page_title: Magnus Stenbock
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Magnus Stenbock / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Utexaminerade studenter i Helsingborg går sju varv runt Magnus Stenbock-statyn
context_page_description: Count Magnus Stenbock was a Swedish field marshal and Royal Councillor. A renowned commander of the Carolean Army during the Great Northern War, he was a prominent member of the Stenbock family. He studied at Uppsala University and joined the Swedish Army during the Nine Years' War, where he participated in the Battle of Fleurus in 1690. After the battle, he was appointed lieutenant colonel, entered Holy Roman service as Adjutant General, and married Eva Magdalena Oxenstierna, daughter of statesman Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna. Returning to Swedish service he received colonelcy of a regiment in Wismar, and later became colonel of the Kalmar and then Dalarna regiments.
  During the Great Northern War, Stenbock served under King Charles XII in his military campaigns in the Baltic and Polish fronts. As director of the General War Commissariat, Stenbock collected substantial funds and supplies for the maintenance of the Swedish army, earning the admiration of Charles XII. In 1705 he was appointed general of the infantry and Governor General of Scania.
context_section_description: Stenbock is one of the few figures in the history of Sweden to be described as a hero by Swedish historians and become a figure in Swedish folklore. Through his open letters, speeches and defense scripts, Stenbock was able to defend his reputation and spread the image of a bold and far-sighted military leader in 18th century Europe. The mystique around Stenbock continued to spread throughout the emergence of romantic nationalism during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was called "the great Carolean" by historians such as Erik Gustaf Geijer, Anders Fryxell, Claes Annerstedt, and Carl Grimberg. Among romantic nationalistic cultural personalities, Stenbock has been portrayed in Gustaf Cederström's historical paintings and in Carl Snoilsky's poems "Stenbock's courier" and "By the Lathe", as well as in the poem "Stenbock" by Oscar Patric Sturzen-Becker and in the play "Magnus Stenbock" by Arnold Munthe. The opinion of Stenbock has been less positive abroad. Polish historians called him a war criminal and in Schleswig-Holstein, he was associated with the burning of Altona. However, Danish historians such as Knud Fabricius, August Tuxen, and Palle Lauring have written more positively about Stenbock; Lauring wrote: "at that time in Denmark, we had not a single man who possessed the skill, intelligence and human carat of Stenbock". The Swedish memory of Stenbock faded after the Second World War and the long period between 1932 and 1976 when the Swedish Social Democratic Party were in power.
  Some of Stenbock's writings were assembled in 1721 by Joachim Christoph Nemeitz in French called Mémoires de Stenbock. Stenbock has been the subject of several biographies. The first was written by Samuel Loenbom on behalf of Stenbock's son, Gustaf Leonard Stenbock, and was printed between 1757 and 1765 in four parts of 1,200 pages in total. Subsequent biographies and memoirs have been written by Anders Magnus Strinnholm in 1821, Emilie Risberg in 1866, Claes Annerstedt in 1906, Samuel Ebbe Bring in 1910, Sven Wikberg in 1931, Ingvar Eriksson in 2007, and Andreas Marklund in 2008.
  An equestrian statue of Magnus Stenbock was unveiled on 3 December 1901 at Stortorget in Helsingborg, at the intersection between Drottninggatan and Järnvägsgatan, with large festivities gathering thousands of people. It was rumored that King Oscar II declined to attend the inauguration, claiming that only members of the royal family should be allowed to be depicted on equestrian statues. However, the king sent a telegram in time for the inauguration, which read: "Although prevented from attending today's memorable feast, I am pleased to say that henceforth, Stenbock's memorial shall adorn Helsingborg's town square, always reminding all descendants to serve and protect this beloved motherland just as he did. Oscar." It is one of very few non-royal equestrian statues in Sweden. The statue was created by sculptors John Börjeson and Carl Johan Nilsson in Otto Meyer's foundry in Stockholm. Börjeson's original proposal for the statue was that Stenbock would raise his hand against Denmark, but this was changed since the gesture was considered an unnecessary provocation. For traffic reasons, the statue was moved on 14 May 1959, about 20 meters to the right close to Helsingborg's city hall. The statue is highly debated among Helsingborg's municipal politicians. By tradition the city's newly graduated students walk seven laps around the statue every June.
  In addition to the statue, Stenbock is honored in several other ways in Helsingborg. Among other things, a former school, a church and a mall have been named after him. Ferdinand Edvard Ring made a statue of Stenbock, which is in Höganäs. One of Skånetrafiken's pågatågen (interurban trains) has been named Magnus Stenbock. Streets have been named after him in up to 30 cities in Sweden.
caption: Graduated students walk seven laps around the statue of Magnus Stenbock in Stortorget in Helsingborg.
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