Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie
Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie was a Swedish statesman and military man. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1647 and came to be the holder of three of the five offices counted as the Great Officers of the Realm, namely Lord High Treasurer, Lord High Chancellor and Lord High Steward. He also served as Governor-General in the Swedish dominion of Livonia.
Birth and ancestry
Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie was born on 15 October 1622. The place of his birth was Reval, Estonia, which at the time was a Swedish dominion where Magnus Gabriel's father Jacob De la Gardie served as governor. Jacob De la Gardie, Count of Läckö, was a prominent military commander who served as Lord High Constable of Sweden from 1620 until his death in 1652. Father of Jacob, and grandfather of Magnus Gabriel, was Baron Pontus De la Gardie, a French mercenary who had been in Danish service but made a career in Sweden after having been captured by Swedish troops in 1565. Pontus married Sofia Gyllenhielm, the daughter of King John III, in 1580.Image:Ebba brahe.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Ebba Brahe
Magnus Gabriel's mother was Ebba Brahe, daughter of Lord High Steward Magnus Brahe and Brita Leijonhufvud. Ebba had a relationship with young King Gustavus Adolphus, probably during the years 1613–1615. Gustavus's mother, Christina of Holstein-Gottorp, ruined her son's wish to marry Ebba Brahe, who in 1618 instead married Jacob De la Gardie. Ebba and Jacob had 14 children, of whom seven lived to maturity. These seven were Magnus Gabriel, Maria Sofia, Jacob Casimir, Pontus Frederick, Christina Catharina, Axel Julius and Ebba Margaretha.
Career
Being a member of a wealthy family of the highest esteem, De la Gardie was predestined for an eminent career. He received a thorough education from his teacher Mattias Björnklou, and was in 1639 elected rector illustris at Uppsala University, thanks to his ancestry; this position put a student on a board that oversaw the university, in the hopes that he could influence the government on economic matters favor of university through his relatives and other high level contacts. The next year, he travelled abroad to complete his training. Much of this period was spent in France and the Netherlands. When the Torstenson War between Sweden and Denmark broke out in 1643, De la Gardie returned to his native Sweden, and learned about warfare under the command of Field Marshal Gustav Horn.1644–1654: Under Queen Christina
Early on during the reign of Queen Christina De la Gardie became the queen's favourite at only 23 years of age. Being, reportedly, both well-mannered and good looking might have helped De la Gardie to gain the queen's favour. His knowledge concerning culture, politics and representation might also have impressed the queen just as his talent for organizing festivities and surrounding himself with extravagance and magnificence. His skill and interest in these areas was in demand during a time when individuals in power should not only be well-learned, resolute and rooted in history, but have a sense of details and possess splendour as well.Image:Swedish queen Drottning Kristina portrait by Sébastien Bourdon stor.jpg|thumb|upright|Queen Christina
In 1645 he was promoted to colonel of the Life Guards. In 1646, De la Gardie was head of a diplomatic mission to France in order to find Queen Christina musicians for her Swedish court. The mission was a success for De la Gardie, who upon his return to Sweden received distinctions of an unparalleled amount. Furthermore, the queen arranged a wedding for him and the queen's cousin Maria Eufrosyne of Zweibrücken at the Royal Palace. After the wedding, De la Gardie was made a Privy Councillor. On 17 April 1648, he was promoted to general and served as such under the future king, and his own brother-in-law, Charles Gustav, during the Siege of Prague that took place in the final months of the Thirty Years' War. Despite making only a slight contribution in the war, De la Gardie was eventually rewarded 22,500 riksdaler, more than any other general. The same year, he was created count of Arensburg. De la Gardie began his first of two terms as Governor-General of the Swedish dominion of Livonia in 1649.
Prior to Queen Christina's coronation, De la Gardie gave Queen Christina a solid sterling silver throne, to be used for the event. At the coronation in 1650, De la Gardie was entrusted with carrying the royal banner. A year later, in 1651, he ended his first term in Livonia and was appointed Marshal of the Realm. In 1652, he became Lord High Treasurer, which was one of five Great Officers of the Realm and, as such, one of the most prominent and powerful members of the Privy Council as well as head of the Kammarkollegiet. Also in 1652, De la Gardie was appointed lawspeaker of Västergötland and Dalsland. When his father Jacob died that year, Magnus Gabriel inherited Läckö Castle and became Count of Läckö.
