Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein

Baron Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein (25 October 1749 – 9 May 1802) was a Swedish diplomat and courtier, best known as Sweden's ambassador to France during the French Revolution, and as the husband of Madame de Staël.

Early life and career to 1788

Erik Magnus was born on 25 October 1749 at Loddby in Östergötland, the seventh child of Baron Mathias Gustav Staël von Holstein, a scion of an ancient noble family, and a grandnephew of the Swedish field marshal George Bogislaus Staël von Holstein. He began his career as a staff ensign in the Östergötland Infantry Regiment. In 1772, as a reward for his part in Gustav III's coup d'état, he was made a knight of the Order of the Sword and promoted lieutenant in the army; he became a lieutenant in the Södermanland Regiment in 1773 and a staff lieutenant in 1778. During this period he also negotiated the cession of Saint Barthélemy to Sweden and supported a proposal by William Bolts for a Swedish colony in the eastern Indian Ocean. By September 1784 he was already being formally addressed as ambassador in American diplomatic correspondence. The post became permanent only as part of his 1786 marriage settlement so that the impoverished Swedish nobleman would have the standing to become son-in-law to the wealthy financier Jacques Necker.

Acting in this informal capacity, Staël negotiated three agreements in quick succession: a defensive and subsidy alliance with France on 17 May 1793, never ratified; a Swedish-Danish neutrality pact on 27 March 1794; and a further Swedish-French alliance on 14 September 1795. Baronial title formally legitimated in 1788, as a condition of his marriage settlement. Gustava Hedvig, born 1789, died in infancy. Ludvig August, born on 1 September 1790. Died in France in 1827, therefore ending this line of the family. Married 1827 to Adèle Vernet. He was said to have been the biological son of the Comte de Narbonne (1755-1813), himself the reputed unacknowledged illegitimate son of King Louis XV. Mattias Albert, born on 2 October 1792. Ensign in the Cavalry. Killed in a duel on 12 July 1813 at Buchtenberg, in Mecklenburg. Possibly the son of the Comte de Narbonne as well. Albertine Ida Gustavine, born 8 June 1797, died in Paris on 28 September 1838. Married on 20 February 1816 in Pisa to the French Foreign Minister, Victor de Broglie. Her biological father may have been Benjamin Constant.