#hans willem bentinck

[acrossthewavesoftime]

"My compliments to all the family except for Lott[e]."

Charlotte Philiberthe von Nassau-Beverweerd (1649-1702) (detail); created between 1675 and 1694, though the hairstyle would suggest a date in the 1670s; in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.

For Valentine's day, here's a tale of a romance that did not quite turn out as expected, but left a string of interesting documents.

Let's picture the scene: you're in love. Who do you tell? Well, obviously, you might confide the butterflies in your belly to your best friend, and it just so happens that the lady who's quite turned your head is a distant cousin of his.

This is the situation one Hans Willem Bentinck (1649-1709) found himself in during January and February 1675. His crush was Charlotte Philiberthe von Nassau-Beverweerd, a distant relation (their grandfathers were half-brothers) of his closest friend, then-Stadtholder of the United Provinces and future King of England William III (1650-1702).

William III of Orange and Hans Willem Bentinck; dated to 1676. Collection of Stichting Kasteel Amerongen, via RKD Research.

William interceded on his best friend's behalf, and seems to have taken "Lotte", as he called her, aside when the latter, living with one of her sisters who had married an English noble, paid a visit to the Netherlands.

The Stadtholder, who was friends with Lotte as she was one of the few people who would engage him in some good, old-fashioned banter and, her love for a good joke aside, was an extremely intelligent conversationalist, made her promise to give a reply as to what he should tell his best friend; but that reply never came and so, William, writing to Lotte's brother-in-law, Thomas Butler, the 6th Earl of Ossory (1634-1680), with whom she lived, added a few P.S.-s to his usual (largely political) letters to Ossory:

In late January or early February, William wrote to Ossory:

(P. S.) I beg of you to tell Lott[e] that, all her cruelty aside, I love her with all my heart, and to reproach her that she has neither written, nor even replied to my letter, as she had promised when we parted. I also hope that she will soon declare herself on that which she had promised me to think on when we parted, for Bentinck is very impatient to know how he stands, which seems very reasonable to me. G.*

(* In case you're wondering why William, or Willem in Dutch, signed as "G.", in his private correspondence: it's the abbreviation of the French equivalent of his name, Guillaume.)

However, it looks like Lotte was still ghosting both Bentinck and William, because he signed another letter to Ossory, datable to February 1675, off as follows:

My compliments to all the family except for Lott[e]. G.

A third letter to Ossory lastly mentions Lotte in March 1675:

(P. S.) I beg of you to assure Madame the Countess [of Ossory] of my very humble services, and [Lotte] as well, regardless of my not having any reason to be pleased with her. G.

One imagines that William may have taken his best friend aside and told him to forget about Lotte. Sadly, we have no information on how Lotte reacted to these messages.

If there is anything to be taken from this tale of historical heartbreak, it is that this sort of thing happens. If this Valentine's Day you find yourself unhappy because you're celebrating it alone and rather would not to, remember that you're not alone. Maybe also talk to your best friend, even if they're not a powerful noble in charge of a country.

Oh, and don't be a Lotte and ghost someone with an (romantic) interest in you. Just tell them in polite, but no uncertain terms that you're not into them.

From a historian's perspective, I find it fascinating how the Lotte-letters to Ossory highlight a part of William III's personality that is largely overlooked; posthumously often regarded as a guarded, almost robotically emotionless man, the young William in his early 20s who tries to play cupid for his best friend and adopts a very domestic tone in his missives going so far as to utilise nicknames paints a rather different picture.

Lotte was evidently forgiven, because she became a member of William and Mary's court, and briefly served under Anne as well. She never married, and her motives for doing so have been lost to history.

As for Hans Willem Bentinck, he met a woman called Anne Villiers (1651-1688) two and a half years later: she was, her mother having been the governess of William's bride Princess Mary, the future Mary II, a sort of sisterly figure to the Princess, and the two met through the marriage of their friends/employers. Contrary to William and Mary, for whom love only developed gradually in the aftermath of a fairly traumatic arranged marriage (especially on the then-15-year-old Mary's part), for Anne and Hans Willem Bentinck, their romance was much more organic: they fell in love at their workplace, so to say. To crown their personal happy end, William III stepped in to provide Anne, who was of a respectable family, yet had no fortune to speak of, with a dowry.

For the letters from William to Ossory, see: Japikse, Nicolaas [ed.]: Correspondentie van Willem III en van Hans Willem Bentinck (1927-1935), Vol. II, ii, letters 4, 15 and 16.

[unanchored-ship]

so this is William's time with my stoopid headcanons might have to zoom in to read stuff

heres a color coded version if the arrows are too confusing lol

hang on just to be sure the dark teal arrow from Fenwick is directed at Marly not Prior's arrow okay thanks

but then again it could also work since Fentwink doesnt like William

[homomenhommes]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

1650 – William III was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth, and he governed Holland from 1672. From 1689 he also reigned as William III over England and Ireland. By coincidence, his regnal number (III) was the same for both Orange and England. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is informally known by sections of the population in Northern Ireland and Scotland as "King Billy". In what became known as the "Glorious Revolution", on 5 November 1688 William invaded England in an action that ultimately deposed King James II and won him the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland. In the British Isles, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. The period of their joint reign is often referred to as "William and Mary".

A Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith. Largely because of that reputation, William was able to take the British crowns when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. William's victory over James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by the Orange Order. His reign marked the beginning of the transition from the personal rule of the Stuarts to the more Parliament-centred rule of the House of Hanover.

