Alexander Erskein

Alexander Erskein, pictured by Anselm van Hulle .

Alexander Erskein , also: Esken, Ersken, Erskine, von Erskein (born October 31, 1598 in Greifswald ; † July 24, 1656 in Zamość ) was a German lawyer , Swedish diplomat, court president in Greifswald and president of the duchies of Bremen and Verden .

biography

No family was from Scotland . The father Walter Erskein lived as a wealthy businessman in Greifswald. Alexander Erskein studied law at the universities of Greifswald (1612), Wittenberg (1617), Leipzig and Jena . After extensive study trips to England and the Netherlands , he studied from 1623 at the University of Rostock .

For a short time he was in the service of the Danish queen widow Sophie in Nykøbing Falster before he joined Swedish services in July 1628. He initially worked as an agent in Stralsund and from 1632 to 1634 as a resident in Erfurt . In 1634 he became the secret war council of the Swedish military administration under Johan Banér . From summer 1636 to July 1638 he was out of service. As early as April 1638, he was appointed Swedish councilor . In the same year he became War and Assistance Council for Western Pomerania under Governor Axel Lillie , from August 25, 1640 for all of Pomerania. Together with Johan Hallen , he set up the royal court for Swedish Pomerania in Greifswald in 1642 . In 1643 he was appointed its president and thus also the Swedish government in Pomerania . In 1644 he became a member of the Fruitful Society , the largest literary group of the baroque, as the prudent one . On May 27, 1648 he became war president of the Swedish main army under the Count Palatine Karl Gustav .

For Sweden he appeared on many diplomatic missions and led various peace negotiations during the Thirty Years' War , for example in Osnabrück and Münster in 1646 . From spring 1649 to June 1650 he was a delegate at the Nuremberg execution day . Then he traveled to Sweden, where Queen Christina wanted to raise him to baron, which he refused.

On November 9, 1652 he became treasurer (treasurer) and on September 22, 1653 president of the duchies of Bremen and Verden . As president he was the head of the administration of the jointly administered Duchy of Bremen and Duchy of Verden . In Bremen, Erskein had his residence in the Domdekanei on Domsheide , which was named after him as Eschenhof . He represented the interests of Sweden against the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen in the First Bremen-Swedish War of 1654, in which Sweden did not recognize the imperial immediacy of Bremen, which was conferred by the Linz diploma in 1646 . In 1652 he was accepted into the Swedish nobility and finally in 1655 raised to the rank of baron.

During the Swedish-Polish War , he moved to Poland with the Swedish army in 1655 as war president (civil leader in the war zone) . He was captured by Poland in 1656 and died in Zamość after an eight-day fever. His body was transferred to Bremen and buried in Bremen Cathedral on May 6, 1658 . The crypt existed until 1822. The remains were buried in the monastery area of the cathedral.

family

After a childless marriage with Euphrosina Sibrand (1608–1647), he married Lucia Christina von Wartensleben in 1648, the daughter of the princely councilor and court master Hermann Simon von Wartensleben and widow of the Mecklenburg district administrator Adolf Friedrich von Maltzahn. With her he had two sons and four daughters.

literature

Heiko Droste: In the service of the crown. Swedish diplomats in the 17th century (= Nordic history vol. 2). Lit, Berlin et al. 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9256-5 , p. 391 (also: Kiel, Universität, habilitation paper, 2002, digitized version ).
Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .

Individual evidence

↑ Pawel Gut: The court court in Greifswald in Swedish and Prussian times. In: Nils Jörn, Bernhard Diestelkamp , Kjell Å Modéer (eds.): Integration through law. The Wismar Tribunal. (1653–1806) (= sources and research on the highest jurisdiction in the Old Kingdom. Vol. 47). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2003, ISBN 3-412-18203-6 , pp. 157–177, here p. 160, ( digitized version ).
^ ^A ^b Bernhard Schlegel, Carl Arvid Klingspor : Den med sköldebref förlänade men ej å Riddarhuset introducerade Svenska-Adelns Ättar-taflor. Norstedt, Stockholm 1875, p. 69 (Swedish).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Erskein, Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Erskein, Alexander von; Esken, Alexander; Erskine, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swedish diplomat, President of the Court of Justice, President of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden
DATE OF BIRTH	October 31, 1598
PLACE OF BIRTH	Greifswald
DATE OF DEATH	July 24, 1656
Place of death	Zamość

[1] Pawel Gut: The court court in Greifswald in Swedish and Prussian times. In: Nils Jörn, Bernhard Diestelkamp , Kjell Å Modéer (eds.): Integration through law. The Wismar Tribunal. (1653–1806) (= sources and research on the highest jurisdiction in the Old Kingdom. Vol. 47). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2003, ISBN 3-412-18203-6 , pp. 157–177, here p. 160, ( digitized version ).

[SK-2] A ^b Bernhard Schlegel, Carl Arvid Klingspor : Den med sköldebref förlänade men ej å Riddarhuset introducerade Svenska-Adelns Ättar-taflor. Norstedt, Stockholm 1875, p. 69 (Swedish).