Niels Ebbesen
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Niels Ebbesen, died November 2, 1340, Danish squire and national hero, known for his killing of Count Gerhard III.
Little is known of Ebbesen’s background. He seems to have belonged to the Jutlandish gentry. Like many other of his class he probably supported the Holstein occupants during the years of chaos but later on he turned against them and when Count Gerhard campaigned in Jutland 1340 Ebbesen at any rate supported the Jutlandish guerrilla. The night of April 1 he and 47 of his warriors entered Randers and hid until nightfall. They got into the Count’s headquarters and entered his bedroom. They cut off the count's head over the end of the bed. Not wanting the kiling to be a secret Ebbesen's men beat a drum and shouted that the Count had been executed. When The Holsteiners gave chase, Ebbesen and his men fled toward the bridge over the Gudenaa River. Svend Trost, one of Ebbesen men had weakend the bridge, and as soon as Ebbesen and his followers crossed the bridge, they pulled the bridge down and made their escape, losing just a single man.[1]
During the following rebellion Niels Ebbesen played a main role in the resistance but he was killed the same year during a fight against the Germans. 2000 Danes laid seige to Skanderborg Castle in April 1340. A relief force of 600 German knights and a simultaneous attack from the castle drove the Danes back into their wagon fortress on Nun Hill. The wagon ring was breached, and Ebbesen and his men were surrounded and butchered by the Germans.[2]
A ballad dealing with the killing of Count Gerhard by Ebbesen is translated in Alexander Gray's Historical Ballads of Denmark (Edinburgh University Press, 1958).
Traditionally Niels Ebbesen has been regarded one of the great heroes of Danish Medieval history, the “tyrant slayer” whose action meant the beginning liberation of Denmark. Yet some also disapproved of his act regarding it as simple murder. Whether his motives were purely national or partly private is impossible to state. This has not prevented that both romantic Danish poetry and modern ballads have praised him as a freedom fighter. A fictive statue representing him was erected 1882 in Randers.
As late as 1942 the dramatist Kaj Munk portrayed him in a play that was prohibited by the Germans.
[edit] References
- Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, vol. 4, Copenh. 1980.
- Politikens Danmarkshistorie, vol. 4 by Erik Kjersgaard, Copenh. 1962.
- Jyske Krønike, transl. by Rikke Agnete Olsen. Aarhus, 1995.