During the 1690s rumours grew of William's alleged homosexual inclinations and led to the publication of many satirical pamphlets by his Jacobite detractors. He did have several close, male associates, including two Dutch courtiers to whom he granted English titles: Hans Willem Bentinck became Earl of Portland, and Arnold Joost van Keppel was created Earl of Albemarle. These relationships with male friends, and his apparent lack of more than one female mistress, led William's enemies to suggest that he might prefer homosexual relationships. William's modern biographers, however, still disagree on the veracity of these allegations, with many contending that they were just figments of his enemies' imaginations, and others suggesting there may have been some truth to the rumours.

A spate of political satires accusing William of intimate relations with both men circulated during his reign. These scurrilous poems are quite explicit in their allegations, and are obviously the work of Tory partisans who favored James. For this reason they have been discounted by William's defenders.

One satire begins:

"For the case, Sir, is such, That the people think much, That your love is Italian, your government Dutch. Ah! Who would have thought that a Low-Country Stallion and Protestant Prince should prove an Italian?"

(*Italy was the country most notably associated with sodomy in the seventeenth century.) Bentinck's closeness to William did arouse jealousies in the Royal Court at the time, but most modern historians doubt that there was a homosexual element in their relationship. But William's young protege, Keppel, aroused more gossip and suspicion, being 20 years William's junior and strikingly handsome, and having risen from being a royal page to an earldom with some ease. Portland wrote to William in 1697 that "the kindness which your Majesty has for a young man, and the way in which you seem to authorise his liberties … make the world say things I am ashamed to hear". This, he said, was "tarnishing a reputation which has never before been subject to such accusations". William tersely dismissed these suggestions, however, saying, "It seems to me very extraordinary that it should be impossible to have esteem and regard for a young man without it being criminal."

Most telling, however, are the remarks of Bishop Gilbert Burnet, who praised William unstintingly as "a person raised up by God to resist the power of France and the progress of tyranny and persecution." Yet in considering matters that might make it difficult for William to assume the English throne, Burnet refers to one "particular . . . too tender to be put in writing," which under the circumstances can only be interpreted as a reference to William's sexual nature.

Wagstaff (L) with Mapplethorpe

1921 – Sam Wagstaff Jr. (d.1987) was an American art curator and collector as well as the artistic mentor and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (who was also his lifetime companion) and poet-punk rocker Patti Smith. Wagstaff is known in part for his support of Minimalism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art and Earthworks, but his aesthetic acceptance and support of photography presaged the acceptance of the medium as a fine art.

Born to a wealthy family, after growing up on Central Park South, attending the Hotchkiss School and graduating from Yale University, and being a fixture on the debutante circuit, Wagstaff joined the US Navy in 1941 as an ensign, where he took part in the D-day landing at Omaha Beach in World War II.

In 1959, an art history fellowship took him to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He served as curator of contemporary art at the Wadsworth Atheneum from 1961 to 1968, and then at the Detroit Institute of Arts from 1968 to 1971.

After seeing the exhibition "The Painterly Photograph, 1890-1914" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1973 and meeting Robert Mapplethorpe in 1972, Wagstaff became convinced that photographs were the most unrecognized and, possibly, the most valuable works of art. He began selling his collection of paintings, using the proceeds to buy 19th-century American, British, and French photography. Then, influenced by Mapplethorpe, Wagstaff's taste veered toward the daring, and he began to depart from established names in search of new talent. His collection was soon recognized as one of the finest private holdings in the United States. In 1984 Wagstaff's photography holdings - comprising at least 2,500 masterworks - went to the J. Paul Getty Museum, for a reported price said to be in the neighborhood of $5 million.

Sam Wagstaff met his lifetime companion and protégé, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in 1972 at a party. Mapplethorpe, whom Wagstaff called his shy pornographer, was also his guide to the gay demimonde of extreme sex and drugs that flourished in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1980s, Wagstaff gave Mapplethorpe $500,000 to purchase the top-floor loft at 35 West 23rd Street, where the photographer lived and had his shooting space.

Wagstaff died of pneumonia arising from AIDS at his home in Manhattan on January 14, 1987, two years before Mapplethorpe.

1946 – Robert Mapplethorpe (d.1989) was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men. The frank homoeroticism of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.

Mapplethorpe was born and grew up as a Roman Catholic in Queens, New York. He majored in graphic arts, though he dropped out in 1969 before finishing his degree. Mapplethorpe lived with his partner Patti Smith from 1967-1974, and she supported him by working. They created art together, and even after he realized he was gay, they maintained a close relationship.

Mapplethorpe took his first photographs using a Polaroid camera. In the mid-1970s, he acquired a Hasselblad camera and began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including artists, composers, and socialites. In the 1980s he refined his aesthetic, photographing statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still-lifes, and highly formal portraits of artists and celebrities. In the 1980s, his mentor and lifetime companion art curator Sam Wagstaff gave him $500,000 to buy the top-floor loft at 35 West 23rd Street, where he lived and had his shooting space.

Mapplethorpe worked primarily in the studio, particularly toward the end of his career. Common subjects include flowers, especially orchids and calla lilies, and celebrities, including Andy Warhol, Deborah Harry, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, and Patti Smith. Smith was a longtime roommate of Mapplethorpe and a frequent subject in his photography, including a stark, iconic photograph that appears on the cover of Smith's first album, Horses.

Other work includes homoerotic and BDSM acts (including coprophagia), and classical nudes. Mapplethorpe's X Portfolio series sparked national attention in the early 1990s when it was included in The Perfect Moment, a traveling exhibition funded by National Endowment for the Arts. The portfolio includes some of Mapplethorpe's most explicit imagery, including a self-portrait with a bullwhip inserted in his anus.

