Philipp Crusius
from 1649: von Kruus, from 1650: von Krusenstiern (1597–1676)
Philipp Crusius (born May 1, 1597 in Eisleben; died April 10, 1676 in Reval) was a lawyer, diplomat and statesman.
Biography
Philipp Crusius was the son of clergyman Johannes Crusius (d. 1616) and his wife Barbara née Kreijer. He completed law studies at the University of Jena and registered there under the German form of his name "Krauß". As a licentiate of both laws he initially worked for Count Mansfeld, and from 1622 at the council of Frederick III.
During the Thirty Years' War, Crusius acted as a princely negotiator and commissioner of Dithmarschen and Eiderstedt. In 1628, for unknown reasons, he entered imperial service and worked as a military commissioner in Dithmarschen and the chancellery in Steinburg. In 1629 he negotiated the Peace of Lübeck, and a year later he traveled to Italy on behalf of the Emperor.
Mission to Gottorf and Journey to Persia
Wallenstein sent Crusius to Gottorf in 1632, where he again worked for the Duke. Together with Otto Brüggemann, he joined the Gottorf group tasked with negotiating a new trade route. Preparing for expeditions to Russia and Persia, they met Axel Oxenstierna in Halle at the beginning of 1633. They then moved to Stockholm and spoke with the Swedish Imperial Council.
From November 1633 to April 1635, Crusius stayed with the delegation in Moscow, where negotiations with the Tsar resulted in a trade treaty.
In October 1635 the group, together with Adam Olearius and Paul Fleming, undertook an embassy journey through Moscow, aimed at securing the Persian silk trade. They were shipwrecked on the Estonian coast, crossed the Volga and the Caspian Sea, and reached Isfahan. Unable to achieve any success in negotiations, they returned to Gottorf in August 1639.
During negotiations, Crusius, who presumably knew how to proceed diplomatically, officially led the mission as first envoy. In reality, Brüggemann took the initiative and had a negative influence on the course of events. Crusius continued to support the project as a resident in Reval.
Ennoblement and Administrative Career
After the final failure of negotiations in 1644, Crusius worked for the Swedish royal family, and in 1648 became first assessor at the Reval Castle Court. Elevated to the nobility in 1649, he worked from 1651 as state councillor and deputy councillor of the Swedish government of Estonia.
In 1652/53 he participated as a negotiator in demarcating borders between Russia and Ingermanland. In 1653, as an expert in Russian trade, he was appointed trade director of Estonia and Ingermanland and burgrave of Narva.
Crusius traveled to Moscow in 1655 as ambassador of Charles X Gustav, where he was to help negotiate an extension of the Stolbovo peace treaty, which however did not materialize. Crusius was imprisoned from the beginning of the Russo-Swedish War until its end in 1658. He then participated in armistice negotiations.
A year later he was appointed governor of Reval and president of the Castle Court. From 1670 he lived in seclusion on his estates in Estonia.
Legal Legacy
In 1648, Crusius translated Swedish municipal and rural law into German. He codified the knightly and territorial rights of Estonia and completed the work in 1650. The collection, which was not published until 1821, was considered the basis of Estonian jurisprudence until the 19th century.
Family
Crusius was married from 1623 to Barbara Voigt, who died in 1634. In his second marriage, on May 13, 1639, he married Maria Müller, whose father Johannes Müller worked as a merchant and alderman in Reval. His second wife, who died after 1687, was the sister-in-law of Adam Olearius.
Crusius had eleven children, six of whom died young. His eldest son (from the first marriage) was Johann Philipp (1626–1659), who initially accompanied his father on journeys to Moscow and later became governor of the Swedish colony of Cabo Corso in Ghana. His youngest son Adolf Friedrich (1652–1687) had sons Ewert Philipp (1676–1746) and Adolf Friedrich (1679–1713), from whose families emerged the branches in Estonia (von Krusenstern) and Sweden (von Krusenstjerna).
His descendants include Admiral and navigator Adam Johann von Krusenstern (1770–1846) and polar explorer Paul Theodor von Krusenstern (1809–1881).