Baron Fritz Wedel Jarlsberg
Baron Frederik (Fritz) Hartvig Herman Wedel Jarlsberg (7 July 1855– 27 July 1942) was a Norwegian aristocrat, jurist and diplomat. Fredrik Wedel Jarlsberg was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Baron Frederik Joachim Wedel Jarlsberg (1819–1880) and Baroness Juliane Wedel Jarlsberg (1818–1872). On both his father and mother side, he was a member of a branch of Norway's foremost nobility. He maintained the title of baron in Denmark, which had not abolished nobility titles following the separation of Denmark-Norway. Earlier in Norway, his family was officially recognised as barons. He studied law at the University of Christiania and graduated Cand.jur. in 1879. He first became a professor and then entered diplomacy service. He was Norwegian-Swedish Minister in Madrid 1891–97 and 1902–05. In 1882 Wedel became secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. He came to Vienna in 1885 and in 1888 to London as Chargé d'affaires. He became a Swedish-Norwegian minister in the Spanish court in 1891. He was active in Norwegian-Swedish diplomacy and played a central role in the 1905 dissolution of the union between these countries. He was offered the post as minister of foreign affairs three times. He played a key role in securing the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, which granted Norway sovereignty over Svalbard. From 1898 to 1908, he established residence at Palsgård on the east coast of the Jutland. In his time as owner, a large park was built between 1898 and 1900 by the English landscape architect Edward Milner (1819–
1884). Wedel Jarlsberg was married twice. In 1883 he married Alice Thekla Louise von Wagner (1861–1913) who was a member of one of Germany's industrial families. In 1916, as a widower, he married an American heiress, Mary von André, née Palmer (1859–1941). He was the author of Reisen gjennem Livet (1932) and 1905 og Kongevalget (1946). He became a knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1892 and also held a number of foreign orders. Wedel Jarlsberg Land on the southwestern part of Spitsbergen in Svalbard is named after him.
Svea Life Guards, the Swedish Army's first guard infantry regiment, originated from the Trabant Corps that surrounded the first Vasa Kings and is said to have been formed in 1526. The Trabant Corps seems to have, at least in part, been included in the enlisted regiment established in 1613, which consisted mostly of Germans, which under the names of the King's Life and Court Regiment (Konungens liv- och hovregemente), the Yellow Regiment (Gula regementet) and the Yellow Brigade (Gula brigaden) participated in Gustavus Adolphus' campaign in Germany. The regiment's first two companies formed the king's lifeguard and consisted mostly of Swedes. The 60 survivors of the guard after the Battle of Lützen, followed the king's corpse to Sweden, after which the guard, whose staff has been increased to 148 men, united in 1644 with one established regiment in the Baltic governorates and one established regiment in Svealand into a large court regiment of which Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie was the commander. Most of the regiment was disbanded after 1660, but the part still in Sweden was developed into a Guard or Court Regiment. Eventually increased to 24 companies, it participated in Charles XII's War and was lost after the Battle of Poltava, but was then reestablished. The Life Guards as the regiment then was commonly known, was given the name Svea Guards (Svea garde) in 1792. The regiment had its barracks at Fredrikshov Castle in Östermalm, Stockholm from 1802. In
1808 it lost for a short time its dignity of being a guard and was then called Fleetwood's Enlisted Regiment (Fleetwoodska värvade regementet). It was in 1809 again called Svea Guards (Svea garde) and received the name Svea Life Guards (Svea livgarde) the same year. From having been divided into 10 companies of 80 men, the regiment was in 1831 divides into eight companies with a total of 820 men. After the Defence Act of 1901, it increased into 12 companies (three battalions) and 1 machine gun company, but its number strength of volunteers was reduced to 555 men (music staff included). Svea Life Guards was an enlisted regiment and its staff, which was stationed in the barracks at Fredrikshov, was permanently employed. In the early 1800s compulsory military service in Sweden was introduced on a modest scale. As a result of the increased multiform unrest in Europe during the 1850s, it increased the conscripts appropriated exercise period from 12 to 30 days, spread over the first two years of conscript military service. These exercises took place during the summer. However, when the space in the barracks was too small to accommodate these conscripts, they were placed in bivouac shelters at Ladugårdsgärdet. The cramped space at Fredrikshov and the unhygienic conditions there and the ever-increasing need to place conscripts in barracks, forced the decision on the construction of modern barracks for the two foot guards regiments, Svea Life Guards and Göta Life Guards. It was decided that the plateau above Fredrikshov, was the most well-situated location for the barracks, adjacent to the large practice field, which northern Djurgården then still was. Palace intendant, Professor Ernst Jacobsson, was instructed to carry out the drawings and in the autumn of 1888 Svea Life Guards could during great celebrations, led by their head, King Oscar II, take possession of their new barracks.
The Count of Wedel-Jarlsberg (also Wedel Jarlsberg) is a title of the Norwegian nobility and of the Danish nobility. The family of Wedel-Jarlsberg is a branch of the larger family von Wedel, which comes from Pomerania, Germany. Family members have had a significant position in the 18th and 19th centuries' Norwegian history. Feudal Count Johan Caspar Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg played in 1814 an active role in the constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll, and was the first native Norwegian to hold the post of Governor-general of Norway (representing the absent king as head of the Norwegian cabinet) during the union with Sweden. The family's oldest known ancestors lived in Pomerania, but it is assumed that the family originated in Holstein and that is named for Wedel, a small town (now a suburb) just
outside Hamburg. Gustav Wilhelm von Wedel (1641–1717) entered the service of Denmark–Norway and became commanding general in Norway in 1681. He bought the estate of Jarlsberg and received the title of count in 1684. Among his descendants were count Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg, a noted politician in the first part of the 19th century. Several members of the Wedel-Jarlsberg family, and mainly younger sons and daughters of the count, had baronial dignity. The 1821 Law of Nobility abolished noble privileges and the recognition of noble titles in Norway, but, however, allowed the current bearers to keep the recognised noble status and titles for their lifetime. Thus, the title Feudal Count of Wedel-Jarlsberg did not end until the death of Feudal Count Peder Anker Wedel-Jarlsberg (1809–1893). Jarlsberg Manor three kilometres northwest of the centre of the town of Tønsberg in Vestfold, Norway has traditionally been the residence of members of the Wedel-Jarlsberg family.
Awards: Collar, sash and star of the Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav (Norwegian: Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden).
