Bernard of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (31 January 1639 – 13 January 1676 in

Plön Plön (; Holsatian: ''Plöön'') is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 8,700 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on ...

) was a Danish

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

. He was the fourth son of Joachim Ernest, the reigning duke of Holstein-Plön, and his wife Dorothea Augusta of Gottorp. Joachim Ernest had his son trained militarily and Bernhard became a colonel in the Spanish service at first. In 1672, he was the commander of the Brunswick-Lüneburg infantry defending, with imperial troops, the city of

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

against the advancing French troops and troops of Prince-Bishop

Christoph Bernhard von Galen Christoph Bernhard Freiherr von Galen (12 October 1606, Drensteinfurt – 19 September 1678) was Prince-bishop of Münster. He was born into a noble Westphalian family. Background, education and conversion to Roman Catholicism Christoph Bernh ...

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

. In August 1675 he returned to Plön, where he took command of the troops there. Denmark was preparing the

Pomeranian campaign of 1675 Pomeranian is an adjective referring to the historical region of Pomerania, which is today divided between Poland and Germany. Peoples and cultures * Pomeranian Balts, ancient western Baltic people * Pomeranian culture, an Iron Age culture of ...

, and on 25 October 1675, he was appointed Major General in the Danish army. He died of a sudden fever in 1676 in Plön. He was succeeded as commander of the Danish troops by his older brother John Adolphus.''Die Allgemeine Welthistorie durch eine Gesellschaft von Gelehrten'', vol. 14, p. 477
Online
/ref> He was not married.

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Footnotes

17th-century Danish military personnel 1639 births 1676 deaths Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön {{Germany-duke-stub