Fredrik Axel von Fersen
Count Fredrik Axel von Fersen , usually called Axel von Fersen the Elder (* April 5, 1719 , † April 24, 1794 ) was a Swedish general and statesman of German-Baltic descent.
origin
He was a son of Lieutenant General Hans Reinhold von Fersen (born March 2, 1683 in Tallinn ; † May 25, 1736) and his wife, Countess Eleonora Margareta Wachtmeister . His brother was the statesman Carl Reinhold von Fersen (1716–1786). The ancestors were a branch of an originally north German family established in Estonia since the 16th century . During the Swedish rule in Estonia, several members of the family distinguished themselves in the service of the crown. Hans Fersen was captain of the Estonian knighthood from 1617 to 1624 and Hans Heinrich von Fersen from 1720 to 1723 . Fersen's grandfather, Reinhold Johan von Fersen, was raised to the rank of count towards the end of the 17th century and moved with his family to Sweden when Estonia came under Russian sovereignty in 1720.
Life
Fersen joined the Royal Swedish Life Guard in 1740 . From 1743 to 1748 he was an officer in the Régiment Royal-Suédois in French service, where he rose to the Brigadier des armées du roi .
As a general he distinguished himself in the Seven Years War in 1759 in the operations against Prussia in 1759 on Usedom and Wollin . But he made his name as a politician.
On the Ständereichstag (Ståndsriksdag) from 1755-1756 he was elected Land Marshal (lantmarskalk), an office he held two more times: 1760-1762 and 1769-1770. Until the coup of the new King Gustav III. In October 1772 he was the leader of the aristocratic Party of Hats , which pursued a mercantilist economic policy with active promotion of manufactories and exports, as well as a revanchist foreign policy against Russia with the support of France . Their political opponents, the hats , tended to be anti-aristocratic, supported the interests of agriculture and pursued a cautious foreign policy that sought a compromise with Russia and rapprochement with England .
In 1756 he thwarted a last-minute coup attempt by the so-called court party , which wanted to give the royal house considerably more power at the expense of the Imperial Council and the State Parliament. A number of the ringleaders were executed, others fled abroad. After the failures in the Seven Years' War, however, he tended increasingly towards the court in his politics, which enabled him to keep the Guardian Party in power for a few years.
When the hats gained the majority in the state council and the government power in 1766, Fersen supported the court in its power struggle with the hats. When King Adolf Friedrich abdicated publicly in response to the extreme demands of the hats, Fersen refused to use the bodyguard to maintain order in Stockholm during the resulting 7-day interregnum . At the next Chamber of Commerce Congress in 1769, when the hats came back to power, Fersen was re-elected Land Marshal, but then made no move to keep the promises he had made to Crown Prince Gustav regarding constitutional reform in the run-up to the election . This was probably one of the reasons why Gustav carried out his absolutist coup d'état of 1772 after his accession to the throne .
Fersen was also one of Sweden's richest men. He owned four large castles ( Löfstad , Steninge , Ljung and Mälsåker ), extensive estates and forests, mines and ironworks in Sweden and Finland, and significant shares in the Swedish East India Company . In Stockholm he owned several prestigious townhouses, including a palace opposite the royal palace.
When the Swedish Academy was founded by King Gustav III. In March 1786, Fersen became the first owner of chair 7 .
Marriage and offspring
In 1752 he married Hedvig Catharina de la Gardie (* May 30, 1732; † April 22, 1800), a daughter of Count Magnus Julius de la Gardie (* April 14, 1669 ?; † April 28, 1741) and his wife Hedvig Catharina Lillie (September 20, 1695 - October 13, 1745). The two had four children:
- Hedvig Elenora
- Hans Axel
- Eva Sophie
- Fabian Reinhold.
literature
- Fredrik Axel von Fersen . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 333 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fersen, Fredrik Axel from |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Heels the Elder, Axel von; Fersen, Fredrik Axel Graf von; Heels the Elder, Axel Graf von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish Land Marshal |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 5, 1719 |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 24, 1794 |