Niels Ebbesen (1308 – 21 November 1340) was a Danish squire and national hero, known for assassinating Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg in 1340.

Not wishing for the act to be secret, Ebbesen's men beat a drum and shouted that the Count had been executed.

A relief force of 600 German knights and a simultaneous attack from the castle drove the Danes back into their wagon fortress on Nun Hill.

The Visbycross of stone with a bronze sword was designed by the sculptor Louis Hasselriis (1844–1912)[8] A statue of Niels Ebbesen was erected in 1882 at Randers.

In 1942, during the German occupation of Denmark in the Second World War, a play about Ebbesen's rebellion was written by the dramatist Kaj Munk (1898–1944).