FORBUS, ARVID [SSNE 2227]

Surname
FORBUS, FIN-FORBES, FINNESSE-FORBES, FORBES DEN ALDRE, VON VORBUSCH
First name
ARVID, ALEXANDER, FINNESSE, FIN [RENEVOLD?], ARFUIT
Title/rank
GENERAL
Nationality
SCOTO-SWEDE, SWEDISH
Social status
NOBILITY

Text source

Arvid Forbes (1598-1665) was a son of Ernald Forbes of Mecklenburg (who was the customs officer in Borgå) and Carin Anderson and was born on 15 January 1598 in Borgå, Finland. By his fellow Scots he was called Fin-Forbes (aka Finnese-Forbes) and his first name rendered as Alexander. His military service began as a lieutenant in Ernst Creutz' Nyland regiment from 1623-1626. Then he became a captain in Björneborgs regiment until 1630. The next year he was raised to lieutenant colonel. He was then colonel of a recruited regiment which served during the German campaigns of the Thirty Years' War including the Swedish defeat at Nordlingen. After the battle of Nordlingen he quartered from 16 September 1634 until 29 January 1635 as commander of a recruited infantery-regiment in Sachsenhausen, a suburb of Frankfurt am Main. From 1635 the regiment was under the supreme command of Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. Arvid/Alexander and his brother Mattias presented their noble Scottish origins to the Riksdag in 1636 - intriguingly it was noted that they were born 'Finns' (although the source is not clear on whether they made that statement or their peers). Forbes was ennobled and introduced into the Swedish house of nobility with his brother Mattias in 1638. By 1639 he commanded his regiment in Breisach on the Rhine and was nominated in the Swedish State Council to use his position there to become an envoy to the French. Field Marshal Baner's nomination got more support. Nevertheless, on 30 January 1641, Baner wrote an impressive letter of recommendation for Arvid. Perhaps because of this, on the 14th of August 1641, Forbes became vice- commandant in upper Pomerania and commandant in Stralsund. He was also colonel of a recruited regiment in Wismar, and then colonel for Vasterbottens regiment in 1642. Thereafter he became major general of the infantry in 1646 [other sources list 1648] and vice governor in Pomerania in 1648. Forbes's influence extended to being a member of the Krigsråd (Swedish war council) in 1650 [other sources say 1660]. In 1652 he was made baron and the following year he was a member of the riksråd (the council of state) with the rank of general (although one source notes this as 1658). He certainly attended the Riksdag in 1647 and 1654, and there is mention of him in 1636 and 1638. At some point during his life he had a stone house constructed on Blasieholm in Stockholm. He died on 20 January 1665 in Stettin. Arvid was buried in Stockholm at Riddarholm church in the family vault. He married Margaretha Boij and was the father of the feisty Sophia Juliana Forbes [SSNE 6318]. His brother Mattias was also in Swedish service. There is a portrait of Forbus dated 1649 and painted by Matthaeus Merian, court painter for Carl Gustav Wrangel, at Skokloster castle in Sweden. 

 

Sources: 

Letters to and about Forbus can be read here: Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoriahttps://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069635_00223#?c=&m=&s=&cv=222&xywh=3287%2C1434%2C2764%2C1515

Swedish Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll, 1623/8; 1624/5; 1625/4; 1627/5,8,10-12,14; 1628/11,12,14,15; 1629/6-10, 12,13,15,17; 1630/1,19,21; 1631/22-27; 1642/8,19-21; 1643/2,10,16-19; 1644/11,18-20; 1645/12,20-24; 1646/10/17; 1648/16; 1660/20; Anon., The Modern History of the World. Or An Historical Relation of the most memorable passages in Germany, and else-where, since the beginning of this present Yeere 1635 (London, 1635), A3; R. Monro, His Expedition with the worthy Scots Regiment called Mackayes (2 vols., London, 1637), II, List of Scottish Officers, 1632; Rikskansleren Axel Oxenstiernas Skrifter och Brefvexling, second series, vol. VII (Stockholm,1893), pp.822-823. Johan Baner's recommendation for Arvid Forbes, 30 January 1641; Swedish Riksarkiv, P. Sondén, Militärachefer i svenska arméen och deras skrivelser; Swedish Riksarkiv, Generalguvernörer och riksståthållare, guvernörer, landshövdingar och ordningsmän i Sverige och dess besittningar; Svenska Adelns Ättartavlor, vol. 2, pp.792-793; Bertil Steckzén, Västerbottens Regementes Officerare till år 1841 (Umeå, 1955), p.68-69; H. Marryat, One Year in Sweden, including a visit to the isle of Gotland (London, 1862), p.478; S. Lewenhaupt, Svenska Högre Ämbetsmän från 1634 (Stockholm, 1961), p.45; S. Curman and J. Roosval, eds., Riddarholmskyrkan: Sveriges Kyrkor, Stockholms Kyrkor, vol. 2, (Stockholm, 1937), pp.634-40; A. Losman, Ansikten: Matthaeus Merian den yngres porträtt på Skokloster (Stockholm, 1996); Register till Sveriges Ridderskaps och Adels Riksdags-Protokoll (17 vols, Stockholm, 1910), vols. for 1636/38/47/49/52/54; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.22, 58; Sveriges Rikes Ridderskaps och adelns riksdagsprotokoll, vol.2, p.208. Anja RIECK, Frankfurt am Main unter schwedischer Besatzung 1631-1635 (Reichsstadt-Repraesentationsort-Bündnisfestung. Frankfurt/M. 2005), pp. 185-187; 161, 296, 297. Thanks to Dr Bernd Warlich for information added to this entry and this last and the subsequent references. 

 

According to Detlev Pleiss, a Renevold Forbus, together with French and Weimarians troops, led Finns near Mosel and Rhine from 1637 to 1640. However the Swedish archives have not thus far revealed a commander of this name, and his position as commander of Finns and his proximity to the troops of Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar suggest that Renevold is actually Arvid Forbes. Indeed, Arvid commanded his regiment from Breisach in 1639 confirming the confusion in names. See Detlev PLEISS, Der Zug der finnischen Reiter in die Niederlande via Wesel 1633, in: Jutta PRIER (ed.), Stadt und Festung Wesel. Beiträge zur Stadtgeschichte der frühen Neuzeit (Wesel 1998), p. 9-48, here p. 38; See also the MDSZ database http://www.mdsz.thulb.uni-jena.de/sz/index.php

Service record

SWEDEN, NYLAND REGIMENT, FINLAND
Arrived 1623-01-01, as LIEUTENANT
Departed 1665-12-31, as GENERAL, KRIGSRÅD, RIKSRÅD (STATE COUNCILLOR)
Capacity OFFICER, KRIGSRÅD, RIKSRÅD (STATE COUNCILLOR), purpose MILITARY, STATE COUNCILLOR
SWEDEN, UPPER POMERANIA (Pommern)
Arrived 1641-01-01, as CHIEF COMMANDANT
Departed 1641-12-31, as CHIEF COMMANDANT
Capacity COMMANDANT, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, STRALSUND (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
Arrived 1641-01-01, as COMMANDANT
Departed 1641-12-31, as COMMANDANT
Capacity COMMANDANT, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, POMERANIA (Pommern)
Arrived 1648-01-01, as VICE GOVERNOR
Departed 1648-12-31, as VICE GOVERNOR
Capacity GOVERNOR, purpose MILITARY