© The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission

Though his work had been regularly displayed in publicly funded exhibitions, conservative and religious organizations, such as the American Family Association, seized on this exhibition to vocally oppose government support for what they called "nothing more than the sensational presentation of potentially obscene material." As a result, Mapplethorpe became something of a cause célèbre for both sides of the American Culture war. The installation of The Perfect Moment in Cincinnati resulted in the unsuccessful prosecution of the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati and its director, Dennis Barrie, on charges of "pandering obscenity". His photographs of black men have also been criticized as exploitative.

Bob Love

Mapplethorpe died on the morning of March 9, 1989, 42 years old, in a Boston, Massachusetts, hospital from complications arising from AIDS. His body was cremated and the ashes buried in Queens, New York, in his mother's grave, marked "Maxey".

Nearly a year before his death, the ailing Mapplethorpe helped found the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. His vision for the Foundation was that it would be "the appropriate vehicle to protect his work, to advance his creative vision, and to promote the causes he cared about". Since his death, the Foundation has not only functioned as his official estate and helped promote his work throughout the world, it has also raised and donated millions of dollars to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV infection.

1960 – Tom Ryan, FDNY Firefighter, president emeritus of FireFLAG/EMT and LGBT Rights activist, is born. Ryan retired from FDNY in 2003, after a distinguished FDNY career, and is a veteran of 9/11. He has worked tirelessly for the issues effecting LGBT Firefighters and Emergency Workers, continues to speak out on issues of homophobia in the fire services, the rights of domestic partners, and discrimination toward the gay community.

September 11, 2001, started out as a picture-perfect day in New York City, Tom Ryan recalls. The sun was shining brightly. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Ryan, a firefighter with Ladder Company 12, a house located in the Chelsea District of Manhattan, was off that day, busying himself in the Bronx home he shared with his partner of 11 years, Scott Arigot, and two of their children.

An instant message alerted him that the beauty of the day was about to be shattered, altering life in America, and the world, as we had known it.

Ryan made a quick call to the firehouse and spoke with his fellow firefighter, Angel Juarde, who told Ryan he was about to leave the station for the enflamed World Trade Center. It turned out to be the last time the two men would speak.

Moments later, all firefighters and police officers were called in to work in the city.

By the time he got to Ladder Company 12 in Manhattan, motorcycling in and out of the steady flow of traffic driving against him, Ryan was not yet aware that both World Trade Center towers had collapsed.

"I was trying to figure out what I should expect when I got down there. Have you ever been in New York to see the ticker-tape parades?" Ryan said in a recent phone conversation, searching for a metaphor to adequately explain the nightmarish specter.

"This was like an evil ticker tape parade. Paper was going everywhere. And dust—that grey dust went everywhere.

"The whole week I felt very isolated, and I know a lot of the other firefighters did, too," Ryan said.

"Basically, you went to the site, you came back to the firehouse. You tried to sleep but ended up walking the floors for a couple hours. Then you went back. You caught little naps, 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there. Your mind was racing. We really thought people were still alive in there."

Saturday morning, September 15, was the first time after the attacks that Ryan had any appreciable time off.

Before leaving the firehouse, he sat in the station's communal kitchen, reading that morning's edition of the New York Times. One of the first articles he read chronicled Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blaming the attacks on gays and lesbians, and liberals in general.

"I just went nuts. I could not believe I had just had the week that I had had, and these two supposed-Christians were going to condemn me," Ryan said, the timbre of his voice raising. "I started ranting and raving, and the people in the firehouse kitchen were saying 'What's the problem?'"

Ryan told them the problem. His colleagues' response was, "Well, it's only words."

"But it's not only words," Ryan said. "People believe what they say."

Despite his anger and frustration, Ryan decided to attend the funeral that day of gay fire chaplain Mychal Judge, thought to be the first rescue worker to perish when the World Trade Center Towers fell. A former Catholic, Ryan said he knew Mychal Judge was gay, but had no other connection with him.

The firefighters from the house located across the street from the church were to be Judge's pallbearers. Immediately in front of Ryan, one of the pallbearers began to falter, losing his grip on the coffin.

"I don't know what happened. I don't know if he couldn't emotionally do it, or if he was just physically exhausted, or what," Ryan said. "The coffin was rocking, and someone shouted, 'Step out, step out!'"

Ryan immediately jumped forward, took the weakened pallbearer's place, and began carrying Judge's coffin into the church.

"I felt like it was such a clear message from [Mychal Judge]," Ryan said. "Here he was, the gay chaplain of the New York City Fire Department. What are the odds of me being the firefighter who jumps out and grabs his coffin? I felt like it was a message from him, that there's no difference between any of us."

Ryan retired from FDNY in 2003, having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome. He also suffers from respiratory problems he associates with the contaminated air that lingered for weeks at Ground Zero.

After that he attended classes at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey, near the Jersey shore where he and Arigot moved, to earn a his teaching degree. They have two sons and a daughter. The men also opened their home to care for a set of twins, who were seniors in high school.

Ryan continues his association with FireFLAG/EMS, a national support group for gay firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and their friends and families. Ryan is a past president of the organization. What started as a local group for rescue workers within the five New York City boroughs in 1991 has now blossomed into a national organization with as many as 500 members. Ryan estimates that among those members, four lost their lives in the 9/11 tragedy.

"I've been told there were a couple of [gay] police officers, too. Unfortunately, they were very closeted, so nobody stepped forward claiming to be a partner," he said. "I have [gay] friends who were in the Twin Towers," he said, marveling at the irony of the closeted rescue workers. "But they're still afraid to come out of the closet. I say, 'How could you be afraid of anything anymore?'

