Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt was a Finnish, Swedish and Russian courtier and diplomat.
Background
Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt was born in Finland on the 31th of March 1757. He was the great grandson of Charles XII of Sweden's general, Carl Gustaf Armfeldt. He was the first child of Magnus Wilhelm Armfelt and Maria Wennerstedt. His father was a military and participated at the Battle of Villmanstrand.
Education
He studied at home and later came to Turku for higher education. In 1771 he began his education at Karlskrona amiralities school.
Career
Appointed gentleman to Gustav III of Sweden in 1781, Armfelt was employed in the negotiations with Catherine II of Russia (1783) and with the Danish government (1787) and was one of the king’s most trusted and active counselors during the war with Russia in 1788–90.
In 1788, when the Danes invaded Sweden and threatened Gothenburg, he, under the king’s direction, organized the Dalarna levies. He remained faithful to Gustav when nearly all the nobility deserted him; and he was the Swedish plenipotentiary at the Peace of Värälä (1790).
On his deathbed in 1792, Gustav III entrusted his son to Armfelt and made him a member of the council of regency; but the duke-regent Charles (afterward Charles XIII) sent Armfelt as Swedish ambassador to Naples to get rid of him.
From Naples Armfelt communicated with Catherine II, urging her to make a military demonstration in favour of the Gustavians. The plot was discovered by the regent’s spies, and Armfelt escaped only with the help of Queen Caroline of Naples (1794).
He then fled to Russia.
When Gustav IV Adolf attained his majority, Armfelt was rehabilitated and sent as Swedish ambassador to Vienna (1802), but he had to quit that post two years later for attacking the Austrian government’s attitude toward Napoleon Bonaparte.
From 1805 to 1807, he was commander in chief of the Swedish forces in Pomerania, where he retarded the French conquest.
Expelled from Sweden in 1811, Armfelt again found refuge in Russia, where he gained great influence over the emperor Alexander I.
He contributed to the erection of the grand duchy of Finland as an autonomous state, and he participated in the planning of the Russian defensive campaigns against Napoleon.
For a short time he was governor-general of Finland (1813).
He died at Tsarskoe Selo near Saint Petersburg on 19 August 1814.
Achievements
Membership
In 1786 Armfelt became a founding member of the Swedish Academy.
Connections
Armfelt married 1785 countess Hedvig Ulrika De la Gardie (1761–1832), daughter of count Carl Julius De la Gardie and countess Magdalena Christina Stenbock. They had eight children.
From the affair with actress Mademoiselle L'Eclair in Paris, Armfelt had an illegitimate son Maurice L'Eclair (1780–1841). From the affair with Princess Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan Armfelt had an illegitimate daughter Adelaide Gustava Aspasie (Vava) Armfelt (1801–1881). Maurice was knighted 1816 in Sweden as Mauritz Clairfelt and became a general; Vava was adopted 1812 in Armfelt family.