Henning Adolf Gyllenborg

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Henning Adolf Gyllenborg, portrait by Gustaf Lundberg

Count Henning Adolf Gyllenborg (born June 11, 1713 in Lindsta, Järlåsa ( Uppsala län ), † November 29, 1775 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish politician and diplomat .

Life

Henning Adolf Gyllenborg came from the Swedish noble family Gyllenborg and was a son of Count and Lieutenant Colonel Anders Gyllenborg and the Virginia Christina Kruuse af Verchou . He devoted himself to science, first in Uppsala , where he was the last rector illustris in 1731 , then in Lund . He then went on a trip abroad, during which he was appointed chamberlain at the Swedish court in 1734. After his return he was used in various ways in community service and in 1739 he was sent on a secret mission to the Swedish ambassador in Paris , Count Carl Gustaf Tessin . In order not to attract attention, he called himself Anders Berg, entered a commercial office and continued his diplomatic relations with the ambassador under this mask.

During the war in 1741 Gyllenborg followed Field Marshal Count Charles Emil Lewenhaupt as chargé d'affaires to Finland and was sent to Saint Petersburg the following year to promote peace negotiations with the Russian court. The storm of disapproval that hit leaders and participants in the Finnish war extended to Gyllenborg. Although he evaded the need to justify himself by giving a powerful speech in the Reichsrat, the indignation against him was so great that for a few weeks he hardly dared to leave his house under heavy cover for fear of being murdered .

In 1743 Gyllenborg was sent to the Duke of Holstein, who was then residing in Hamburg , to negotiate with him about the election of his son to the Swedish throne. In Hamburg he met Johanna Elisabeth von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and her then 14-year-old daughter Sophie Auguste, who later became Tsarina Katharina II . As a result, he corresponded with them for years. During his stay in Germany, he also went to Berlin , where he supported Count Ticino in concluding the marriage contract between the new heir to the throne, Adolf Friedrich, and Princess Luise Ulrike , of which he was appointed chamberlain.

After his return to Sweden, Gyllenborg received the title of Oberintendant and in 1747 the rank of Court Chancellor. In 1751 he was promoted to land marshal , but often had to be represented due to illness. In the autumn of 1756 he became a councilor and in 1759 a knight of the Order of the Seraphines . In 1761 he retired from the civil service with the continuation of drawing half his salary as a pension and died on November 29, 1775 at the age of 62 in Stockholm. He was also a promoter of science and literature and was particularly distinguished by exceptional language skills.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Olof Jägerskiöld: Henning Adolf Gyllenborg , in: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon , vol. 17 (1967-69), p. 542 ff.
  2. ^ A b c d e T. Pech: Gyllenborg (Henning Adolf) , in: Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste , 1st section, 98th part (1880), p. 299 f.
  3. ^ Gyllenborg, Count Henning Adolf , in: Andrew Kahn, Kelsey Rubin-Detlev (translator): Catherine the Great: Selected Letters , Oxford University Press, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Gyllenborg, Henning Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish politician and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1713
PLACE OF BIRTH Lindsta, Järlåsa ( Uppsala County )
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1775
Place of death Stockholm