Abraham Kronhjort

Abraham Kronhjort , also known as Cronhirsch (born January 1, 1634 in Kokenhusen , Latvia ; † November 12, 1703 in Helsinki ), was a Swedish baron and most recently a general of the Swedish army and commander in chief of the Swedish troops in Finland .

family

Abraham Kronhjort was the son of the Swedish major Abraham Larsson Hirsch Freiherr zu Kronhjort and Mrs. Dorotea Vellingk .

He married on September 22, 1685 in Kläckeberga in the Swedish district of Kalmar län Brita Skyttenhielm, daughter of the bishop of Kalmar län Henning Schütte , Baron von Skyttenhielm. Together they had two sons, Hans Henning Kronhjort and Carl Gustaf Kronhjort .

Kronhjort was made a baron in 1696.

Military career

Kronhjort began military service in the Närke-Värmland Regiment , his father's regiment, as an ensign in 1648 . Two years later, he was appointed lieutenant . In autumn 1649 he began studying at the University of Rostock and in 1651 at the University of Greifswald .

In 1651 Abraham Kronhjort was transferred to the regiment of Field Marshal Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt in Livonia . During his service in the regiment he was appointed captain in 1655 and subsequently took part in the second Northern War . The Lewenhaupt regiment marched into Lithuania under the command of the Swedish King Karl X. Gustav . In 1658 he was appointed major and took part in the defense of Riga , the commandant of the fortress Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie recognized the potential in Kronhjort as a leader and through his advocacy Kronhjort was allowed to do a doctorate at the Swedish Military Academy. After graduation he went as a captain to the Dragoons Regiment Strömsholms and Ulvsund. With this regiment he took part in the Danish-Swedish War of 1658-1660 . While stationed on the Norwegian border, he was promoted to major.

In October 1658 he was transferred to the infantry of the newly established mountain regiment . The regiment was disbanded after the Peace of Roskilde and Abraham Kronhjort was released. As commander, he was responsible for ensuring that the regiment did not behave honestly and that many soldiers of the regiment deserted during the march back. In 1661 Kronhjort retired from the Swedish army and traveled through Europe in the following years from 1661–66.

From 1663 to 1664 Kronhjort was chamberlain to the Duke of Tuscany and Florence, Ferdinando II. De 'Medici . After returning to Sweden, Kronhjort was made a retired lieutenant colonel and received a pension for his services to the fatherland. This was withdrawn again in 1669 and Abraham Kronhjort was given permission to serve other states.

On August 2, 1670 he entered the service of Duke Eberhard III. of Württemberg. With the rank of colonel, he took over the blue regiment of the Württemberg army . From 1671 to 1675 Kronhjort was supreme commander of the Württemberg infantry and head yogt of Kirchheim.

Back in the Swedish service he was given command of the Småland Dragoons regiment on August 3, 1676 and that of the Kronberg regiment from August 2, 1678 . In this regiment he took part in the Scanian War . On July 12, 1680, he was subsequently dismissed from the Württemberg military service.

On July 26, 1696, he was appointed governor of Uusimaa and Häme in southern Finland. On November 3, 1700 he was appointed general of the infantry. From 1700 to 1703 he was commander in chief of the Swedish troops in Finland. At this appointment Kronhjort was already 66 years old and accordingly an aged commander. After initial successes, his troops were pushed back by the Russian attacks. After the Russian troops in 1702, the Schlüsselburg even Nöteborg called, and in 1703 the ski jump of Nyen conquered, was quite Ingermanland in Russian hands. The Russian Tsar Peter I marched with 25,000 men across the Finnish border in the spring of 1703 and defeated the Swedish defense troops in the battle of Systerbäck .

The bitter end of his career came with the saying of Charles XII. " Kronhjort was a bad leader. God beware of such generals! " The defeat at Systerbäck ended Kronhjort's military career. His successor was Georg Johann Maydell . The dismissal as commander in chief of the Swedish troops in Finland hit him very hard, he died a few months later.

literature

• Svensk uppslagsbok . Malmö 1931. (Swedish encyclopedia)
• Svenskt Biografiskt Lexicon, articles Abraham Cronhjort
• Christian Kelch: The Liefland History from 1690–1707 , Ed. Schnakenburg, Dorpat (1875)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Registration of Abraham Kronhjort in the Rostock matriculation portal
2. ↑ ^{a b} chalice p. 335