Mauritz Vellingk

Count Mauritz Vellingk , also Welligk or Velligh , (born October 31, 1651 in Jaama in Ingermanland (today's Russia ), † July 10, 1727 in Mjölby , Östergötland län ) was a Swedish diplomat , privy councilor , general and governor general of Bremen-Verden .

family

Mauritz Vellingk was a member of the German-Baltic noble family von Welling . He was born on October 31, 1651 in the Swedish Baltic province of Ingermanland. His father was the Swedish Colonel Otto Vellingk. His mother was Kristina Mannersköld. He had an older brother named Otto Vellingk .

Military career

At the beginning of the Danish War Charles XI. Vellingk was a captain in the body regiment of the widow of Karl X. Gustav the Queen Hedvig Eleonora . With this regiment he was sent to the Norwegian border for national defense during the war.

Together with his brother he took part in the Battle of Lund and was slightly wounded. Both brothers were from Charles XI. in 1676 raised to the baron status. Vellingk was appointed colonel of the Karelian infantry regiment in 1678 . From 1680 onwards he was the Swedish envoy in Copenhagen for two years .

In 1683 he was sent to Lüneburg as an envoy of the Swedish crown . In 1687 he was appointed colonel of a German regiment in Stade and commander of the city. In the following years he tried to mediate in the disputes between the Kingdom of Denmark and the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp .

After the death of the Swedish king Karl XI. he was promoted to major general and a little later in 1698 to lieutenant general. In the same year Vellingk was sent to the court of Elector Augustus the Strong . Mauritz Vellingk, who maintained very close contact with the Saxon monarch, was completely surprised by his attack on the Swedish province of Livonia in 1700. He immediately returned to the Swedish court and was subsequently appointed in command of the fortress Stade . He held this position until 1710.

In the same year he was raised to the rank of general of the infantry and appointed governor of the Hanseatic city of Wismar . He was also the royal privy councilor of Charles XII. and governor general of the two duchies of Verden and Bremen . Furthermore, the Swedish King appointed Vellingk to be the general in command of the Swedish army in Germany.

In 1711 he was made a count and was given the power of the king to decide for himself in all Swedish matters on German soil. However, he soon lost the trust of Charles XII. He suspected that Vellingk was privately enriched and so the powers of attorney were immediately withdrawn from him.

In 1713 Vellingk was the instigator of the cremation of Altona . With his false accusations against the residents of Altona, he caused the Swedish general Count Magnus Stenbock to burn down the city completely. Vellingk denied participation in the run-up to the cremation of Altona throughout his life.

Jug with inscription: "Grefv Maurits Wellingk Ao 1727 the 13th of aug."

After the death of Charles XII. During the siege of Frederikshald in 1719, Vellingk was able to regain the trust of his successor Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel . Mauritz Vellingk interfered in incidents about the succession to the throne in the Duchy of Holstein. His negotiations with the Electorate of Hanover were also a thorn in the side of the king and the land marshal (president) of the state parliament , Arvid Horn . When Vellingk became too arbitrary for the king, he presented the Swedish Reichstag with a loan with the Prussian crown that had supposedly been negotiated on behalf of the Swedish crown. This money had been embezzled by Vellingk. The Reichstag arranged for Vellingk to be arrested and sentenced him to loss of property, honor and life.

The sentence was later reduced and instead his name was deleted from the list of Swedish counts. He was sentenced to the rest of his life imprisoned in Linköping Castle. On the way there, Mauritz Vellingk fell ill and died in Mjölby's inn in 1727 .

literature

• Vellingk, Mauritz . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 705 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Nordisk familjebok