KARL GUSTAV VON

WRANGEL (1613-1676)  , Swedish soldier, was descended from a family of Esthonian origin, branches of which settled in Sweden, Russia and Germany . His father, Hermann von Wrangel (1587-1643), was a Swedish field marshal in Gustavus Adolphus's wars . Karl Gustav was born near Upsala on the 23rd of December 1613, and at the age of twenty distinguished himself as a cavalry captain in the war against the Army of the League . Three years later he was colonel, and in 1638 major-general, still serving in Germany . In 1644 he commanded a fleet at sea, which defeated the Danes at Fehmarn on the 23rd of October . In 1646 he returned to Germany as a field marshal and succeeded Torstensson as commander-in-chief of the Swedish army in Germany, which post he held during the last three campaigns of the Thirty Years' War . Under Wrangel and Turenne the allied Swedish and French armies marched and fought in Bavaria and Wurttemberg . At the outbreak of a fresh Polish war in 1655 Wrangel commanded a fleet, but in 1656 he was serving on land again and commanding, along with the Great Elector of Brandenburg, in the three days' battle of Warsaw . In 16J7 he invaded Jutland and in 1658 passed over the ice into the islands and took Kronborg . In 1657 he was appointed admiral and in 1664 general of the realm, and as such he was a member of the regency during the minority of Charles XI . But his last campaign was unfortunate . Commanding, ineffectively owing to his broken health, in the war against Brandenburg, he was recalled after his stepbrother Waldemar, Freiherr von Wrangel (1647-1676), had been defeated at Fehrbellin .

He died at Riigen shortly afterwards, on the 5th of

July 1676 .