Willem Leyel
4th Governor of Tranquebar
In office 1643–1648 Co-leading with Anders Nielsen ( acting)
Monarch	Christian IV
Preceded by	Bernt Pessart
Succeeded by	Paul Hansen Korsør
Personal details
Born	1593 Elsinore
Died	1654 Copenhagen
Nationality	Danish (Scottish ancestry)
Spouse(s)	Alhed Lübbers ( m. c. 1624)
Children	Christina Leyel Hans Anders
Parent(s)	Johan Willumsen Ingeborg Frederiksdatter Leyel
Military service
Allegiance	Dutch East India 1623?–1626?   Denmark-Norway 1626–1648
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	Conflict between Willem Leyel and Bernt Pessart Willem Leyel's siege of Dansborg Siege of Dansborg (1644) Dano-Mughal War Capture of St. Michael

Willem Leyel or Willum Leyel ( Danish: William Leyel, c. 1593 – Spring 1654) was a Danish governor of Tranquebar and captain in the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy. He was employed by the V.O.C. in Batavia, Dutch East Indies during his early 20s, and lived in Persia during his employment. In 1643 he became governor of Tranquebar by force, succeeding Bernt Pessart. Leyel was governor until 1648 and improved the conditions caused by his predecessor.

Early life

Willem Leyel was born in Elsinore (Helsingør) around 1593 to the highly respected Leyel family. ^[1] The Leyel family migrated from Scotland to Elsinore in the 16th century, and Willem Leyel liked to mention his family's origins. ^[2]

In service of the Dutch East India Company

The first time we have reliable information about Willem Leyel, he was employed by the Dutch East India Company in Batavia. ^[3] Louis de Dieu in his Historia Christi mentions Leyel breifly: ^[3]

I owe it to the Danish merchant Willem Leyel to confess that the information that this man, raised above the ordinary spirit of commerce, though no scholar, while he still lived in Persia, learned to speak, read, and write the Persian language, passed on to me, when he spent some time in Leyden, has been very useful

— Louis de Dieu, Historia Christi

If it is true that Leyel spent time in Persia, he may have arrived in 1623 when the first Dutch commercial expedition arrived in Persia and succeeded in establishing a trading post. ^[4] However, Leyel could not have been there for long, since in 1626, we find him, together with his comrade, Claus Rytter, at Pipili, where the Danes had made attempts to make a foothold. ^[4]

In Denmark

Leyel appears to have returned to Denmark in the middle of the Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War, and on 1 May 1628, he was appointed captain in the Royal Danish Navy. ^[5] Sources remained silent about Leyel for the next couple of years, however, in 1634 Leyel is found having a conversation with Albret Skeel about the Company's finances. ^[6] The Company was in a dire situation and needed an experienced man like Leyel to sort things out. ^[6] Subsequently, Leyel was sent to India with the Christianshavn in 1639.

Voyage of Christianshavn

Upon leaving Copenhagen, they sailed north towards Elsinore waiting there for ten days for the weather to improve. ^[7] Thereafter they went to Varberg, and then, after a heavy storm, they reached Plymouth. ^[8] After a couple of weeks, they continued south reaching Tenerife in early 1640. ^[9] However, at Santa Cruz, the ship and captain were inspected by the Spanish, who were skeptical of other European nations trading and colonizing India. ^[10]

Obstacles with the Spanish

Arrival at Tranquebar

Danish East India

Top: Danish settlements, factories, and trade routes during most of Pessart's administration.
Bottom: Danish settlements, factories, and trade routes during the end of Pessart's administration and afterward.

Regime

Inside Tranquebar, Leyel found everything in bad shape, and Pessart even seemed to have taken the Company's ledgers with him. ^[11] Leyel now had to form a picture of Pessart's trade, which appears to have been minimized to only operating in Bantam and Makassar. ^[12] Additionally, the garrison and citizens of Tranquebar were lazy and addicted to drinking. ^[12]

On June 28, 1643, Leyel summoned the council to read out the orders from Christian IV and to get an overview of Pessart's debts. ^[13] The council concluded that Pessart was said to owe 90–100.000 Danish rigsdaler to Persian and Moorish merchants in Masulipatnam and that Pessart was to be arrested wherever he could be found. ^[14] Leyel quickly orchestrated the rebuilding of Dansborg and parts of Tranquebar. Indian bricklayers and carpenters were set to rebuild the walls and repair the woodwork of Dansborf, and after time many of the houses were torn down and rebuilt. ^[15] On 4 September, Leyel appointed Anders Nielsen as acting governor of Tranquebar, whenever Leyel could not be present himself. ^[15]

Leyel also came into problems with two clergymen, who had continuously caused havoc in Tranquebar. Paster Niels Andersen was put in prison, attested in court, and sentenced to exile in Ceylon, while Paster Christian Storm was executed on the basis of his crimes. ^[16]

