Jacob von Eggers

In Sweden, he was elevated to the rank of friherre or baron, awarded the Order of the Sword and elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

In 1758 Jacob von Eggers however left both Swedish and Saxon service and settled in Gdańsk, where he would spend the rest of his life as commander of the city's fortifications.

While in Veliky Ustyug in 1713, his mother remarried a Swedish officer in Russian captivity, friherre (baron) Captain Knut Gustaf Sparre [sv], who thus became Jacob's stepfather.

[2] He spent a few years in the Royal Swedish Regiment in France, in order to widen his knowledge abroad, and made a study trip to the Dutch Republic to see the fortifications of Menno van Coehoorn.

In the ensuing War of the Polish Succession, Jacob von Eggers fought on the side of Leszczyński, was promoted to the rank of captain, and participated in the siege of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk).

[2][3] Following the failed campaign, he was commissioned by the King Frederick I of Sweden, who was equally Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, to inspect and improve the fortifications of Rheinfels Castle.

[2] He then spent two years accompanying the Swedish Count Adam Horn af Ekebyholm [sv] on travels to Vienna and Venice, after which he in 1737 spent time as a volunteer in imperial service, fighting in Hungary and Serbia during the Austrian campaign against the Ottoman Empire with field marshal Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff.

[7][8] However, he returned to Sweden at the outbreak of the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743, was initially stationed in Porvoo but later served as adjutant general to Gustaf Fredrik von Rosen (1688–1769) [sv].

During this period he found time to translate and further expand on a German edition of the military dictionary, and published it in Dresden in 1775 with the title Neues Kriegs- Ingenieur- Artillerie- See- und Ritter-Lexicon.

He was awarded the Order of the Sword with the rank of Knight in 1748 (raised to Commander in 1769), was ennobled in 1751 and elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in the same year.

[3] In 1757, the head of the Swedish corps of fortification Gabriel Cronstedt [sv] died, and Jacob von Eggers applied for the position.

[2][8] He later donated his library to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and also presented a collection of fortress models and maps to King Gustav III.

[5] Historian Bengt Hildebrand [sv] called Eggers "one of Europe's foremost military theoreticians" of his time, and emphasised his cosmopolitan career.

Last but not least, with the person of Jacob von Eggers, it recalls one of the now forgotten intellectual officers of that era who, with their belief in reason and science, strove to tame Bellona.

Portrait of Jacob von Eggers by Jacob Wessel [ de ]
Jacob's stepfather Knut Gustaf Sparre [ sv ] . Portrait by Johan Henrik Scheffel .
The assault on Bergen op Zoom in 1747. Jacob von Eggers wrote an account of the siege and fall of the fortress which received much attention.
Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2008. The portrait of Eggers, who was a member of the academy and donated his library to it, is the fourth on top from the right.