[11][12] Stenbock returned to Maastricht in April 1690, and was immediately commissioned to the front lines in Wallonia in the Spanish Netherlands, where the Swedish auxiliary corps united with the 30,000-strong allied army of Prince Waldeck.

The Margrave commissioned Stenbock to take command of a battalion of 300 men and two cannon, and bring a transport fleet via the river route from the town of Gersheim, 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Mainz, to the allied headquarters at Ladenburg near the Neckar's inflow into the Rhine.

The older sons, Bengt Ludvig and Fredrik Magnus, made their joint peregrination from the Netherlands to Paris in 1712 and were presented to King Louis XIV by the Duke of Noailles and Erik Sparre.

Stenbock also spent time writing a war manual called Den svenska knekteskolan (The Swedish Soldier's School), which described different infantry tactics, march techniques, the use of military barriers, and basic fortification; he never published it.

[27] Before Stenbock was able to move into his new colonel's residence in Näs Kungsgård, close to the Dalälven, his regiment received orders to mobilize and march south to Scania, at the start of the Great Northern War.

The commander of the Russian army, Duke Charles Eugène de Croÿ, and several senior officers surrendered themselves to Stenbock, who personally brought them to the King's camp as prisoners of war.

In the Swedish battle plan, drafted by Rehnskiöld, Carl Magnus Stuart and Erik Dahlbergh, the troops were ordered to collect landing boats near Riga and construct floating batteries.

Pleased with his effort, Charles XII donated 4,000 riksdaler from the contribution to Stenbock as a personal gift and assigned him the role of "le Diable de la Ville" (the Devil of the city).

von Faltzburg was considered an invisible leader due to his weakness, corruption and disinterest, so administrative responsibilities were distributed between various bailiffs and officials, who spent their time in turf wars, despoilments and arbitrary exercises of power, which angered the Scanian peasantry.

In addition to his work within the commission of inquiry, which occupied much of his time, Stenbock combated shifting sand afflicting coastal farms, erected milestones on the royal highways, planted trees to resolve the growing shortage of wood, and hired land surveyors for the necessary provincial measurement.

Thus, I am watchful of my most gracious King and fatherland, and I want to share the danger and pain with you through all ends, thereon, I bear witness to the living God.The Privy Council in Stockholm received the Danish declaration of war on 18 October.

Stenbock was ordered by the Defense Commission to leave Malmö on 9 December to take command of a newly organized Swedish field army, which would march south towards the assembly point at Loshult.

Due to problems with supply chains, Stenbock wanted to carry out a rapid campaign to prevent the Danes from establishing a safe base of operations in southern Sweden, but he was ordered by the Defense Commission to hold his positions in northern Scania before the arrival of the Swedish field army.

Stenbock's movements were a diversion, as he had divided his field army into two columns that marched towards Hästveda and Glimminge, to trick Reventlow by threatening his headquarters in Kristianstad and force him to retreat to Helsingborg.

[92][93] On the morning of 28 February Rantzau and the Danish army of 14,000 men and 32 guns were positioned on a front which stretched 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) north to south from Pålsjö forest and the Ringstorp Height to Husensjö.

Council President Arvid Horn and Field Marshal Nils Gyllenstierna opposed the King's plans and, in spring 1710 ratified a declaration of neutrality with the Western powers of Europe in The Hague, favoring the Swedish dominions in Germany.

Stenbock was supported in this matter by Hans Wachtmeister and Stanisław Leszczyński, who had sought protection in Swedish Pomerania, and was granted an annual appanage by the King, a decision which angered the council.

When Denmark, Russia and Saxony learned of Charles XII's dismissive attitude towards the declaration of neutrality, a Danish army of 30,000 men entered Pomerania through Mecklenburg in August 1711, while Saxon troops marched from the south.

[108][109][110] In mid-June 1712 Stenbock spoke with King Stanisław and the council members Horn and Gyllenstierna in Vadstena, where he presented the financial requirements from Karlskrona for a contribution of 200,000 daler silver coins and 1,500 experienced sailors.

The meeting took place on 11 October in Pütte, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of Stralsund, where Stenbock, together with major generals Georg Reinhold Patkul and Fredrik von Mevius, negotiated with Flemming and his companions, the Russian Master-General of the Ordnance Jacob Bruce and the Danish colonels Bendix Meyer and Poul Vendelbo Løvenørn.

The negotiations, between Stenbock and major general Carl Gustaf Mellin on one side and Flemming, the Russian commander Prince Alexander Menshikov and Colonels Meyer and Løvenørn on the other, took place a few days later in Lüssow.

16,000 Danish troops had set up camp outside Gadebusch's walls under the command of lieutenant general Jobst von Scholten, while King Frederick IV established headquarters in the city's castle.

Stenbock, however, argued that the city's destruction would cause retaliatory action in Swedish Pomerania and Bremen, and that he had promised the people of Holstein that they were safe if they stayed calm and paid contributions.

From the sea, Tönning was blocked by Danish warships, and Stenbock could not expect any help from Charles XII, since he had been informed by Vellingk that the King had been transferred to Demotika following the skirmish at Bender.

Immediately after his arrival, Stenbock began to write yet another defensive statement, this time directed at Görtz and Frederick IV, and addressed to all "revered brothers, loving and highly honored Swedish compatriots".

The coffin was presented to Frederick IV and his councillors; it contained 45 folders of letters from, among others, Charles XII, King Stanisław, Christian August and the ministers of the Ducal Holstein, the Swedish Privy Council, and Vellingk.

[151][152] On 17 November 1714 Stenbock was transferred in a covered wagon to Citadellet Frederikshavn, also known as Kastellet, where Commandant Jacob Peter von Bonar received him and declared that he could no longer communicate with the outside world.

He was forced to dismiss two of his chamber servants who stole valuables from him, and eventually the food served to him by Commandant Bonar's wife became so inedible that Stenbock could only eat bread and drink wine.

[170] Subsequent biographies and memoirs have been written by Anders Magnus Strinnholm in 1821,[171] Emilie Risberg in 1866,[172] Claes Annerstedt in 1906,[173] Samuel Ebbe Bring in 1910,[174] Sven Wikberg in 1931,[175] Ingvar Eriksson in 2007,[176] and Andreas Marklund in 2008.

However, the king sent a telegram for the inauguration, which read: "Although prevented from attending today's memorable feast, I am pleased to say that henceforth, Stenbock's memorial shall adorn Helsingborg's town square, always reminding all descendants to serve and protect this beloved motherland just as he did.