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SPRENGTPORTEN, JAKOB MAGNUS (1727—1786)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 738 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SPRENGTPORTEN, See also:JAKOB See also:MAGNUS (1727—1786) , See also:Swedish soldier and politician. In his twelfth See also:year he See also:chose the profession of arms, and served his See also:country with distinction. The few and miserable triumphs of See also:Sweden during the Seven Years' See also:War were due almost entirely to See also:young Sprengtporten, and he emerged from it with a See also:lieutenant-colonelcy, a See also:pension of £20, and the reputation of being the smartest officer in the service. Sprengtporten, above all things a See also:man of See also:action, had too hearty a contempt for " Hats " and " Caps " to belong to either. He regarded the monstrous See also:system of See also:misrule for which they were primarily responsible with indignation, made no See also:secret of his sentiments, and soon gathered See also:round him a See also:band of young See also:officers of strong royalist proclivities, whom he formed into a See also:club, the so-called Svenska Botten (Sweden's groundwork). The club was suppressed by the dominant " Caps," who also sought to ruin Sprengtporten financially by inciting his tenants in See also:Finland to bring actions against him for alleged See also:extortion, not in the See also:ordinary courts but in the riksdag itself, where Sprengtporten's See also:political adversaries would be his See also:judges. The enraged Finnish See also:colonel thereupon approached Gustavus III. with the project of a revolution against their See also:common enemies, the " Caps." It was to begin in Finland where Sprengtporten's See also:regiment, the Nyland dragoons, was stationed. He undertook to seize the impregnable fortress of Sveaborg by a coup de See also:main. The submission of the whole See also:grand duchy would be the natural consequence of such a success, and, Finland once secured, Sprengtporten proposed at the See also:head of his Finns to embark for Sweden, meet the See also:king and his See also:friends near See also:Stockholm, and surprise the See also:capital by a See also:night attack. This See also:plan, subsequently enlarged by a See also:suggestion of a See also:fellow plotter, J. K. See also:Toll (q.v.),was warmly approved of by the king.

On the 22nd of See also:

July 1772 Sprengtporten See also:left Stockholm. On the 9th of See also:August he reached See also:Helsingfors. On the 16th he persuaded the fortress of Sveaborg to submit to him. Helsingfors followed the cxample of Sveaborg. A See also:week later all Finland See also:lay at the feet of the intrepid colonel of the Borgii dragoons. By the 23rd of August Sprengtporten was ready to re-embark for Stockholm with 780 men, but contrary winds kept him back, and in the meantime Gustavus III. himself had carried out his revolution unaided. On his return to Sweden, however, Sprengtporten was received with the greatest distinction and made a lieutenant-See also:general and colonel of the See also:guards. He was also appointed the See also:president of a See also:commission for strengthening the defences of Finland. But Sprengtporten was still dissatisfied. He could never forgive Gustavus for having forestalled the revolution, and his morbidly irritable and suspicious See also:temper saw slights and insults in the most See also:innocent conjunctures. His first See also:quarrel with Gustavus happened in 1774 when he refused to accept the See also:post of See also:commander-in-See also:chief in Finland on the See also:eve of threatened war with See also:Russia. The king See also:good-naturedly overlooked his outrageous insolence on this occasion, but the inevitable rupture was only postponed.

A most trumpery affair brought matters to a head. Sprengtporten had insulted the guards by giving See also:

precedence over them at a See also:court-See also:martial to some officers of his own dragoons. The guards complained to the king, who, after consulting with the See also:senate, mildly remonstrated with Sprengtporten by See also:letter. Sprengtporten thereupon tendered his resignation as colonel of the guard, and at a See also:personal interview with Gustavus was so violent and insolent that anything like agreement between them became impossible. Sprengtporten was haunted by the fixed See also:idea that the jeunesse deree of the court was in See also:league with his old enemies to traduce and supplant him, and not all the forbearance of the king could open his eyes. He received a pension of £2400 a year on his retirement and was allowed the extraordinary See also:privilege of a guard of See also:honour as See also:long as he lived. Nevertheless, to the end of his career, he continued to harass and See also:annoy his long-suffering benefactor with fresh impertinences. See R. N. See also:Bain, Gustavus III. and his Contemporaries, vol. i. (See also:London, 1895); C. Julin, Gustavus III. och J.

M. Sprengtporten, sv. Hist. Tid. (Stockholm, 1903). (R. N.

End of Article: SPRENGTPORTEN, JAKOB MAGNUS (1727—1786)

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