Niels Ebbesen was a member of the Danish lower gentry, and is remembered to this day for starting a rebellion against the German Count Gerhard who ruled half of Denmark in the mid 14th Century.
On April 1, 1340 Niels Ebbesen entered the home in Randers of “Den Kullede Greve” (The Bald Count) as Gerhard was popularly known and cut off his head - “above the bed post” - while the Count was saying his evening prayers.
This event sparked off a peasant revolt against the German rulers and their taxation scheme (there was no unified Danish king in those decades since all of the land was pawned to Germans), but it didn’t go so well for Niels Ebbesen.
His army was cornered near Skanderborg in November 1340 and he was slaughtered with all his men. His corpse was drawn and quartered and put on display, but his surviving supporters stole it and transported it to Vestervig Church where the family plot was situated.
I live 4 miles from that church and often visit the medieval cemetery there. Niels Ebbesen quickly became a national hero and a gathering point for all future Danish-German conflicts (of which there have been many). A folk ballad from the 16th Century, a song by N.F.S. Grundtvig, and a WWII play by Kaj Munk are but some of the texts that have celebrated brave Squire Niels of Thy.
Of course Ebbesen has also been celebrated in art. This canvas is by Agnes Slott-Møller, 1893-4 and is found at Randers Art Museum.