"It just speaks volumes about the pressures that society puts on you when you're still afraid to come out of the closet even though you lived through this horrendous experience."

1971 – Perry Moore (d.2011) was an American author, screenwriter, and film director. He was an executive producer of The Chronicles of Narnia film series and the author of Hero, an award-winning novel about a homosexual teenage superhero.

He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1994, and while in college interned at the Virginia Film Festival. He also served as an intern in the White House and at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in New York City.He worked on the production team for The Rosie O'Donnell Show, then joined Walden Media (a media production company created by conservative billionaire Phillip Anschutz to produce family-friendly movies, documentaries, and television programs). He was the executive in charge of production for the film I Am David, an adaptation the Anne Holm novel North to Freedom.

He co-wrote and co-directed (with life partner Hunter Hill) the 2008 film Lake City, a drama that tells the story of a mother (Sissy Spacek) and son (Troy Garity) who reunite under desperate circumstances years after a family tragedy drove them apart. He also co-produced (again with Hill) a Spike Jonze-directed 2010 documentary (Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak) about children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak

Moore had a personal mission: although he was glad that comic books had been introducing Gay superhero characters for some time, he wanted to see them portrayed in a better light. What particularly disturbed him as the death of Northstar, a member of the Marvel Comics’ X-Men, whose announcement in the Marvel comic book that he was gay made headlines in 1992. In 2005, Northstar was killed by a brainwashed Wolverine. Moore said he felt that the murder of Marvel’s biggest gay hero by one of its most popular characters had sent the wrong message.

He began giving speeches in which he cited his own research showing that more than 60 gay and lesbian comic book characters had been ignored, maimed or murdered. "Yes, bad things happen to all people," Mr. Moore said. "But are there positive representations of gay characters to counterbalance these negative ones?" His answer was "Not enough." So Moore wrote Hero (2007), a novel about Thom Creed, a teen-ager coping with high school, a strained home life and his budding superpowers as well as his sexuality.

A longtime fan of children's literature and comic books, Moore's novel Hero was first published by Hyperion Books in August 2007. The young adult novel tells the story of a closeted homosexual teenager who becomes a superhero. In May 2008, Hero won a Lambda Literary Award as the best LGBT Children's/Young Adult novel of the past year. In 2008, Moore was in talks with veteran comic book writer Stan Lee about producing a television series based on the book. Moore began writing a sequel to Hero in 2009. Moore's father said that in early 2011 his son was working on turning Hero into a movie on the Starz cable television channel.

Openly gay, Moore lived in New York City with life partner Hunter Hill, a writer for Paper magazine. Moore was also a Christian and spoke publicly about his faith. According to family members, Moore had suffered knee and back problems before his death, which required pain medication and corrective surgery, but which he had put off to continue working. Moore died on February 17, 2011 at age 39 of a drug overdose, his body discovered by Hill in their SoHo apartment. While an initial autopsy proved inconclusive, his death was subsequently attributed to a lethal combination of benzodiazepine, methadone, and morphine.

1976 – Syndicated columnist Nicholas von Hoffman's column "Out of TV's Sitcom Closet" appeared. It stated that Americans were experiencing the "Year of the Fag" and claimed the National Gay Task Force was controlling at least one sitcom.

2001 – On this date the openly Lesbian comedienne Ellen Degeneres hosted the Emmy Awards-TV show. It was the first awards show after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. DeGeneres received several standing ovations for her performance that evening which included the line: "We're told to go on living our lives as usual, because to do otherwise is to let the terrorists win, and really, what would upset the Taliban more than a Gay woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?"

[rotterdamvanalles]

Gezicht op de Bentincklaan, 1946.

Willem graaf Bentinck (Whitehall in Londen, 6 november 1704 - Den Haag, 13 oktober 1774), heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht, na 1732 rijksgraaf Bentinck, oudste zoon uit het tweede huwelijk van Hans Willem Bentinck, graaf van Portland, was een Nederlands edelman en politicus. Hij had als lid van de Ridderschap van Holland zitting in de Staten van Holland en West-Friesland.

Willem Bentinck erfde vanwege het gebruikelijke fideï-commis geen goederen in Engeland. Hij deelde wel in het Hollandse bezit van zijn in 1709 gestorven vader en werd zo heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht en eigenaar van Huis Sorghvliet, het huidige Catshuis. Zijn jongere broer Charles erfde de oude landgoederen van de Bentincks in Overijssel en het kasteel Het Nijenhuis.

Willem Bentinck was een zeer gereserveerde en stugge aristocraat die desondanks de gave had om diplomaat te zijn. Hij werd een van de belangrijkste adviseurs van stadhouder Willem IV die aan Bentinck zijn verheffing tot erfstadhouder dankte. Er wordt verondersteld dat Willem Bentinck zo stug en gesloten was om praatjes te voorkomen; zijn vader was de favoriet en volgens vele tijdgenoten ook de minnaar van stadhouder Willem III geweest. Bentinck stond zichzelf niets joyeus en niets dat ook maar in de verte fatterig of verwijfd kon lijken toe.

De fotograaf is Gerard Roos en de foto komt uit het Stadsarchief Rotterdam. De informatie komt van Wikipedia.

2020

[edwardiionlyfans]

monarchs of the house of Stuart + affairs

[vankeppel]

Forever in debt to The First Churchills (1969) actually having Hans Willem Bentinck in it

[carloskaplan]

Hans Willem Bentinck, por Hyacinthe Rigaud

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Any chance you could post that portrait of William and Bentinck? 👀 I'm curious

I cannot overstate how much I thank you for your ask, because not only did some digging reveal the colour version of the portrait I had previously only seen in black and white, I also found another one!

