Nils Brahe

Who was Nils Brahe?

Count Nils Brahe was a Swedish soldier and younger brother of Per Brahe. He served with distinction under King Gustavus Adolphus, who regarded him as the best general in the Swedish army after Lennart Torstenson.

Brahe was born at Rydboholm Castle in Uppland. He took part in the Polish-Swedish Wars, in which he first participated in the siege and capture of Riga, and later served with distinction in Poland and assisted in the defence of Stralsund in 1628. On April 16, 1628 he married baroness Anna Margareta Bielke at the Stockholm castle, at double wedding, when also his elder brother count Peder Brahe married Kristina Katarina Stenbock.

In 1630 he accompanied Gustavus into Germany, in the Thirty Years' War and in 1631 was appointed colonel of "the yellow regiment," the king’s world-renowned life-guards, at the head of which he captured the castle of Würzburg on October 8, 1631. Brahe took part in the long duel between Gustavus and Wallenstein around Nuremberg as general of infantry, and commanded the left wing at Lützen on November 6, 1632, where he was the only Swedish general officer present.