Jens Harboe

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Jens Harboe (baptized November 6, 1646 in Helsingør ; † February 7, 1709 ) was the chief war secretary of Denmark-Norway .

Origin and family

Harboe came from the wealthy Copenhagen bourgeoisie. His father was the customs officer Christopher Harboe († 1652), his mother was his wife Ursula Andreasdatter, nee. Cabbage. The future general Andreas Harboe was his younger brother. Jens Harboe married Karen van Meulengracht (1655–1702), daughter of the general customs leaseholder Hans van Meulengracht zu Svenstrup (1629–1684) and his wife Birgitte, born in 1682. Horster († 1665). After the death of his wife, Harboe married Baroness Christine Fuiren (probably 1682–1735), daughter of Baron Diderik Fuiren and his wife Margrethe, born on March 28, 1703 in Copenhagen. Eilersen (1648-1708).

Life

From 1669 to 1671 he was the royal steward on Frydendal . On April 30, 1674 he was appointed notarius publicus in Copenhagen. The following year he tried in vain to get a post in the Kommercekollegiet , but on October 5, 1676 he was appointed General War Commissioner for the Army in Skåne . Harboe gained the trust and approval of his President Otto Skeels and came into contact with War Secretary Hans Meier . Because he resigned from his post in August 1678 and accompanied King Christian V to a meeting with the Great Elector in Doberan , an ally in the Northern War , in November of the same year . Together with the king, at the end of the war, he worked out the plan for the reform of the army, which switched from mixed recruitment and conscription to pure recruitment. From now on he was the official whose services the king most used and whom he trusted most. Under Harboe's leadership, the position of war secretary became significantly more important. In May 1680 Harboe was admiralty and in January 1682 war council . On March 31, 1683 he became head of the newly established War and Admiralty College . The progressive increase in power of the office of war secretary took place with the approval of the king, who on October 11th, 1688 promoted Harboe to chief war secretary - a newly created office; on the same day Harboe was appointed senior secretary in the Danish and German offices . This appointment arose from the fact that the king was not a friend of the college government, but preferred senior secretaries for the various branches of administration. The war council was subordinate to the civil law firms. Harboe introduced that quorum matters should be divided into two groups; the official part went to the king, and the official part to the senior secretary - the great part of the latter indicates the importance Harboe gave to the office. He orally presented a selection from both groups and received a resolution from the king.

The bourgeois senior secretary system aroused great resistance from the German-speaking part of the court, which repeatedly attacked the senior secretaries, but Christian V protected them. Harboe came in contrast to the head of the pension chamber , Christian Siegfried von Plessen , who made a financially necessary downsizing of the army after 1693. The death of Christian V in 1699 led to a complete system change, since Frederick IV dismissed all upper-class civil secretaries. Harboe was released on August 28, 1699. The reason for his dismissal may have been that Harboe Friedrich should not have shown the necessary respect as Crown Prince or that he had created many enemies with his haughty demeanor. It is certain that Christian V shook hands with Harboe on his deathbed with the words "I acted like an honest man", and Queen Charlotte Amalie also paid tribute to Harboe for his services. The sizeable salary that Harboe enjoyed over a long period of time, and his participation in trade, shipping, and land speculations made him a very wealthy man and, like other wealthy people, repeatedly - more or less voluntarily - granted advances to the state.

His personal correspondence is an important source for his contemporary environment.

Awards

literature

personal data
SURNAME Harboe, Jens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish Chief War Secretary
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1646
PLACE OF BIRTH Elsinore
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1709