Count Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck (5 January 1639 – 5 September 1688) was a Swedish military officer from

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

. He attained the rank of

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

in 1676, commanded the Battle of Stralsund (1678), and became

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

for

Swedish Pomerania Swedish Pomerania ( sv, Svenska Pommern; german: Schwedisch-Pommern) was a dominion under the Swedish Crown from 1630 to 1815 on what is now the Baltic coast of Germany and Poland. Following the Polish War and the Thirty Years' War, Sweden held ...

from 1679 to 1687. He was the son of Hans Christoff KönigsmarckKenneth Meyer Setton, ''Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century'' (1991), p. 296 note 3
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and the brother of Conrad Christoff Königsmarck. He was also the uncle of Aurora Königsmarck,

Amalia Wilhelmina Königsmarck Amalia may refer to: People *Amalia (given name), feminine given name (includes a list of people so named) *Princess Amalia (disambiguation), several princesses with this name Films and television series * ''Amalia'' (1914 film), the first ...

, Philip Christoph Königsmarck and

Karl Johann von Königsmarck Carl Johann von Königsmarck (15 May 1659 – 28 August 1686) was a Swedish count of Brandenburgian extraction and a soldier. Königsmarck was born in Nyborg in Funen, Denmark, as the second son of Count Kurt Christoph von Königsmarck and his wi ...

. Alongside

Francesco Morosini Francesco Morosini (26 February 1619 – 16 January 1694) was the Doge of Venice from 1688 to 1694, at the height of the Great Turkish War. He was one of the many Doges and generals produced by the noble Venetian family of Morosini.Encyclopæd ...

, he led the Venetian conquest of the

Morea The Morea ( el, Μορέας or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman ...

in the early years of the

Morean War The Morean War ( it, Guerra di Morea), also known as the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War, was fought between 1684–1699 as part of the wider conflict known as the "Great Turkish War", between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Military ...

, and died of the plague during the

Siege of Negroponte (1688) The siege of Negroponte (modern Chalkis) was undertaken by the forces of the Republic of Venice from July to October 1688. The Venetian army, composed of several mercenary and allied contingents from western Europe, had succeeded in capturing the ...

Early life and education

Königsmarck was born in northern Germany because his mother Agathe von Leesten followed his father on his campaigns. After she settled in

Stade Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is l ...

in 1645, she ensured that her son had a good education. Initially, Königsmarck was probably taught by the scholar Johann Heinrich Tonsor, but Esaias von Pufendorf was his

preceptor A preceptor (from Latin, "''praecepto''") is a teacher responsible for upholding a ''precept'', meaning a certain law or tradition. Buddhist monastic orders Senior Buddhist monks can become the preceptors for newly ordained monks. In the Buddhi ...

(private tutor). He studied at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

for over three years, where he became Rector magnificus due to his noble descent. He then briefly visited the universities in Tübingen, Strasbourg, Basel, then the University of Geneva, Blois and Angers and did the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

that was customary at the time.

Notes

1639 births 1688 deaths People from Minden Swedish people of German descent Swedish nobility Field marshals of Sweden People from Minden (state) Swedish Pomerania People of the Great Turkish War 17th-century Swedish military personnel People of the Ottoman–Venetian Wars Ambassadors of Sweden to France {{Sweden-mil-bio-stub