Gabriel Christoffersen Kruse (died 1647) of Tulsted and Hjulebjerg was an officer in the

Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy The history of the Danish navy began with the founding of a joint Dano-Norwegian navy on 10 August 1510, when King John appointed his vassal Henrik Krummedige to become "chief captain and head of all our captains, men and servants whom we now h ...

. He became a captain in 1610 and fought in the

Kalmar War The Kalmar War (1611–1613) was a war between Denmark–Norway and Sweden. Though Denmark-Norway soon gained the upper hand, it was unable to defeat Sweden entirely. The Kalmar War was the last time Denmark-Norway successfully defended its '' do ...

(1611–13) and the War against the Emperor (1625–29).

Family

Kruse was the son of Christoffer Thomesen Kruse (d. 1631) and Anne Jørgensdatter Kruse (d. 1622). He had two brothers, Enevold Christoffersen Kruse (d. 1626) and Jørgan Christophersen Kruse (d. 1666). He married twice, first to Agneta Eriksdatter Thot (d. 1642) in 1613 and later (1642) to Karen Hansdatter Lykke (d. 1665). He had two children with his first wife: Enevold Gabrielsen Kruse and Erik Gabrielsen Kruse, the latter born in 1623.

Career

After his service in the Kalmar War, where he participated in the assaults on

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

and Älvsborg, he led a naval expedition to

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

in 1615 in order to reassert

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...

's claim to the region. With three men-of-war and two

pinnaces Pinnace may refer to: * Pinnace (ship's boat), a small vessel used as a tender to larger vessels among other things * Full-rigged pinnace The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth ...

, and Scotsman John Cunningham among his commanders, he reached the coast of Spitsbergen in July, where he met the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

explorer

Robert Fotherby Robert Fotherby (died 1646) was an early 17th-century English explorer and whaler. From 1613 to 1615 he worked for the Muscovy Company, and from 1615 until his death for the East India Company. Family ties There was a family of Fotherbys in Gri ...

. A few days later he met the admiral of the English

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

fleet,

Thomas Edge Thomas Edge (1587/88 – 29 December 1624) was an English merchant, whaler, and sealer who worked for the Muscovy Company in the first quarter of the 17th century. The son of Ellis Edge, Thomas Edge was born in the parish of Blackburn in Lancash ...

, who refused to recognize Christian IV's sovereignty or pay a duty to hunt there. He then met the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

admiral

Adriaen Block Adriaen (Arjan) Block (c. 1567 – buried April 27, 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four v ...

, who also refused to pay any fine. In May 1627 he was Admiral of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

fleet, and later the same year served as Admiral of the Fleet off

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, where he was authorized to free any ships from the port that had been seized. Late the following year he was named Admiral of the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

fleet. In 1629 Kruse commanded several ships of the Baltic fleet, which was now under the noblemen Henrik Vind. In May 1630 he was again Admiral of the Elbe fleet.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kruse, Gabriel 17th-century Danish naval officers 17th-century Danish people Danish admirals Danish military personnel History of the Arctic 1647 deaths Year of birth unknown