(Redirected from Ove Gedde)
'Ove Gjedde' (or Gedde, Giedde) (
27 december 1594 -
19 december 1660), born in
Tommarp in
Scania,
Denmark (now
Sweden), was a Danish admiral and member of the
interim government, following the death of
Christian IV and the harsh restrictions imposed on
Frederick III due to his close ties to
Germany.
In
1618 he commanded an expedition to
Ceylon and India by
Christian IV to make a colony, which made
Tharangambadi a colony in
India for 200 years. Gjedde returned in marts 1622. He participated in the
Torstensson war (1643-1645) as an admiral and in 1645 he was made "admiral of the realm", but in 1648 he got sick, and was instead granted the
fiefdom of
Helsingborg castle.
After the
peace in Roskilde, Denmark lost Scania to Sweden. When the Swedish king
Karl X Gustav broke the peace of 1658, Ove Gjedde was taken prisoner, during a visit to Helsingborg. He was first sent to prison in Helsingborg castle, and later sent to
Malmö. In 1660 he was released during prisoner exchanges between Sweden and Denmark. At the time Gjedde was an old and physically weak man and he had already build a grave mounument in the old Danish city of
Helsingborg, which had now become Swedish. The legend says that, "''His legs after the Roskilde peace, never found rest, after Scania became Swedish''" (
Danish: ''hans ben efter Roskildefreden aldrig fandt hvile, efter Skåne var blevet svensk'')
References
Ove Gjedde