I found them via the website of the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, where you can download and look at these pictures without the watermark by clicking the links below the images.

William III and Hans Willem Bentinck by an anonymous artist, c. 1675. Presumably in a private collection.

I think it was in The Anglo-Dutch Favourite The Career of Hans Willem Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (1649-1709) by David Onnekink (2007) that I read that this portrait was likely painted to commemorate their friendship in the wake of the Smallpox Incident. It is highly probable that Bentinck was painted into an originally allegorical piece that was initially intended to solely depict William.

He's standing behind William and notably a bit shorter, which would not have been the case historically, as Bentinck was described as, I quote, "quite tall" by contemporaries, whereas William was more of an average height at 5'6"/1.67m (but looked rather tiny next to his unusually tall Stuart relatives, including his 5'9"/1.8m wife Mary). It's quite likely that Bentinck, out of respect for his august friend's ego, has been tactfully depicted significantly shorter than his friend.

This next one seems to be based off the above one, and again shows Bentinck seated or stooping behind William striking a martial pose.

William III and Hans Willem Bentinck by W. Souven, dated 1676. Today exhibited at Castel Amerongen.

What I really enjoy about both portraits is that they're two rare examples of William smiling; most portraits of him are of an official nature and highlight his role as a statesman and military commander; these, the original one in which Bentinck was likely inserted into an extant composition and this one based off it, clearly are of a private, intimate nature that allows for some measure of informality between the two young men depicted and casts a light on a side of William III that was primarily reserved for only his circle of closest confidantes (and small children, from all I've read).

If I'm not much mistaken, the house in which the 1676 double portrait is exhibited today has links with the Bentinck family, suggesting it may have been a gift from William to his best friend, but I would have to read up on that.

Details.

The second one in particular seems to infer a narrative due to its almost sponatneous air; one can quite imagine Bentinck having snuck up on his friend while the latter is sitting for a formal portrait dressed in his suit of armour and ermine cloak while his left hand rests leisurely on a map and his right, put to his hip, clasps the baton, symbolising his role as military commander. Perhaps Bentinck has whispered a joke into his friend's ear, because William visibly tries to hold back a smile, which he however can't quite suppress in the face of his grinning best friend.

There also is a double portrait of William and another child dating to 1661 that is speculated to be of Bentinck and him, but this is unlikely, as Bentinck only entered his household three years later.

Anyway, these have been a fun find which I hope you enjoy as much as I!

[acrossthewavesoftime]

The Stuarts (plus the Earls of Portland and Albemarle), (not) helping you with your homework.

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Top five favorite William of Orange stories?

Sorry this took me so long! :-) So, I have many thoughts on William III as a politician, and not too favourable ones as well, but, without going into detail too greatly here, I think it's interesting to see in how far he seperated his public role and -persona from his private life, and what he most likely 'really' was like, i. e. among those he considered his friends and family.

There is no question that power corrupts, and having a public and private persona does not absolve anyone from liability from the things they did in either one, or the other capacity, but I have to say, I find it time and again amusing how much he, at least in private, was not like the image of the man modern-day Loyalists cultivate. So here, in no particular order, are my favourite 5 incidents:

The Nose

The Bentick Family Disaster

The (Presumed) Concussion

The Doctor

The Toddler

The Nose:

Starting off with a childhood anecdote, I really find it funny that William, then a child of 9/10 years, laughed when a confused Liselotte von der Pfalz, who knew him from various play dates, but had never met his mother before, timidly asked him who "the lady with the ugly nose" standing close by was, and he broke into laughter, telling her: "But that is the Princess Royal, my mother!" As my grandmother would say, God punishes the smaller sins on earth, and guess who ended up with an even larger distinctly-shaped nose as an adult...

The Bentinck Family Disaster:

In August 1679, Hans Willem Bentinck, his wife Anne and their brand new baby daughter went to visit his family home at Diepenheim- only for Anne to fall dangerously ill of a contagious fever that soon also infected Bentinck's mother and one of his sisters.

It can't have been easy for Bentinck trying to keep sane as his wife was presumed at death's door, his mother and sister were sick as well, while also having to try and take care that the baby wouldn't catch the infection, either.

Luckily, he had one of his sisters, who had not caught the fever, to help him organise the household and the care for the sick; not-so-luckily, he also had an extremely emotionally needy best friend, who took to worrying himself sick while also demanding Bentinck's affection and attention.

Home alone as Mary was off to take the waters at Aachen, William just really wanted to hang out with his best friend, but Bentinck, who naturally prioritised taking care of his sick family and his child, refused.

William could coax him to agree to a short meeting though, which inspired him to write him this letter on 15 August 1679:

It is impossible to tell you with what pain I parted from you this morning, or how distressed I was at leaving you in such a state or what anxiety I am in at the moment. I could not live without you and if ever I felt I loved you it is today. I beg you to come here as soon as your wife is out of danger. I cannot tell you how much your absence grieves me. If you cannot come here tomorrow evening I will come to see you, as I cannot bear to be separated from you any longer when you are in such trouble. [Translation: Robb, Nesca Adeline, William of Orange. A Personal Portrait (Vol. 2), p. 139]

In the end, Wiliam did not do as threatened and invite himself over, though the emotionally charged letters about missing Bentinck so, so much continued. He renewed his threat to go see Bentinck at Diepenheim three weeks later, when the latter was happy to report that his wife was improving slowly, and was, once again firmly told to please, please stay away.

