Simon Grundel-Helmfelt: Field Marshal, Colonel of the Artillery (1649), General of the Infantry (1655), Governor of Riga (1656), Governor General of Ingria (1659) and Commander-in-chief of the Swedish Army (1676)

(25 September 1617 - 14 July 1677)

Early career

Simon Grundel was born to the councilor and mayor of Stockholm Jacob Grundel the elder, noble Grundel, and Elisabeth Depken. His younger half-brother Jacob Grundel (the younger) was also a soldier and later governor.

Grundel began his career in diplomacy when he accompanied the then ambassador Johan Skytte to England in 1634. In 1637 he was then accepted as a chancellor at Silfvercrona and then served in Holland until 1640. Here his military interests were awakened and he studied fortification and conducted intelligence activities for the Swedish state.

Military career

From 1641, Grundel joined Field Marshal Lennart Torstensson's army in Germany during the Thirty Years' War. He initially intended to work with fortification, but soon he was given duties as a manager in the field, which quickly gave him promotions and increased pay. He distinguished himself in the battle of Leipzig in 1642, became a captain in Torstensson's life regiment and then fought in the artillery as a major in Torstensson's rapid campaign against Holstein and Jutland in Denmark, which led to the successful peace of Brömsebro on 13 August 1645 for Sweden.

On returning to the German front, Grundel took part in the Battle of Jankov in 1645 as adjutant-general on Torstenson's staff. After the battle he was appointed lieutenant colonel, and the following year he succeeded Conrad Mardefelt as quartermaster-general of the army and later became commander-in-chief at Stade. At the Battle of Rain in 1646 he was wounded by a musket ball, but returned to the army after the bullet was extracted. After the end of the war in 1649, he was promoted to colonel of the Artillery and in 1653, for excellent merits, he became war councilor.

Charles X Gustav's Polish War (1655–1658)

At the beginning of King Karl X Gustav's war against Poland in 1655, Grundel was appointed major general in the infantry. In 1656 he was appointed governor of Riga. There, during the summer of the same year, he had to endure a Russian siege under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his army of 90,000 men. After a wise and well-executed defense by Grundel, after six weeks the Tsar was forced to lift the siege and retreat with heavy losses. After reinforcements, Grundel was able to clear the rest of Livonia from Poles and Russians.

In 1658, Grundel was promoted to lieutenant general in the infantry and became Field Marshal Robert Douglas's only confidant in the plans to capture Duke Jacob of Courland, and after the coup against Mitau in the autumn of the same year, he had the captured duke quartered in Riga.

Governor-General of Ingermanland (1659–1674)

In 1659 he was appointed governor-general of Ingermanland and Kexholm counties, a fiefdom which ten years later was expanded to include Narva and Ingermanland. In 1668 Grundel was appointed field marshal. In 1673 he became a Privy Councilor and was ordered to take command of the army in Pomerania after the illness of Reich Marshal Carl Gustaf Wrangel. The following year he was elevated to baron with the name Grundel-Helmfelt.

Scanian War (1675–1677)

In 1675, Grundel-Helmfelt was forced by his poor health to visit a German health resort and thus did not have to take part in the troubling campaign against Brandenburg that same year, which ended with the loss at Fehrbellin. Grundel was about to be captured in a Danish coup, but managed to escape and came to England to go from there to Gothenburg in April 1676. He returned to Stockholm to be appointed by King Karl XI to be commander-in-chief of the Swedish army in Scania.

Grundel-Helmfelt led the retreat from Skåne in the summer of 1676 and was in command at the Battle of Halmstad on 17 August of the same year. Later in December, Grundel played a large part in the decisive victory over King Christian V at the Battle of Lund, whose Danish army was numerically superior. During the final battle, he showed great humanity in that he stopped the Swedish massacre of Danish and Dutch prisoners of war in the meadows between Nöbbelöv and Vallkärra, after the victory had been won.

On 14 July 1677, Grundel-Helmfelt took part in the Battle of Landskrona. He led a charge at the head of the squadrons of the rear strike, but he had his horse shot from under him and his squadrons were driven off by the superior force of the Danes. He got tangled in the stirrups and a Danish lieutenant appeared at his side. This rejected his request for pardon, killed him and looted his body.

Funeral

According to a story that comes from the chronicler Sthen Jacobsen, Grundel-Helmfelt's body was never found on the battlefield, and that another corpse was placed in his coffin. He was buried in May 1678 at the high altar in the Storkyrkan in Stockholm.

Aftermath

Simon Grundel-Helmfelt has been regarded as prudent and economical with the welfare of his troops, as well as a skilled artilleryman who brought the experience and traditions of the Thirty Years' War army to the Carolingian. According to the Italian diplomat Lorenzo Magalotti, Grundel-Helmfelt gave the impression of common sense, good head and personal courage. A street was named after him in the middle of the 20th century in Landskrona.

Grundel-Helmfelt was married to Margareta Hedwig von Parr and left no children. Their three children died during a plague epidemic during his service in Riga. He was a wealthy man and after his death in December 1678 von Parr lent 12,500 dal silver coins to the city of Stockholm. Together they established the Helmfelt scholarship, a fund of 17,000 riksdaler, for the benefit of students at Uppsala University.