Otto Wilhelm von Fersen

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Otto Wilhelm von Fersen
Otto Wilhelm von Fersen's grave monument in Reval Cathedral

Otto Wilhelm von Fersen , also von Versen , (* 1623 in Reval ; † April 23, 1703 in Kurnal near Reval ) was a Swedish field marshal .

Life

Fersen came from the German-Baltic noble family von Fersen . His parents were the Estonian heir to Rayküll , Hermann von Fersen († after 1630) and his wife Margarethe, born von Anrep from the Haehl family , daughter of the Swedish field marshal Reinhold Anrep († 1602).

Fersen began his career in 1642 as a court squire, joined the Swedish army as a cornet in 1643 and took part in the Torstensson War and the Thirty Years' War . After that he was briefly in French service, but returned to Swedish services as chamberlain in 1654 . Here he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the life guard in 1655 and to colonel in 1657. Together with his cousin Fabian von Fersen , he fought with distinction in the Second Northern War on the Swedish side against Denmark and Poland .

In 1660, after the Peace of Oliva , he left the Swedish army and devoted himself to the management of his estates. Soon he was elected district administrator in Estonia and, as such, was also a member of the local Supreme Court. When he was sent to Stockholm by the Estonian Knighthood in 1672 , he was persuaded to re-join the army. He became major general in 1672, then lieutenant general in the Finnish cavalry in 1674. 1674 he was with his brother and two cousins as Baron of Crone Dahl in the Swedish baron lifted . In 1676 in the Battle of Lund he was badly wounded and was taken prisoner by Denmark, but was soon exchanged to take part in the Swedish campaigns in Prussia in 1678 .

After the fighting ended, Fersen withdrew to his estates for over ten years. In 1691 he was appointed governor general of Narwa , Ingermanland and Kexholm . In 1693 he was appointed field marshal . In 1698 he finally resigned from the Swedish civil service.

He died in 1703 on his Kurnal estate near Reval and was buried in Reval Cathedral.

family

Otto Wilhelm von Fersen married Gertrud von Uexküll in 1669 , with whom he had five daughters, four of whom survived him:

  1. Margarethe Elisabeth von Fersen (1669–1710) ⚭ 1691 Heinrich von Bistram (1667–1724), Swedish lieutenant colonel;
  2. Gertrude Wilhelmine von Fersen (1670–1727) ⚭ Johann Gustav von der Osten-Sacken (1667–1717), Swedish lieutenant colonel;
  3. Juliane Helene von Fersen (1673–1755), ⚭ (1) 1691 Jürgen Johann von Wrangel (1657–1709), stayed in front of Poltava , ⚭ (2) 1719 Johann Heinrich von Schlippenbach (1679–1748), Swedish lieutenant colonel;
  4. Christina Eleonore von Fersen (1679–1704) ⚭ 1702 Otto Fabian von Wrangell (1655–1726), Estonian knight captain, district administrator and historian.

See also

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Fersen, Otto Wilhelm von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish field marshal
DATE OF BIRTH 1623
PLACE OF BIRTH Reval
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1703
Place of death Kurnal at Reval