Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve (1678, Samsø

Samsø

Samsø is a Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 4,300 inhabitants called Samsingers and is 114 km² in area. Due to its central location, the island was used during the Viking Age as a meeting place...

 – December 1719) 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...

 navy Admiral and Governor of Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

. He was an acknowledged illegitimate son of Christian V of Denmark

Christian V of Denmark

Christian V , was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 to 1699, the son of Frederick III of Denmark and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

 and Sophie Amalie Moth

Sophie Amalie Moth

Sophie Amalie Moth, Countess of Samsø was Christian V of Denmark’s acknowledged official lover. She was the first officially acknowledged royal mistress in Denmark.-Biography:...

.

Life

When Gylenløve was 6 years old, his father appointed him Governor of Iceland, then a Danish possession, a position that he held until his death, although he never visited the country.

Although Frederick IV of Denmark

Frederick IV of Denmark

Frederick IV was the king of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederick was the son of King Christian V of Denmark and Norway and Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel .-Foreign affairs:...

 strongly distrusted nobility, his half-brother, Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve

Gyldenløve

Gyldenløve is the name of two important noble families in Danish and Norwegian history. The first Gyldenløve family belonged to the Norwegian high nobility...

 became Lieutenant General Admiral of the Danish Fleet in 1697, ultimately going on to become Commander-in-Chief of the Navy

Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy

The Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy or The Common Fleet also known simply as the Danish Navy was the naval force of the united kingdoms Denmark and Norway from 1509 to 12 April 1814. The fleet was established when the Royal Danish Navy and the Royal Norwegian Navy was combined by King Hans, when he...

. He is also recognized as the founder of the Royal Danish Naval Academy

Royal Danish Naval Academy

The Royal Danish Naval Academy educates and commissions all officers for the Royal Danish Navy...

.

By the outbreak of the Great Northern War

Great Northern War

The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...

 General-Admiral Gyldenløve and the fleet were ready for the confrontation, but to no avail. The allied fleets of Sweden, Britain and Holland sailed into the Øresund, and, since they severely outnumbered the Danish fleet (61 ships of the line against 21), prevented the Danish fleet from interdicting the Swedish troop transports. Under the cover of these combined fleets, Charles XII of Sweden

Charles XII of Sweden

Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...

 put troops ashore and bombarded Copenhagen, thus ending the early Danish participation in the Great Northern War.

By 1709, when the war resumed, Gyldenløve had risen in the organization. Under his command, late in the autumn of 1712 the North Squadron joined with the Baltic fleet. Lord High Admiral Gyldenløve had gathered the fleet to support a siege of Stralsund. This fleet attacked the Swedish fleet while they were offloading transports on 29 September; Gyldenløve's fleet fired 80 transport ships, making it impossible for Sweden to relieve Stralsund

Stralsund

- Main sights :* The Brick Gothic historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.* The heart of the old town is the Old Market Square , with the Gothic Town Hall . Behind the town hall stands the imposing Nikolaikirche , built in 1270-1360...

. This represented a notable victory. The fleet played a continued role in the siege of Stralsund, ultimately resulting in the loss of the city and the flight of Charles XII to Sweden.

Ancestry

Sources

• Admiral Thunderbolt, by Hans Christian Adamson, Chilton Company, 1959.
• Dansk biografisk Lexikon / VI. Bind, by Carl Frederik Bricka (1887-1905)