Naturally, none of the Bentincks would have wanted to entertain their head of state while half the household was in recovery after a fever with one family member aalmost having died of it and the household being largely run on an improvised schedule by Hans Willem and one of his sisters.

William, again, did not get the memo. He pouted that he was:

[...] extremely disappointed after spending all last night on the road and waiting till this hour and now perhaps having to spend part of tonight in the calèche before reaching Soestdijk, and having done all this only in the hope of seeing you and your wife and now to find myself deprived of it. [Translation: Robb, Nesca Adeline, William of Orange. A Personal Portrait (Vol. 2), p. 140]

...And this is only half of the guilt trip. He continued to lay it on thickly by telling Bentinck he would be

[...] in despair if I won't see you tomorrow. I beg you to assure Madame your wife of the pain that I have at not being able to see her and that there is, you aside, no other man in the world who partakes more in that which she suffers than I, and do so always in everything where you are concerned. [Translation: mine, from: Letter from William III to Hans Willem Bentinck, 10 September 1679, Correspondentie van Willem III en van Hans Willem Bentinck, p. 10 f.]

While not only absolutely tone-deaf and acutely focussed on his own emotional needs while his best friend was afraid of losing the love of his life, it strikes me as interesting how naturally William invited himself over.

To me, it bespeaks a desire of having a family like the Bentincks', with parents and siblings, but while one can respect a found family narrative, the man really, really needed to take a step back. I don't know how Bentinck managed to stand this kind of behaviour for almost 40 years.

The (Presumed) Concussion:

Returning from the campaign in Ireland in 1691, the last leg of the journey back to London proved a tad adventurous when his carriage overturned near Gravesend. Both Marlborough and Bentinck, who had been in the carriage with him, were thrown on top of William, and escaped with minor injuries; William wrenched his shoulder, and Marlborough, who had screamed that his back must be broken, escaped with a concussion.

I would cast doubt on whether William was not concussed, either, though: when they reached Whitehall at 11 PM the same night in another coach, he impatiently jumped out, ran across the palace shouting "where is the Queen?" until he reached Mary's rooms, and kissed her twice in front of the assembled a- and bemused courtiers, who had never seen anything like it before.

What'd also be interesting to know is whether Mary was sitting or standing up, because in the latter case, he would have had to jump up to even manage to surprise-kiss her, due to their extreme height difference (which was such that Wiliam could not physically offer Mary his arm when they were walking together; he walked on her arm instead).

The Doctor:

Apparently, William was a terrible patient which was unfortunate for his health and the doctors he employed. One of them, John Radcliffe, fell temporarily out of favour for an exasperated slip of the tongue when he noticed that his patient, at the time struggling with swellings in both legs, had done absolutely nothing about them, despite having experienced some discomfort for a very long time, which however had not bothered him enough to do anything about it.

While Radcliffe was temporarily given the cold shoulder for telling William "I would not have your Majesty's two legs for your three kingdoms," a Dutch physician called Govard Bidloo was the only one able to handle William somewhat.

It seems that Wiliam cared more for Bidloo's company than his advice, because he ignored most of the latter or talked back to him saying that a man beyond the age of 30 or 40 years of age was his own best physician.

My absolute 'highlight' is that apparently Bidloo had to physically put his monarch into winter clothes, because William would absolutely refuse to dress according to the weather.

The day William died, Bidloo held him in his arms for a long time, until William, waking up from a spell of sleep or unconsciousness, noted "you can bear me up no longer" in a show of concern for his friend, and had someone else hold him up. That has to have been the only time William ever showed concern for the exasperated Bidloo, who had had a really tough time trying to keep his multimorbid monarch alive.

The Toddler:

From William acting like a toddler, let's move on to William and actual toddlers.

The man was extremely good with small children. The Lord Buckhusrt-episode is almost as well known as his affectionate care for his nephew William, Duke of Gloucester, and I still think that there is a charming sincerity to the image of William running through the palace corridors pulling a toddler on a cart who had just told him off for not being on time for tea.

Perhaps a lot could have been averted politically if someone had only supplied William III with a suitable amount of small children to take care of...

[acrossthewavesoftime]

How similar were the Bentinck-William-Keppel and Sarah-Anne-Abigail situations? I always found it amusing that more or less the same thing happened with two consecutive monarchs of Britain, right down to the persisting gay rumors, although I haven't looked that closely into Anne's triangle yet to see if that impression is warranted.

That's a very good and compelling question, thank you, @redladydeath! Truth be told, I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to Anne, either.

However and please correct me if I'm wrong, I would say that the constellation was not quite so similar as it seems at the first glance.

There are a few importnt factors factors that should not be disregarded:

Period gender roles and -expectations: despite e. g. Sarah Churchill and Hans Willem Bentinck holding the same offices, their roles at court, and in a political and social context, in how far their actions were considered to be 'socially acceptable' at the time (e. g. Sarah Churchill could, contrary to a man of a similar background, not chose a parliamentary career and could only gain any kind of political participation through inofficial channels) cannot be quite compared to another.

William, as well as his friends, were considered to be foreigners by the social and political élites of England and thus met with some measure of prejudices and distrust, especially when William gave Bentinck and Keppel English titles.

William and Anne, as well as their friends, were fundamentally different people, who sought for different types of companionship, support and loyalty in these respective constellatons.

Another difference that I see is that as far as I am aware, the motives of the people close to the respective monarchs differed. Whereas Sarah Churchill genuinely enjoyed and sought political participation which she gained by having the ear of the Queen, Hans Willem Bentinck's foremost intention seems to have been that he simply wanted to be with his best friend, who just so happened to be the most powerful man in the country and would, as an added bonus, sometimes hand out lavish favours.