Falling out of favour
In 1653, De la Gardie fell out of favour with the queen. He and his family had to leave the court and for the rest of Christina's reign, De la Gardie lived on his manors in some kind of an exile. However, Queen Christina abdicated soon thereafter and was replaced on the throne by Charles Gustav, the brother of De la Gardie's wife Maria Eufrosyne.Image:King Charles X Gustavus - Nationalmuseum - 19702.tif|right|thumb|upright|King Charles X Gustav
1654–1660: Under Charles X Gustav
When Charles Gustav, De la Gardie's brother-in-law, ascended to the throne, it meant a return to the public for De la Gardie. In August 1654, he became governor of Västergötland, Dalsland and Halland and in December that year he was made chancellor of Uppsala University. In 1655, he was for the second time chosen for the office of General-Governor of Livonia. He also became Lieutenant General of the Swedish troops in Ingria, Estonia and Livonia, which meant that he commanded troops in the wars against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. It appears that De la Gardie was anything but a splendid military commander, as he received much more complaints than praise from the king for his actions in that area. During negotiations with Poland, De la Gardie was the prime Swedish representative. He took part in the deliberations leading to the Swedish-Polish Treaty of Oliva in 1660.King Charles X Gustav died in early 1660. In accordance to his will, De la Gardie was appointed Lord High Chancellor and, as such, member of the regency that ruled Sweden during the minority of Charles XI.
1660–1672: In the regency
De la Gardie was the most renowned and influential among the regency members, although he was often challenged. This may have been due to the fact that he was, reportedly, unable to work enough, and that he often left the court to spend significant time on his different estates, a disadvantage for both the government and De la Gardie's own position of power.Image:Statyn av Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie i Lidköping, den 9 maj 2006.JPG|left|thumb|upright|Statue of Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie in Lidköping
Being experienced and having many important relationships, he was a prominent member of a regency but he looked too much to the past and the traditions during the Thirty Years' War and therefore lacked a vision suitable to the demands of a new era. The regency was divided into parties. De la Gardie was the main representative of the party in favour of warlike adventures and a close relationship to France. The opponents, represented by Lord High Treasurer Gustaf Bonde, Lord High Steward Per Brahe the Younger and Johan Gyllenstierna, were advocates of a more peaceful and economical way. The opinions of De la Gardie's side most often won out and, therefore, Sweden was nearly drawn into wars against Russia and Poland during the regency period.
Early on in the period, in 1661, Sweden and France had signed a treaty which included a secret paragraph committing Sweden to support the French candidate on the first vacancy of the Polish throne, in exchange for a large sum of money. In April 1672, the two allies signed a new treaty in Stockholm. According to this treaty, Sweden would keep an army of 16,000 men in its German dominions to make sure the German states would not interfere in a war between France and its enemies the Netherlands and Spain. In return, Sweden would receive 400,000 riksdaler annually in peacetime. In wartime, the amount would be increased to 600,000 riksdaler. In a Sweden with great financial problems, these subsidies was, in Count De la Gardie's thinking, a more attractive way to improve the state's finances than a reduction, which would mean that lands granted the nobility would be reclaimed by the Crown.
De la Gardie himself was responsible for parts of the financial troubles Sweden faced at the time, created by Johan Palmstruch and his paper money. He made several donations from the Crown to himself and used national resources for private matters. Meanwhile, since they did not receive the funds necessary for maintenance, the navy went into decline, and soldiers died or ran away from the army since they did not receive their pay.
1672–1686: Under Charles XI
In December 1672, King Charles XI came to age. Despite what people might have anticipated, De la Gardie now became mightier than ever before. The young and inexperienced king seems to have been glad to take the advice of his Lord High Chancellor De la Gardie, who tried to increase the king's power in order to increase his own. However, from 1675, his influence decreased. That year, bound by the treaty with France, Sweden entered the Franco-Dutch War by invading Brandenburg. Although being numerically superior, the Swedish forces lost at Fehrbellin, which led to Denmark being encouraged to attack Sweden. Thus, the Scanian War was initiated. In connection with King Charles's coronation the same year, De la Gardie was accused of high treason, an accusation that soon was judged as unjustified.During the Scanian War, De la Gardie commanded troops that fought against the Norwegian army in Bohuslän. With this war operation, like earlier operations, De la Gardie lacked success, and suffered a considerable setback at Uddevalla in 1677.