Georg Lybecker
Georg Lybecker (* unknown; † June 4, 1718 in Vårsta ) was a Swedish baron and most recently lieutenant general in the Swedish army .
family
Georg was the son of the Swedish major general and governor of Gothenburg , Kristianstad and Bohuslän Georg Henrik Lybecker and his wife Catharina Grisebach. He also had a brother named Hans Philip. In 1707 he was taken over by the Swedish King Charles XII. raised to baron.
Military background
In 1682 Lybecker was a captain in the Swedish cavalry . During the Great Northern War , he first made a name for himself in the Battle of Klissow . In 1703 he rose to the rank of major and was made lieutenant colonel of the cavalry the following year . In 1705 he drove the Polish and Saxon troops from Łowicz .
In 1706 he was appointed governor of Vyborg and major general of the cavalry.
After the removal of General Georg Johann Maydell , he was declared governor of Finland in 1707 . His job was to protect Finland against the Russian attacks. This task turned out to be difficult because the Swedish occupation in Finland was weak and poorly equipped. In 1708 Lybecker led his forces on an expedition to Ingermanland with the intention of dividing and defeating the Russian forces . After initial success, Lybecker was deceived by the Russian General Apraxin with a trick. In a bogus letter to a friend, he wrote that an army of 40,000 men was moving directly towards Lybecker. The Swedish major general evacuated his troops by sea without having made contact with the Russians. For this he was severely reprimanded by the Swedish government.
In the same year he was made lieutenant general and relieved of his office as governor of Finland. His successor was Carl Gustaf von Nieroth . After his sudden death in 1712, he was reappointed governor of Finland. Again he proved to be unsuitable for the defense of the Swedish province. He made no attempt to prevent Russian troops from landing on the south coast of Finland. In May 1713 the city of Helsingfors, defended by General Carl Gustaf Armfelt , fell . Lybecker, who shied away from an open fight against the Russians, withdrew to northern Finland.
Lybecker was ordered back to Stockholm in the autumn of 1713 and then brought before a court martial . Carl Gustaf Armfelt took over the command of the troops in Finland.
After a lengthy process in which the bishop of Turku (Åbo Johannes Gezelius the Younger ) testified against him, Lybecker could not prove personal cowardice and betrayal of the Swedish people. After the King of Sweden returned from his exile in Turkey, the trial against Lybecker was discontinued. In the counter-trial initiated by Lybecker for damages against the bishop, a statement he made to the bishop as commander-in-chief led to his undoing. He said literally: "If the devil does not take the king, we will not get peace!"
Based on this statement, Lybecker was sentenced to "loss of life, honor and property" in 1717. He was on New Year's Day 1718 by King Charles XII. pardoned and retired to his estate in Vårsta, where he died on June 4th of the same year.
literature
- Rühs, Friedrich: Finland and its residents , Leipzig (1809), digitized
- Knut Lundblad: History of Karl the Twelfth, King of Sweden Volume 2. Hamburg, Friedrich Perthes, (1835), digitized
- Hoffmann, Peter: Peter the Great as a military reformer and general , Frankfurt am Main, (2010)
- Fryxell, Anders: History of Karl the Twelfth , Leipzig, (1860), digitized
- Anton von Stierman, however, does not, in the register of Öfwer Swea rikes ridderskap och adel , p. 143 (1754) digitized version 119
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lybecker, Georg |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish baron and lieutenant general in the Swedish army |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 4, 1718 |
| Place of death | Vårsta |