What I think sets the friendship between Bentinck and William apart from that between Sarah Churchill and Anne is that William was not looking for his closest friend to be his political advisor. While the two men were close and held a genuine and above all, strong affection for another, William expected Bentinck to know his place, and follow his orders.

It is however interesting to note that this seems not to have been true of their private life; Bentinck dared to oppose William on the matter of Keppel, left the court and his offices without William wanting him to, and according to one rumour, also gave William a piece of his mind on the theme of spousal infidelity when there was talk that Willam was having an affair with Bentinck's sister-in-law.

The two appear to have found a level of operating together in the political sphere with William in charge and Bentinck serving him not blindly and without question, but devotedly, whereas their private interactions are indicated to have taken place on a more near-equal level.

Anne on the other hand wanted her friends to be around her almost all day long to entertain her, and heavily relied on Sarah Churchill and her political acumen which in the end contributed to Sarah's falling out of favour when Anne grew to be displeased with the changing political scene and somewhat blamed Churchill for it.

To me, there are more similarities in Abigail Masham and Arnold Joost van Keppel-- although it should not be disregarded that Keppel was on good terms with Anne as well, despite having been close with the brother-in-law she had despised.

They were two younger people come into play in the wake of the respective monarch grieving their spouse; I recall reading about someone observing that Anne was displeased with Sarah Churchill for having taken a picture of her recently-deceased husband off the wall and considered her actions deeply intrusive; William, in a similar vein, seems to have looked for some distance from the friends he had shared with Mary (of which Bentinck was probably the one who had been closest with the late Queen), and, especially towards the end of his life, regarded Keppel as an almost son-like presence in his life.

As for Anne and Abigail Masham, their being not that far apart in age suggests that their dynamic was ultimately a different one, albeit having originated under similar circumstances.

So, all things considered, I think the unsatisfactory answer is "similar, but not that similar." If any of you reading this have any further thoughts and suggestions, especially if you have read into Anne and her friend circle more than I, please share them!

As for the rumours of alleged homosexuality regarding both Anne and William, a few closing thoughts. Firstly, I think it is important that we highlight marginalised people, or groups of people, from history. Yet this should be done faithfully, and without bringing modern labels or gendered behavioural expectations into play. It seems to me that often, the (presumed) sexuality or more genrally, the (alleged) sex life of historical figures is used as a sort of 'selling point' to market pieces of media (both fictional and [allegedly] factual) to modern audiences, usually because sex has somehow become a short hand for 'grown-up' and 'exciting', particularly in entertainment media. We should not sensationalise or embellish the orientations and sex lives of historical figures (or anyone, for that matter), and accept the facts at hand when we examine their lives. To me this phenomenon also lays bare a contemporary issue, namely, that with sex being regarded as a quintessential component of a compelling narrative, people, people living or historical who for whatever reason do not define sex as a prerequesite for a fulfilling relationship, do not wish to engage in sex for whatever reason or identify somewhere on the spectrum of asexuality are basically invisible. This is not about pitting orientations and/or preferences against another, but perhaps food for thought.

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Guillaume and Lisette sitting on a tree...

(P. S.): I have just made a compliment to Madame the Duchess of Orléans on behalf of him who once played at being in love with her so vivaciously in the old days. I am reassured that it will give her great pleasure; however, for her own good, I would like her to hide her feelings better, because it's no little thing to speak them and could do her a lot of harm.

Sophie von Hannover to William III, July 1692. Correspondentie van Willem III en van Hans Willem Bentinck [online], vol. 2 part 3, KS 28 p. 296.

...Ever had a moment you are sure you'll never be allowed to live down? That one childhood anecdote they bring up at every family gathering?

People always having been people, this appears to be a pattern occurring ever since the proverbial dawn of time.

This is an amusing P.S. from a letter sent by Sophie von Hannover to William of Orange, then William III of England.

When he had been a child, Sophie had visited The Hague with her niece Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz (more commonly known by her childhood nickname of Liselotte, though when the family spoke French, "Lisette" was also used), and the two children, as per their rank fairly isolated, were happy for a playfellow of a like age.

For Liselotte in particular having a boy to play with must have been an almost liberating experience; in her letters, she mentions that as a child, she would have liked to have been a boy, as she greatly enjoyed pursuits that were considered improper for girls, particularly princesses. One wonders if the future King of England accompanied her on one of her infamous excursions climbing cherry trees to steal the fruit.

Seeing the children being close and enjoying each other's company gave rise to the first teasings; apparently a lady presumably in the retinue of William's mother, the Princess Royal, congratulated Liselotte on having conquerred William's heart. A little horrified (and, mind, a child of about 8 years old), Liselotte is said to have been mean to William afterwards, likely so as to prove she was absolutely not in love with him.

Years later, marriage was seriously contemplated (and, older and knowing of the harsh reality of arranged marriages, Liselotte is said to have not been averse to the idea of marrying William, someone she already knew and liked), but Liselotte at last married to the Duc d'Orléans, Louis XIV's brother. For the rest of her life, and long after William's death, she would continue to recall their days playing together at The Hague fondly and it seems that the feeling was mutual, seeing as Sophie mentions Liselotte to William.

Here, clearly, Sophie makes a joke about the supposed childhood infatuation between them, yet also mentions some more serious news of her niece, namely her chief complaint that Liselotte was prone to speaking a tad too frankly at all times. She could not have written to him personally, seeing as William was the sworn enemy of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV, so it seems that Sophie kept them somewhat updated on each other-- and also kept teasing them for her own amusement:

The letter dating to July 1692, William was 41 and Liselotte 40 years old, 3 decades after they played together in The Hague.

