Arvid Horn

Count Arvid Bernhard Horn af Ekebyholm (6 April 166418 April 1742) was a Swedish general, diplomat and politician, a member of the noble Horn family. He served twice as President of the Privy Council Chancellery (1710–1719 and 1720–1738) and was one of the leading figures of the Swedish Age of Liberty. Soldier and diplomat Arvid Bernhard Horn was born at Vuorentaka Manor in Halikko (now Salo, Finland). He was the son of Gustaf Horn af Kanckas (1627–1673) and his wife Anna Helena von Gertten (1640–1709). After completing his studies at the Royal Academy of Turku, he entered the Royal Swedish Army and served for several years in the Netherlands, in Hungary under Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736), and in Flanders under Prince Georg Friedrich of Waldeck (1690–1695). Horn stood high in the favour of King Charles XII of Sweden and was one of his foremost generals in the earlier part of the Great Northern War, being the captain lieutenant over the Drabant Corps since 1696. In 1704 he was entrusted with his first diplomatic mission, the deposition of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and the election of King Stanislaus I, King of Poland. This mission. he accomplished with distinguished ability but absolute unscrupulousness. Shortly afterwards he was besieged by Augustus in Warsaw and compelled to surrender. Politician In 1705 Horn was made a Privy Councillor and in 1706 a count. In 1708, he was given oversight of Charles XII's nephew, Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1700–1739), who was under the guardianship of his grandmother Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp (1636–1715) following the death of his mother Hedvig Sophia of Sweden (1681–1708).