In 1629, Skytte was appointed Governor-General of Swedish Livonia, Ingria and Karelia for the period of 1629–1634. In 1632, he was appointed chancellor of the "Academia Gustaviana" (today's University of Tartu), which he founded that year, with the required ratification provided by King Gustavus Adolphus, briefly before the king's death on 6 November in the Battle of Lützen (1632), during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).