The New International Encyclopædia/Lewenhaupt, Adam Ludvig

751141The New International Encyclopædia — Lewenhaupt, Adam Ludvig

LEWENHAUPT, lā′ven-houpt, Adam Ludvig (1659-1719). A Swedish general. He was born near Copenhagen; studied at Upsala, Lund, Rostock, and Wittenberg; served in the Austrian army against the Turks, and under William III. in Holland; and in 1697 returned to Sweden. In the war waged by Charles XII. against Peter the Great and his allies he was intrusted with the defense of Courland, and defeated the enemy in several engagements (1703-05). Lewenhaupt fought bravely at Poltava in 1709, and after that disastrous battle was forced to surrender the remnant of the Swedish forces to the Russians. He was kept a prisoner in Russia, and he lived in Moscow until his death, in 1719. His memoirs, edited by his son-in-law, were published at Stockholm in 1757.