Curt von Stedingk

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Curt von Stedingk

Curt von Stedingk , also Bogislaw von Stedingk (born October 26, 1746 in Lentschow , † January 7, 1837 in Stockholm ; full name Curt Bogislaw Ludwig Christoph von Stedingk ) was a Swedish field marshal and diplomat.

Life

Curt von Stedingk was a son of Christoph Adam von Stedingk (1715–1792), major in the Prussian service and fiefdom owner on Lentschow in Swedish Pomerania , and Christina Charlotte von Schwerin, a daughter of the Prussian Field Marshal Kurt Christoph von Schwerin . His younger brother Victor von Stedingk became a Swedish admiral.

Military career

Curt von Stedingk received his first education in his father's house, embarked on a military career at an early age and in 1759 at the age of thirteen became an ensign in the regiment of the Swedish Crown Prince Gustav . From 1763 he studied for two years at Uppsala University . He then went on a trip abroad and entered French military services in 1766. In the ranking of the Régiment Royal-Suédois he is listed as a commander from March 24, 1784. He was called back to Sweden by King Gustav III, with whom he corresponded regularly, and appointed chamberlain, and in 1777 he became corporal with the body members . In 1778 he went to France again.

He was promoted to colonel and sent to North America with a squadron under Charles Henri d'Estaing in support of the American independence movement . In 1779 he distinguished himself in the conquest of the island of Grenada . While attempting to storm Savannah, Georgia , he led a column and was wounded on October 9, 1779. The French King Louis XVI. appointed him Knight of the Order of Military Merit in 1779 and ordered the payment of an annual pension of 6,000 livres , which he lost due to the French Revolution . For his services in the American War of Independence he was later awarded the Order of Cincinnatus . However, he was forbidden to wear this medal by the Swedish king, who instead awarded him the Order of the Sword . At the French court he became acquainted with the Swedish ambassador Gustav Philip Creutz, whom he repeatedly supported on official occasions. He also worked temporarily as a notary in the Swedish embassy. With Creutz, Axel von Fersen and Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein he belonged to a small group of Swedes who had access to the innermost court circles of France and who were often guests of Marie Antoinette in Versailles . In 1783 he returned to Sweden, where he was appointed chief of the Karelian dragoons . In the same year he accompanied King Gustav III. to his meeting with the Russian Empress Catherine II in Fredrikshamn . He then went back to France until 1787.

From 1788 he took part in the Russo-Swedish War . He first commanded a unit in the Savo Brigade under Colonel Berndt Johan Hastfer, which besieged Savonlinna (Nyslott) in July and August in vain . After the Battle of Hogland and the formation of the Anjalabund , Swedish operations came to a standstill. Stedingk, who had not joined the Anjalabund, was commissioned by the king to arrest Hastfer. He later took command of the Savoer Brigade. His armed forces fended off two attacks by numerically stronger Russian troops on Porrassalmi in June 1789, but finally had to give up southern Savo and retreat to Joroinen . On July 21, 1789, he led the counter-offensive at Parkumäki and then went over the Russian border to the vicinity of Savonlinna. Gustav III these successes came in handy to enhance the image of the unpopular war. The king awarded Stedingk the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword and appointed him major general. However, Stedingk was not so popular with his own troupe. The Finnish officers in particular complained about the lack of recognition of their work. For them, Stedingk was too openly on the king's side.

Ambassador to Russia

After the Peace of Värälä in 1790, Curt von Stedingk was sent to Saint Petersburg as ambassador . In 1792 he was promoted to lieutenant general and in 1794 was awarded the Order of Seraphine . He was honored with the title of Lord of the Empire ( En av rikets herrar ) in 1796, as the only one without having previously been accepted into the knight's house . In 1797 he was naturalized to the Swedish nobility and in 1800 he was raised to the rank of baron. He was in the special favor of Empress Catherine II and her successor, Emperor Paul I , who in 1801 appointed him Knight of the Order of Andrew , the Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Order of Saint Anne 1st Class.

The peace of Tilsit in 1807 brought a new threat to Sweden through the alliance between Napoleon and Alexander I. Stedingk warned several times of the consequences of the anti-Napoleonic policies of King Gustav IV Adolf , for which he was later accused of wavering. In fact, Stedingk, who apparently failed to obtain his own information, was deceived by the Russian side, while the king refused to believe in a Russian attack. In 1808, Stedingk returned to Sweden after the outbreak of the Russian-Swedish War . In 1809 he was chief negotiator in the Fredrikshamn peace negotiations , in which the Swedish position was very weak and which led to the cession of Finland and other territories. After the peace agreement he was by Charles XIII. raised to the rank of count and went back as ambassador to Saint Petersburg, which he left after being appointed field marshal in 1811.

Wars of Liberation

In 1813 he accompanied the Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johann to Trachenberg in Silesia to meet the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and the Russian Emperor Alexander I to plan the campaign against Napoleon . In the same year he led the Swedish troops of the Northern Army under Karl Johann and took part with them in the battles near Dennewitz , Großbeeren and Leipzig . At the end of 1813 he marched into Holstein with the Northern Army , from where Johann Karl forced Denmark to surrender and cede Norway to Sweden the following year . Stedingk signed the Paris Peace Treaty in 1814 as a representative of the Swedish government . The Prussian king awarded him the Red and Black Eagle Orders .

In 1818 Stedingk was appointed Chancellor of the Swedish War Academy at Karlberg Castle. As Ambassador Extraordinary, he attended the coronation of Nicholas I in Moscow in 1826 . Here he was honored at an imperial banquet as the only ambassador with a seat at the table of the imperial family, whereby he did not represent his country, but was expressly referred to as a friend of the Romanov family .

In 1837 he died in Stockholm after several weeks of illness. He was buried in Björnlunda church.

His son-in-law Magnus Björnstjerna published the “Mémoires posthumes de Feldmaréchal comte de Stedingk” in three volumes from 1844 to 1846. These contained a selection from Stedingk's dispatches .

Property and family

Elghammar Manor
Elghammar, hall

After reaching an agreement with his brother, Curt von Stedingk kept the Lentschow estate in Western Pomerania . In Sweden, in 1807 he acquired Elghammar in Björnlunda socken in Södermanland , where he had a manor house built between 1814 and 1821 .

In 1804 he married the commoner Ulrica Frederica Ekström (* 1767, † April 22, 1831 in Stockholm) after a request and official approval by Gustav IV Adolf. She was his housekeeper in St. Petersburg and already had four illegitimate daughters and a son with him, who later became General Ludwig Ernst von Stedingk (1794–1875). Another daughter was born in 1805.

After Ludwig Ernst's death, his daughter Therese (* 1837 † 1901) inherited the Elghammar estate; she was married to Duke Gustave Armand Fouché d'Otrante (* 1840 † 1910), whereby the property came to the family Fouché d'Otrante to this day .

literature

predecessor Office successor
Johan Fredrik von Nolcken Swedish envoy to Saint Petersburg
1790–1811 		Carl Axel Löwenhielm
personal data
SURNAME Stedingk, Curt von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stedingk, Curt Bogislaw Ludwig Christoph von; Stedingk, Kurt von; Stedingk, Bogislaw von; Stedingk, Bogislaus von; Stedingk, Ludwig Bogislaw von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish field marshal and politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1746
PLACE OF BIRTH Lentschow
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1837
Place of death Stockholm