Corfits Mogensen Ulfeldt (died 1644) was a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 naval officer, a cousin of the much more famous traitor Corfitz Ulfeldt (1606–1664). He is known in the annals of whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 as the man who drove the French out of Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

. Ulfeldt later fought (and died) in the Torstenson War.

Family

Ulfeldt was the son of Council of State member and Rigsadmiral (High Admiral) Mogens Ulfeldt (1569-1616) and Anne Christensdatter Lange (Munk). He had a sister and at least two brothers: Anne Mogensen Ulfeldt (1598-1655), Jacob Mogensen Ulfeldt and Christian Mogensen Ulfeldt. He was married to Else Andersdatter Thot (d. 1652), widow of Hans Lindenov.

Career

In 1624 the king, Christian IV

Christian IV of Denmark

Christian IV was the king of Denmark-Norway from 1588 until his death. With a reign of more than 59 years, he is the longest-reigning monarch of Denmark, and he is frequently remembered as one of the most popular, ambitious and proactive Danish kings, having initiated many reforms and projects...

, wrote to Ulfeldt and his brothers, encouraging them to travel abroad. In order to cover travel expenses, they had to sell their father's Selsø estate. In 1631 Ulfeldt sold a manor in Bonderup; two years later he pledged his mother's Tvis and Krogsdal estates. On July 9, in the same year he sold the latter estates, he was commissioned as a ship's captain. In July 1634 he was made Admiral of the Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

, and was ordered to seize any Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 ships he came across between Øresund and Helgoland. In October he was ordered to remain on the Elbe through the winter with Nældebladet and Skiens Galej, while Hummeren ("The Lobster"), Havhesten ("Sea Horse") and Kronegalej were to return to Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

. In 1635 he spent a month recruiting seamen.

In March 1637 Ulfeldt received orders to convoy the Danish whaling

History of whaling

The history of whaling is very extensive, stretching back for millennia. This article discusses the history of whaling up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986....

 fleet to Spitsbergen in the man-of-war De To Løver ("The Two Lions"), as well as to reassert Christian IV's claim of sovereignty over the land. Ulfeldt, with support from the fleet, seized some 600 barrels of whale oil and 60 barrels of baleen from the French ships under Petrissans de Larralde anchored in Port Louis (Hamburgbukta

Hamburgbukta

Hamburgbukta is a one-kilometer-long bay on the western side of Hoelhalvøya, Albert I Land, Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago. -History:...

) before driving them out of their harbor. In July of the same year he also met a French ship on the open sea at 78° N, the Fleur of Ciboure

Ciboure

Ciboure is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.It lies across the river Nivelle from the harbour of Saint-Jean-de-Luz....

, under Dominique Daguerre, which had been hunting whales between 73° and 76° N. Ulfeldt brought it to Copenhagen Bay (Kobbefjorden

Kobbefjorden

Kobbefjorden is a small fjord on the west coast of Danskøya, on the northwestern coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. The fjord is about two miles long and 1-1.2 miles wide...

), where about 400 barrels of blubber and 100 quintals of baleen were confiscated. The following spring he again received orders to convoy the fleet, this time with three ships: De Tre Løver, Lammet, and Stokfisken. He again seized the French ships’ goods (559 casks of oil and over 9,000 lbs of baleen) and drove them out of Port Louis, which the Danes renamed Ulfeldt's Bay in his honor. His actions led the French to temporarily abandon Hamburgbukta. Ulfeldt also detained two Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 ships, the Sanct Pieter, under Claes Melchiorsz, and the Eenhoorn, under Adriaen Ollebrantsz, for over a month in Copenhagen Bay, but they were later released after a brief battle between Ulfeldt and the rest of the Dutch whaling fleet. The Dutch complained bitterly against this treatment. Three years of negotiations followed, resulting in the two countries agreeing to cease hostilities in Spitsbergen. Ulfeldt's cruises were the last in a two-and-a-half decade long struggle between European whalers there.

In May 1640 he was appointed captain of Lindormen, and on August 5 was made Admiral of the former ship and Lammet, which were to sail to England with envoys. At Flækkerø (present-day Flekkerøya, an island off Kristiansand

Kristiansand

-History:As indicated by archeological findings in the city, the Kristiansand area has been settled at least since 400 AD. A royal farm is known to have been situated on Oddernes as early as 800, and the first church was built around 1040...

) Lammet struck a rock; later a storm separated the two ships for three days and nights. Ulfeldt was able to ride it out anchored off the English coast. He received a pay raise of 50 dalers later the same month. In 1641, from April 17 to September 13, Ulfeldt was at sea. In the Battle of Colberger Heide

Battle of Colberger Heide

The naval Battle of Colberger Heide took place on 1 July 1644 during the Danish-Swedish War , off northern Germany...

 (July 1, 1644), in which the king so famously lost an eye, Ulfeldt served aboard De Tre Kroner ("The Three Crowns") as Vice-admiral of Pros Mund

Pros Mund

-Early life:Pros Mund was the son of Niels Mund of Bjerkevoldand Ingeborg Prosdatter Hørb. He became naval lieutenant in 1624 and was promoted to captain in 1628...

's squadron. He again served under Mund in the Battle of Fehmarn

Action of 13 October 1644

The Action of 13 October 1644 took place north-west of the island of Fehmarn, now part of Germany, in the Baltic Sea. A combined Swedish fleet, with a large element of hired Dutch ships, defeated a Danish fleet and took 1000 prisoners, including Ulfeldt, Grabov and von Jasmund...

 off Lolland

Lolland

Lolland is the fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of 1,243 square kilometers . Located in the Baltic sea, it is part of Region Sjælland...

 (October 13, 1644) as Rear-Admiral aboard Stormarn. During the battle his ship ran aground. Ulfeldt was killed while defending it against capture by the Swedes

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

He was buried at the Tapdrup Church near Viborg

Viborg, Denmark

Viborg , a town in central Jutland, Denmark, is the seat of both Viborg municipality and Region Midtjylland. Viborg is also the seat of the Western High Court, the High Court for the Jutland peninsula...

.