CRAUL, JOHN [SSNE 3075]

Surname

CRAUL, CRAIL, CRALE, KREYEL, CRALE

First name

JOHN

Title/rank

CAPTAIN

Nationality

SCOT or ENGLISH

Social status

OFFICER

Text source

Captains John Craul, Thomas Chamberlain [SSNE 1948], Hugh Kendrick [SSNE 2802] and Captains Benson [SSNE 3125], Creyton [SSNE 3844], and York served in Russia in 1609 with an army of over 1500 Swedish, French and Scottish mercenaries sent by Charles IX of Sweden at the request of Tsar Vasily Shuisky. Craul was shot in the knee and later died of his wounds.

NB Henry Brereton calls Craul an Englishman, though it is more likely he was a Scot commanding English troops.



Henry Brereton, Newes of the present miseries of Rushia occasioned by the late warre in that countrey. Commenced betweene Sigimond now King of Poland. Charles late King of Swethland. Demetrius, the last of the name, Emperour of Rushia. Together with the memorable occurrences of our owne nationall forces, English, and Scottes, vnder the pay of the now King of Swethland. (London, 1614), p.46.

T. Fischer, The Scots in Sweden, (Edinburgh, 1907), p.223; R. Frost, "Scottish soldiers, Poland-Lithuania and the Thirty Years' War" in S. Murdoch ed. Scotland and the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 (Brill, 2001), p.199; G. P. Herd, 'General Patrick Gordon of Auchluchries - A Scot in Seventeenth Century Russian Service', Ph.D. thesis, Aberdeen, 1994; Narrative of an Englishman serving against Poland’ in The False Dmitri. A Russian Romance and Tragedy, Described by British Eye-Witnesses, 1604-1612, edited by Sonia E. Howe, (New York, 1916), pp.151-183. With thanks to Michal Paradowski for providing this reference.

Service record

sWEDEN, RUSSIA, SKOPIN'S ARMY, GUSTAV HORN

Arrived 1609-01-01, as CAPTAIN OF CAVALRY

Departed 1610-12-31, as CAPTAIN OF CAVALRY

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY