 under Waldeck in Flanders.

After the accession to the throne of Charles XII. Horn quickly rose in favor of the young king and was friends with him. Charles XII. transferred the barony of Ekebyholm to him on July 18, 1700 and commissioned him with secret missions in the first years of the Great Northern War. He also had the highest position in that of Charles XII as a lieutenant captain (with the rank of major general). themselves commanded the elite troops and bodyguards of the satellite. In 1704, Horn's successful mission led to the election of Stanislaus I Leszczyński as King of Poland and the deposition of the previous King August II.

1705 to 1719

In 1705 Arvid Horn became a member of the Swedish Imperial Council, in 1706 he was raised to the rank of Count and was appointed Chancellor of the University of Pernau . 1707 gave him Charles XII. the office of governor for his underage nephew, Karl Friedrich , Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1700–1739). Horn finally followed the deceased incumbent Nils Gyldenstolpe (1642–1709) in 1710 as President of the Imperial Council. In 1713/14 he recognized the difficult situation in Sweden, especially the food supply for the population was not assured, and therefore asked the king to end the war immediately. Charles XII. Thereupon withdrew his office president's favor and powers, so that he remained without influence from 1714 to 1718.

After the king's death († December 11, 1718), Arvid Horn persuaded Karl's sister Ulrika Eleonora to succeed to the throne with the hope of taking over the business of government herself. However, the queen intended to continue her brother's absolutist government. Thereupon Arvid Horn resigned from his office as Chancellery President of the Imperial Council in 1719.

1720 to 1738

After Ulrika Eleonara's resignation in March 1720, the Reichstag elected Friedrich von Hessen as her successor. In April 1720 he confirmed the Land Marshal of the Reichstag, Arvid Horn, who had only been in office for a few days, as the new Chancellery President of the Reichsrat.

The King of Sweden had no significant governmental powers during the "period of freedom" from 1720 to 1772. Arvid Bernhard Horn, as chairman of the Imperial Council from 1720 to 1738, played a decisive role in Sweden's politics.

Economic policy

The Chancellery President Horn pursued a mercantilist economic policy and began to promote the economic development of the country after the emergency years of the Great Northern War . He drastically reduced Sweden's military spending and pushed through the abolition of the emergency coin of the Great Northern War.

In 1724 he implemented the "product poster" in Sweden based on the British Navigation Act of 1651 . The “product poster” stipulated that foreign ships were only allowed to bring goods from their home countries into Swedish ports. All other goods were only allowed to be transported to Sweden with local ships. These regulations were directed primarily against British and Dutch trading activities and determined Swedish shipping until the 1820s.

Horn also promoted traditional branches of industry such as mining and forestry. Thereby he helped Sweden to rebuild quickly. The export of bar iron and sawn timber quickly filled the coffers of private entrepreneurs and the state, which also financially participated in numerous mining and forestry companies. The proceeds from iron exports, which accounted for around 75% of Sweden's exports, and the income from the flourishing forestry industry enabled Horn to rebuild numerous towns and villages in Norrland that were destroyed by Russian troops during the Great Northern War.

Other important measures to stimulate the economy were the founding of the East India Company in Gothenburg in 1731, which took over the sea trade with merchants at the Cape of Good Hope and initiated Swedish foreign trade with India and China, and a trade agreement concluded with the Ottoman Empire in 1737, the promoted Swedish Mediterranean trade.

Domestic politics

The domestic politics of Horn moved in continuity with the Lutheran orthodoxy of the 17th century. In 1726 the "conventicle poster" was published , which banned private services and turned against the advancing pietism . In 1734, the Horn government published a code of law in which all medieval and early modern laws were systematized for the first time. This code led to the unification of law in Sweden.

In 1731 Arvid Horn attacked the royal maitress Hedvig Taube (* 1714; † 1744) personally. As a result, Friedrich I. Horn increasingly mistrusted and the cooperation between the King and the President of the Chancellery became more and more difficult. Horn's domestic political opponents were able to gain more and more protection from the king through Hedvig Taube, who had several children until her untimely death and who therefore remained inviolable to him.

Foreign policy

The peace treaties that ended the Great Northern War between 1719 and 1721 brought Sweden significant territorial losses. Sweden lost Estonia , Livonia , Ingermanland , Kexholms län and part of southeastern Finland to Russia, the Szczecin area and Western Pomerania south of the Peene to Brandenburg and Bremen and Verden to Hanover.

Arvid Horn then ended the previous Swedish expansion policy. He tried to keep the peace, only hesitantly pursued an anti-Russian policy and oriented himself mainly towards England. In 1734 Arvid Horn succeeded in concluding a defensive alliance with Denmark for fifteen years.

During the War of the Polish Succession from 1733 to 1735, Horn preserved Swedish neutrality.

During Horn's government two political groups existed, which essentially differed in their foreign policy ideas. The " hat party " , which consisted mainly of politicians and the military of the older generation, supported Horn's cautious foreign policy. Their opponents, the " Party of Hats " came from a younger generation of civil servants, officers and merchants and fought against Horn's peace policy.

In terms of foreign policy, the "hats" were oriented towards France and aimed at a war of revenge against Russia. Therefore, on December 18, 1738, they ousted Arvid Horn, opponent of the war, during a session of the Reichstag.

1738 to 1742

Sweden began a poorly prepared war of revenge against Russia in 1741 to recapture the lost provinces. The Russian troops occupied Finland and the Treaty of Åbo in 1743 determined the cession of further areas of southeastern Finland to Russia. Furthermore, the Swedes had to undertake to appoint the pro-Russian Adolf Friedrich von Gottorf as heir to the throne. The offer of the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth to incorporate all of Finland into the Tsarist empire was rejected by the majority of the Finnish nobility. In the following decades, however, part of the nobility began to consider this option as a political alternative for Finland.

Domestically, the war against Russia led to a peasant uprising. The so-called "Dal dance" (daladansen) rose up against the recruiting, directed against the price increases associated with the war and demanded the appointment of a Danish candidate for the throne.

The politically sidelined former office president spent the last years of his life on his estate in Ekebyholm. Arvid Bernhard Horn experienced the foreign policy turnaround of the "hats" to the expansion policy. However, he died of natural causes on April 17, 1742 during the Russian War.

family

origin

Paternal grandparents (married 29 May 1625 in Turku)

• Henrik Horn af Kanckas († 1629)
• Margareta Boje af Gennäs (March 6, 1604 - September 22, 1668)

Maternal grandparents (marriage on November 26, 1634)

• Bernd von Gertten († 1665)
• Elisabeth Wachtmeister († 1691)

Parents (marriage 1660)

• Gustav (Kustaa) Horn af Kanckas (* 1627; † 1673)
• Anna Helena von Gertten (* 1640; † 1709)

siblings

• Anna Juliana Horn af Kanckas (March 15, 1667 - February 5, 1753) married Adam Carl de la Gardie (1664 - 1721) on July 22, 1702. Their only daughter was Ebba Margareta de la Gardie (* November 24, 1704, † September 10, 1775).

• Bengt Johan Horn af Kanckas (* 1668; † 1701) married Christina Elisabeth Galle († 1738) in 1695. His only son was Gustav Johan Horn af Kanckas (* 1696; † 1728).

Marriages and offspring

Arvid Horn was married three times:

• On February 24, 1696, Arvid Horn married in Stockholm Anna Beata Ehrenstéen (born April 15, 1669 in Stockholm; † March 22, 1703 in Riga), daughter of Edvard Philipsson Ehrenstéen (born February 25, 1620; † June 30, 1686) and Catharina Wallia, Edle Wallenstedt (* March 10, 1627 - † October 25, 1719). Anna Beata had received a good education in The Hague in her youth and was very fluent in the language. The marriage had two sons who died as small children.

• In 1705 Horn got his second marriage to Inga Tornflycht (* around 1675; † February 20, 1708), daughter of Olaf Hansson Törnflycht (* April 5, 1640; † April 9, 1713) and Margareta Andersen (* 1653; † 1727). This marriage remained childless.

• In 1711 Horn entered the marriage again. His wife Margareta Gyllenstierna († 1740), daughter of the royal councilor Nils Karlsson Gyllenstierna (* 1648; † 1720, since 1698 governor general of Bremen and Verden) bore him three children:
  • Nikolaus Gustav Horn af Ekebyholm (* 1712; †?)
  • Eva Horn af Ekebyholm (* 1716; † 1790) was married to Axel von Löwen (* November 1, 1686; † July 25, 1772), Governor General of Swedish West Pomerania, in 1735 .
  • Adam Horn (born November 25, 1717, † January 24, 1778) denied his military career and fought as a general during the Pomeranian War (1757–1762) against Brandenburg. From 1741 he was married to Anna Katharina Meijerfeldt.

In 1798 the Horn af Ekebyholm line died out.

literature

• Ralph Tuchtenhagen : A Little History of Sweden. Verlag CH Beck oHG, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-53618-2 .

Web links

Commons : Arvid Horn  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Anders Fryxell, Geschichte Karls XII., 18965, p. 50