Povel Huitfeldt
Povel Ottesen Huitfeldt (Povel Huitfeldt, Pouel Huitfeldt or Paul Huitfeldt, c. 1520 – 21 September 1592) was the first Danish-Norwegian Governor-general of Norway. Early career Around 1548, records show that Huitfeldt was with his brother Christoffer, the bailiff at Bergenhus Fortress, in Bergen. In the summers of 1552–54 and over the winter of 1554–55, he served as the king's representative on Iceland. Accompanied by a military force, he completed the conversion of Icelanders to the Lutheran faith after the last Catholic bishop, Jon Arason, had been executed in 1550. Huitfeldt's wife had been a lady-in-waiting to Christian III of Denmark’s Queen Dorothea, and between 1556–59, Huitfeldt served as sheriff at Copenhagen Castle. In 1559-63 the widowed Queen granted him Koldinghus, the last of the ancient royal castles in Jutland, which was hers to award since she had the right to the income there as widow of a king. Seven Years' War As the Kalmar Union broke down, Erik XIV in Sweden and Frederik II in Denmark were at odds. On 13 August 1563, Denmark and Lübeck emissaries declared war in Stockholm. During the Northern Seven Years' War, Huitfeldt was in charge of Halmstad, a port town in the then-Danish province