Povel Huitfeldt

Povel Ottesen Huitfeldt (Povel Huitfeldt, Pouel Huitfeldt or Paul Huitfeldt, c. 1520 – 21 September 1592) was the first Danish-Norwegian Governor-general of Norway. Early career Around 1548, records show that Huitfeldt was with his brother Christoffer, the bailiff at Bergenhus Fortress, in Bergen. In the summers of 1552–54 and over the winter of 1554–55, he served as the king's representative on Iceland. Accompanied by a military force, he completed the conversion of Icelanders to the Lutheran faith after the last Catholic bishop, Jon Arason, had been executed in 1550. Huitfeldt's wife had been a lady-in-waiting to Christian III of Denmark’s Queen Dorothea, and between 1556–59, Huitfeldt served as sheriff at Copenhagen Castle. In 1559-63 the widowed Queen granted him Koldinghus, the last of the ancient royal castles in Jutland, which was hers to award since she had the right to the income there as widow of a king. Seven Years' War As the Kalmar Union broke down, Erik XIV in Sweden and Frederik II in Denmark were at odds. On 13 August 1563, Denmark and Lübeck emissaries declared war in Stockholm. During the Northern Seven Years' War, Huitfeldt was in charge of Halmstad, a port town in the then-Danish province of Halland, which he held during a siege by Swedish forces in the autumn of 1563. Danish King Fredrik II attacked the only Swedish port on the west coast, Älvsborg, advancing from Halland with an army 25,000 strong and captured Sweden's gateway to the west with three days of bombardment followed by a 6 hour assault on 4 September. This achieved the Danish aim of cutting off Sweden from the North Sea, blocking critical salt imports. Erik XIV then countered by attacking Halmstad in October, managing to breach the walls with artillery, but two assaults were beaten back. Governor-General of Norway