1663: Gustav Skytte, pirate
April 27th, 2020 Headsman
On this date in 1663, the Swedish pirate Gustav Skytte caught a fusillade.
A nobleman of illustrious lineage* during the height of Sweden’s great-power glory, Skytte (English Wikipedia entry | Swedish) larped as a murderous buccaneer with some cronies from 1657, when he hijacked a Dutch ship.
The Baltic swash he buckled for the next several years from his secret refuge in Blekinge recommended him in time as the focus of a Romantic-era novel by Viktor Rydberg, The Freebooter of the Baltic. (You’ll need your Swedish fluency.)
He was survived by his 18-year-old sister and her husband, who had both been partners in his piratical enterprise but were able to flee to Denmark. They suffered property confiscation but were permitted to return to Sweden in 1668.
* His grandfather was a tutor of the great King Gustavus Adolphus.
On this day..
- 1877: James Singleton, Beeville character - 2019
- 1827: Joseph Sollis, the sheriff unmanned - 2018
- 1896: Carl Feigenbaum, the Ripper abroad? - 2017
- 1803: Michael Ely, personator - 2016
- 1889: The first executions in French-occupied Tunis - 2015
- 1883: Henry De Bosnys, bane of Elizabeths - 2014
- 1940: Wilhelm Kusserow, Jehovah's Witness - 2013
- 1945: German soldiers for cowardice - 2012
- 1649: Robert Lockyer, Leveller - 2011
- 1792: Jacob Johan Anckarström, assassin of Gustav III - 2010
- 1995: Nie Shubin. Oops. - 2009
- 1733: William Gordon, almost cheating death - 2008
Entry Filed under: 17th Century,Arts and Literature,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,History,Nobility,Piracy,Pirates,Shot,Sweden
Tags: 1660s, 1663, april 27, gustav skytte
