Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck

Count Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck (5 January 1639 – 5 September 1688) was a Swedish military officer from Minden. He attained the rank of field marshal in 1676, commanded the Battle of Stralsund (1678), and became Governor General for Swedish Pomerania from 1679 to 1687. He was the son of Hans Christoff Königsmarck[1] and the brother of Conrad Christoff Königsmarck. He was also the uncle of Aurora Königsmarck, Amalia Wilhelmina Königsmarck, Philip Christoph Königsmarck and Karl Johann von Königsmarck. Alongside Francesco Morosini, he led the Venetian conquest of the Morea in the early years of the Morean War, and died of the plague during the Siege of Negroponte (1688).

Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck

Early life and education

Königsmarck was born in northern Germany because his mother Agathe von Leesten followed his father on his campaigns. After she settled in Stade in 1645 , she ensured that her son had a good education. Initially, Königsmarck was probably taught by the scholar Johann Heinrich Tonsor, but Esaias von Pufendorf was his preceptor (private tutor). He studied at the University of Jena for over three years, where he became Rector magnificus due to his noble descent. He then briefly visited the universities in Tübingen, Strasbourg, Basel, then the University of Geneva, Blois and Angers and did the Grand Tour that was customary at the time.

Notes

1. Kenneth Meyer Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century (1991), p. 296 note 3; Google Books.