Magnus Julius De la Gardie

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After the Swedish victory in the Battle of Gadebusch (1712), Magnus Julius De la Gardie was appointed Major General of the Swedish army.

Magnus Julius De la Gardie, (April 14, 1668–April 28, 1741), son of Axel Julius De la Gardie, was a Swedish general and statesman, member of the Swedish Hats Party.

Magnus Julius De la Gardie was born in 1668 in Stockholm. He started his military career in the French army, where he fought for the French in the War of the Spanish Succession. After the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709, he became a Swedish Colonel at the Royal Dalecarlia Regiment, which he led in the Battle of Gadebusch in 1712. After the successful battle, he was appointed Swedish Major General, and in 1717 he became a Lieutenant General.

After the dramatic death of King Charles XII in 1718, Magnus Julius De la Gardie became a member of the Privy Council of Sweden. The newly appointed Privy Councillor commissioned architect Joseph Gabriel Destain to design Tullgarn Palace. In 1719 he was appointed President of the Kommerskollegium, and in 1727 he became a Marshal.

Magnus Julius De la Gardie was a vocal friend of the French kingdom. When the Riksdag was summoned in 1734, he proposed closer ties between Sweden and France. Inspired by French customs, he arranged regular receptions at his home, a novelty never heard of in Sweden at the beginning of the 1700s. It is believed that the Swedish Hats Party was founded at one of these receptions.

He died in Stockholm in 1741.

[edit] References

• Peter Wieselgren, Handlingar ur Grefl. De la Gardiska bibliotheket på Löberöd, Lund : 1831.
• Nordisk Familjebok, Stockholm : Nordisk familjeboks förlags aktiebolag, 2 ed. 1904.