Johan Jakob Albert Ehrensvärd (9 May 1867 – 6 March 1940) was a Swedish diplomat. He was Sweden's envoy to Washington D.C between 1910 and 1911. He became Sweden's Foreign Minister in Liberal leader and Prime Minister Karl Staaff's Second Cabinet. As Foreign Minister of Sweden he instituted reforms in the Swedish Foreign Service and worked to ease tensed relations with Czarist Russia.
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Early life and education
Ehrensvärd was born on 9 May 1867 in Gothenburg, Sweden. His father was the politician and civil servant Count Albert Ehrensvärd (1821–1901), who served as minister for foreign affairs from 1885 to 1889. His mother, Ingeborg Hedvig Vogt (1825–1904), was the daughter of Norwegian government minister Jørgen Herman Vogt and Countess Hedvig Lovisa Frölich, and she served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Josephine. He had four siblings: Admiral Carl August Ehrensvärd (1867–1940), Henriette Eleonore Ingeborg Ehrensvärd (born 1853), Anna Louise Dorotée (born 1855), and Augustine Sofia Amalia (1862–1944). His paternal grandfather was Colonel Gustaf Ehrensvärd of the Scanian Dragoon Regiment, and his great-grandfather was Count Carl August Ehrensvärd, a naval officer, art theorist, artist, and architect.
Ehrensvärd completed his school-leaving examination on 27 May 1884 and enrolled at Lund University the same year. He earned a Bachelor of Philosophy degree on 31 May 1887, a Candidate of Law degree on 31 January 1891, and a Licentiate of Law degree in Lund on 24 May 1895. On 31 May 1895, he was awarded a Doctor of Law degree.
Career
Ehrensvärd was appointed extraordinary notary at the Svea Court of Appeal in February 1891 and became vice district judge (vice häradshövding) on 31 May 1894. That same year, he joined the Ministry for Civil Service Affairs as an amanuensis. On 31 January 1896, he was appointed attaché. He then became acting extra legal clerk (fiskal) at the Svea Court of Appeal on 2 October 1898 and was promoted to assessor on 30 October 1903. On 15 September 1905, he was named director general for administrative affairs at the Ministry for Civil Service Affairs. The following year, on 16 February 1906, he was appointed state secretary for foreign affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. His diplomatic career continued with his appointment as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Belgian and Dutch courts on 17 June 1908, and later to Washington, D.C., on 8 October 1910.
On 7 October 1911, Ehrensvärd was named minister for foreign affairs. He resigned from the position on 17 February 1914 and was placed on standby as a minister on 21 February 1914. His diplomatic service resumed when he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation on 12 August 1915, and later to the French Republic on 11 June 1918. On 15 March 1919, he represented Sweden in the negotiations for the League of Nations. That same year, he served as a delegate for the Åland and Spitsbergen questions at the Paris Peace Conference. In 1920, he was a delegate for the Åland Islands dispute the Council of the League of Nations. Ehrensvärd was chairman of the French committee of the Cartesius Foundation in 1931. He left the minister position in Paris and retired in 1934.
Personal life
On 11 April 1917, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Ehrensvärd married Marna Edit Christina Münter (1 November 1869 in Copenhagen – 17 September 1935 in Lund). She was the daughter of the Danish chamberlain and lieutenant commander Alexander Balthasar Herman Jacob Münter and Johanne Elisabeth Johnson.
Death
Ehrensvärd died on 6 March 1940 in Lunds domkyrkoförsamling in Lund, Sweden. He was interred on 10 March 1940 at the Ehrensvärd family grave at Tosterup Cemetery in Smedstorp Parish, Tomelilla Municipality.
Awards and decorations
Swedish
Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star (6 June 1912)
Commander 1st Class of the Order of the Polar Star (6 June 1909)
Commander of the Order of the Polar Star (16 June 1908)
Knight of the Order of the Polar Star (1 December 1905)
King Gustaf V's Olympic Commemorative Medal (1912)
Letterstedtska priset (1923)
Foreign
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1913)
Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog with diamond (18 November 1912)
Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog (2 January 1911)
Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (1910)
Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sava (1908)
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1907)
Commander of the Legion of Honour (1909)
1st Class of the Order of the Medjidie (June 1906)
Knight 1st Class of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (1908)
Knight of the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (1912)
2nd Class of the Order of the Double Dragon (1908)
French Academy Medal
Honorary degrees
Honorary Doctor of Philosophy, Uppsala University (16 September 1927)
Honorary Doctor of Philosophy, University of Strasbourg (1934)
Honorary Doctor of Philosophy, University of Poitiers (1934)