was under the administration of Kalø Lehn, headed by Otto Nielsen Rosenkrands.
Anholt belonged to the parish of Morup in the Danish province of Halland up until the middle of the 16th century when a church was built on the island. The island remained Danish when Denmark ceded Halland to Sweden in 1645. There is a story that explains the omission by asserting that a negotiator had left a glass of beer placed over the island on the map during the peace negotiations. A more plausible explanation is that Swedish forces had not conquered the fairly remote island and that Sweden didn't care.
In 1668 Anholt was sold to the tax farmer Peder Jensen Grove. Six years later his widow married Hans Rostgaard of Krogerup and the island then came to belong to the Rostgaard family. Most recently, the lawyer Jens Christian von der Maase, of Copenhagen, has owned the greater and protected part of the island.
Lighthouse
Dangerous reefs and shoals surround Anholt. Consequently, in 1560 King Frederick II of Denmark ordered the erection of bascule lights at Skagen, Anholt and Kullen Lighthouse to mark the main route through Danish waters from the North Sea to the Baltic. In 1785 a 35 meter tower was erected with an open fire. In 1805 a lantern replaced the fire and in 1838 a mirror was added. Around the mid-19th century there was also a floating light stationed several miles out from the lighthouse, near the end of the several miles long reef. This floating light operated from May to December.
Today's tower dates to 1881, at which time an oil lamp replaced the fire. At one time there was also a beacon fire in the middle of the East Coast of the island but that has disappeared. The present Anholt Fyr (lighthouse) belongs to the national Farvandsvæsenet (Danish Maritime Safety Administration) and has the status of a protected historical landmark.
Despite the bascule light, on 10 November 1716 the 60-gun third rate HMS Auguste, Captain
