Person · Danish admiral & envoy · Denmark
Ove Gjedde
Also known as Ove Giedde, Ove Gedde
The twenty-six-year-old admiral Christian IV sent east in 1618 with five ships and no clear brief, who arrived off the Coromandel with most of his men dead and negotiated a treaty with Raghunatha Nayak of Thanjavur on 20 November 1620 for the village of Tranquebar and the right to build a fort on it.
- Date
- 1594–1660
- Function
- Military & resistance
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 11.029, 79.856
Worth knowing
Two of the five ships were lost and roughly two-thirds of the crews died on the outward voyage. He left India in 1622, having founded a colony that outlasted every other Danish overseas venture, and later commanded the Danish fleet against Sweden.
About the place
Placed at Tranquebar, where he negotiated the 1620 grant and laid out Fort Dansborg before sailing home.
Connections (1)
- Imperial administration ofThe Nāyaka successor states
Gjedde's treaty of November 1620 was made with Raghunatha Nayak of Thanjavur, one of the Telugu warrior houses that had ruled the Tamil country since Vijayanagara's collapse at Talikota. The Nayaka granted a village and an annual rent, not sovereignty, and Danish Tranquebar was legally a tenancy under a south Indian kingdom for its first century.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Ove Gjedde”. The Danish–Thanjavur treaty of 20 November 1620, Rigsarkivet Copenhagen; Ole Feldbæk, India Trade under the Danish Flag 1772–1808 (1969).
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