Clas Åkesson Tott was a military Field Marshal

Field Marshal

Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...

 (1572) and member of the Privy Council of Sweden

Privy Council of Sweden

The High Council of Sweden or Council of the Realm consisted originally of those men of noble, common and clergical background, that the king saw fit for advisory service...

 (1575).

In the Russo-Swedish War (1554–1557), he was the rittmeister

Rittmeister

Rotamaster was the military rank of a commissioned cavalry officer in charge of a squadron , the equivalent of O3 or Captain, in the German-speaking armies, Austro-Hungarian, Polish-Lithuanian, Russian and some other states.The exact name of this rank maintains a variety of spellings in different...

 of the cavalry squadron Upplandsfanan. He became responsible for the enlistment of army personnel in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, in 1563. At the Battle of Axtorna

Battle of Axtorna

The Battle of Axtorna was fought October 20, 1565 at Axtorna, a little village today in Falkenberg Municipality, Halland County in western Sweden....

, in 1566, he was taken as prisoner of war, but he was released in 1569. As the commander-in-chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

 of Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

 (1572–1574), he defeated the Russians at the Battle of Lode in 1573, before he was displaced by Pontus de la Gardie

Pontus De la Gardie

Pontus De la Gardie was a French nobleman and general in the service of Denmark and Sweden.He was born Ponce De La Gardie in Russol , Languedoc, as a son of Jacques De la Gardie and Catherine de Sainte-Colombe. As a youngster, he wanted to become a priest and was educated in a monastery...

 due to the disastrous outcome of the Siege of Wesenberg (1574)

Siege of Wesenberg (1574)

The Siege of Wesenberg was an abortive Swedish siege of the Russian-held town of Wesenberg in Estonia from January through March 1574, during the Livonian War. The siege is infamous for a brawl and subsequent combat between German and Scottish mercenaries within the besieging army, which claimed...

.

He became the stadtholder

Stadtholder

A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...

 of Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 in 1576, but he fell out of grace with John III

John III of Sweden

-Family:John married his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland , house of Jagiello, in Vilnius on 4 October 1562. In Sweden, she is known as Katarina Jagellonica. She was the sister of king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland...

 which led to his losing his titles in 1589 and his membership in the Privy Council.

Sources

Notes

General reference

• The article Tott, Clas Åkesson in Nationalencyklopedin
  Nationalencyklopedin
  Nationalencyklopedin is the most comprehensive contemporary Swedish language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 1980, which was repaid by December 1990...
  
  (1995).