Magdalena Stenbock

Magdalena Stenbock (14 September 1649 – 24 January 1727), was a politically active Swedish countess and salon holder. She was married to Council President Count Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna. She was recognized as an important contact by foreign diplomats and promoted an anti-French and pro-Austrian policy through her spouse and his office.

Magdalena Stenbock was born to Count Erik Stenbock, a descendant to Queen Catherine Stenbock, and Catharina von Schwerin. In 1667, she married riksråd count Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna, who was appointed Council President in 1680. Her family belonged to the most powerful in Sweden, and she had a strong position at court through her connections: her stepmother Occa Johanna von Riperda srved as Mistress of the Robes in 1671-80, her sister, Hedvig Eleonora Stenbock, served as maid of honor to the queen, and her three nieces also served as maid of honors, among them Beata Sparre, who became influential in her own right.

Stenbock came to play an influential role in politics during the tenure of her spouse in office. During the 1680s and 1690s, Magdalena Stenbock and Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna played a similar role as Christina Piper and Carl Piper in the 1700s, and Margareta Gyllenstierna and Arvid Horn in the 1720s and 1730s: that of a married couple acting as political colleagues.

Through her marriage, she was seen as a potential channel to her spouse (and through him the monarch), a role she was very willing to play, and she was courted by diplomats and supplicants. Foreign diplomats pointed her out as a key figure in Swedish politics because of her influence, and an important person to cultivate. Her salon at the family city residence Hessensteinska palatset was a meeting place for foreign ambassadors in Stockholm, were her gambling table was described as a center of Swedish foreign policy, and it was regarded as a privilege to be invited there and to the family country estate Rosersberg Palace. The ambassadors of Austria (Franz Ottokar Starhemberg), Netherlands (Walraven van Heckeren), Lüneburg (Görtz) and Saxony (Senff von Pilsach) were all frequent guests in her salon.

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