[rotterdamvanalles]

Gezicht op de Bentincklaan, 1946.

Willem graaf Bentinck (Whitehall in Londen, 6 november 1704 - Den Haag, 13 oktober 1774), heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht, na 1732 rijksgraaf Bentinck, oudste zoon uit het tweede huwelijk van Hans Willem Bentinck, graaf van Portland, was een Nederlands edelman en politicus. Hij had als lid van de Ridderschap van Holland zitting in de Staten van Holland en West-Friesland.

Willem Bentinck erfde vanwege het gebruikelijke fideï-commis geen goederen in Engeland. Hij deelde wel in het Hollandse bezit van zijn in 1709 gestorven vader en werd zo heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht en eigenaar van Huis Sorghvliet, het huidige Catshuis. Zijn jongere broer Charles erfde de oude landgoederen van de Bentincks in Overijssel en het kasteel Het Nijenhuis.

Willem Bentinck was een zeer gereserveerde en stugge aristocraat die desondanks de gave had om diplomaat te zijn. Hij werd een van de belangrijkste adviseurs van stadhouder Willem IV die aan Bentinck zijn verheffing tot erfstadhouder dankte. Er wordt verondersteld dat Willem Bentinck zo stug en gesloten was om praatjes te voorkomen; zijn vader was de favoriet en volgens vele tijdgenoten ook de minnaar van stadhouder Willem III geweest. Bentinck stond zichzelf niets joyeus en niets dat ook maar in de verte fatterig of verwijfd kon lijken toe.

De fotograaf is Gerard Roos en de foto komt uit het Stadsarchief Rotterdam. De informatie kromtrekken van Wikipedia.

[rotterdamvanalles]

Gezicht op de Bentincklaan, 1946.

Willem graaf Bentinck (Whitehall in Londen, 6 november 1704 - Den Haag, 13 oktober 1774), heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht, na 1732 rijksgraaf Bentinck, oudste zoon uit het tweede huwelijk van Hans Willem Bentinck, graaf van Portland, was een Nederlands edelman en politicus. Hij had als lid van de Ridderschap van Holland zitting in de Staten van Holland en West-Friesland.

Willem Bentinck erfde vanwege het gebruikelijke fideï-commis geen goederen in Engeland. Hij deelde wel in het Hollandse bezit van zijn in 1709 gestorven vader en werd zo heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht en eigenaar van Huis Sorghvliet, het huidige Catshuis. Zijn jongere broer Charles erfde de oude landgoederen van de Bentincks in Overijssel en het kasteel Het Nijenhuis.

Willem Bentinck was een zeer gereserveerde en stugge aristocraat die desondanks de gave had om diplomaat te zijn. Hij werd een van de belangrijkste adviseurs van stadhouder Willem IV die aan Bentinck zijn verheffing tot erfstadhouder dankte. Er wordt verondersteld dat Willem Bentinck zo stug en gesloten was om praatjes te voorkomen; zijn vader was de favoriet en volgens vele tijdgenoten ook de minnaar van stadhouder Willem III geweest. Bentinck stond zichzelf niets joyeus en niets dat ook maar in de verte fatterig of verwijfd kon lijken toe.

De fotograaf is Gerard Roos en de foto komt uit het Stadsarchief Rotterdam. De informatie komt van Wikipedia.

Bron, Rotterdam van toen, Stadsarchief Rotterdam

[rotterdamvanalles]

Gezicht op de Bentincklaan, 1946.

Willem graaf Bentinck (Whitehall in Londen, 6 november 1704 - Den Haag, 13 oktober 1774), heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht, na 1732 rijksgraaf Bentinck, oudste zoon uit het tweede huwelijk van Hans Willem Bentinck, graaf van Portland, was een Nederlands edelman en politicus. Hij had als lid van de Ridderschap van Holland zitting in de Staten van Holland en West-Friesland.

Willem Bentinck erfde vanwege het gebruikelijke fideï-commis geen goederen in Engeland. Hij deelde wel in het Hollandse bezit van zijn in 1709 gestorven vader en werd zo heer van Rhoon en Pendrecht en eigenaar van Huis Sorghvliet, het huidige Catshuis. Zijn jongere broer Charles erfde de oude landgoederen van de Bentincks in Overijssel en het kasteel Het Nijenhuis.

Willem Bentinck was een zeer gereserveerde en stugge aristocraat die desondanks de gave had om diplomaat te zijn. Hij werd een van de belangrijkste adviseurs van stadhouder Willem IV die aan Bentinck zijn verheffing tot erfstadhouder dankte. Er wordt verondersteld dat Willem Bentinck zo stug en gesloten was om praatjes te voorkomen; zijn vader was de favoriet en volgens vele tijdgenoten ook de minnaar van stadhouder Willem III geweest. Bentinck stond zichzelf niets joyeus en niets dat ook maar in de verte fatterig of verwijfd kon lijken toe.

In 1733 trouwde hij met Charlotte Sophie van Aldenburg. Het betrof hier een gearrangeerd huwelijk, met de bedoeling het bezit van de wederzijdse families te vermeerderen. Dit ongelukkig huwelijk hield slechts zeven jaar stand, waarna Charlotte Sophie van Aldenburg tevergeefs probeerde via gerechtelijke procedures haar vaders erfdeel, de Aldenburgse bezittingen in Noord-Duitsland, weer terug te krijgen.

De fotograaf is Gerard Roos en de foto komt uit het Stadsarchief Rotterdam. De informatie komt van Wikipedia.

Bron: Pagina Rotterdam Van Toen