Isolation from Denmark

In 1643, the Swedes marched across Jutland under Lennart Torstensson, occupying large parts of the country. ^[17] The Danes were caught off guard, and Christian IV had to sign an ignominious peace in the summer of 1645. ^[17] The news of this slowly reached India, and it gradually became evident to Leyel that neither the King nor the Company had any means to send new ships to the East. ^[17]

Leyel's original plan was to send the Christianshavn home immediately with a good cargo. ^[17] However, there was a danger of the ship being seized by the Swedes as long as the two nations were still waging war. ^[17]Furthermore, the lack of ships from Denmark also resulted in a lack of men, which became highly evident 20 years after Leyel's departure, when Governor Eskild Andersen would be the only dane left in Tranquebar. ^[18] Yet, still, during Leyel's regime, there was an increasing lack of men. ^[17] In 1644, Leyel reported that there were only 17 white men at Dansborg, and of these, at least 10 were from other European nations. ^[17] As such, Leyel found a great need for lascar, which would serve the Company. ^[19]

Additionally, there were also not many ships. Originally, Christianshavn and the sloops Fortuna and Valby constituted the whole fleet, however, prizes from the Bengalis would supplement this. ^[21]

Tranquebar

During Leyel's administration, the Dutch advanced all over the region, and subsequently, many fleeing Portuguese sought refuge in Tranquebar. ^[21] Leyel promised the Portuguese refugees security of life, and some of them were employed by the Company as soldiers and minor officials, while others took part in the regional trade. ^[21]

The Danes allowed complete freedom of conscience. Leyel naturally let the Hindus keep their temples and the Muslims their mosques but also gave the Portuguese permission to erect a large Catholic church, which Leyel claimed would be as big as Holmen Church in Copenhagen. ^[22] Some of the Portuguese refugees also joined the local Lutheran congregation, because of the efforts of the later exiled Niels Andersen. ^[17]

Trade

Leyel still found Makassar to be the best place for trade on the Sunda Islands, and he hoped to pay off Pessart's debts there. ^[24] At Bantam, Herman Clausen had built up and organized the Danish trading station, however, he became seriously ill and was transported by the Dutch to Tranquebar where he would soon after die. ^[24] The most important trading ports for the Danes were Porto Novo, Cuddalore, Pondicherry, and Pulicat, moreover, the various trading hubs on the Sunda Islands, Bengal, and Ceylon were also of importance to the Danes. ^[23]

A few days after Clausen's death, Leyel sailed with the Fortuna to Emeldy to spend the winter there. Masulipatnam was still closed to the Danes until they could pay their debts. ^[25]

Privateering war against the Bengalis

Leyel intended to continue Pessart's privateering war against the Bengalis, which had started as a result of the major ship losses off the Bengali coast. ^{[25] [26]} This was by far the best way to obtain money for the Company, and the risks were of minimal importance. ^[25] Examples include the Christianshavn’s seizure of a Bengali ship near Nakapur in December 1643, a capture of a small ship coming from Pipli in 1644, and a hijacking of a much larger ship coming from the Maldives the same year. ^[27]

Warfare against the Bengalis continued to be conducted, however, the Bengalis were not the only enemy of the Danes. ^[28] In December 1644, an Indian general from Thanjavur had started to besiege Dansborg though being unsuccessful in conquering Tranquebar. ^[28] Contrary, relations with other Indian kingdoms remained positive. In 1644, the acting governor of Tranquebar, Anders Nielsen, was sent to Ceylon with gifts to the local ruler, ^[29] and the king of Makassar still viewed the Danes favourably. ^[24] Additionally, Nielsen was sent to the Nayak of Thanjavur with a palanquin as a gift, and after prolonged negotiations, the Nayak accepted the gift and agreed to pay for the damages done to Tranquebar by the Indian general. ^[30]

In March 1645, Leyel sent the Christianshavn with a crew of six Europeans to Pipli, however, it never returned. ^[31] A loss of six Europeans was a significant loss to the Company, and Leyel continuously asked the directors in Copenhagen for more men. ^[31] He went further and explained how he could not have managed the colonies if he had not been able to hire Englishmen and Dutchmen. ^[31]

Relations with other Europeans

Leyel maintained excellent relations with both the English and Portuguese. ^[31] Leyel seems to be on familiar terms with the English captains and men from the trading stations round about the East Indies, and he had a friendly relationship with the Portuguese viceroy, Filipe Mascarenhas, who gave the Danes the freedom to trade at all Portuguese stations in India. ^[32] On the other hand, the Dutch were hostile to the Danes and sought to oust them from Tranquebar. ^[33] Evidently, the Dutch had supported the Thanjavurians in their siege on Dansborg in 1644, and had tried bribing the local Nayak to give them Tranquebar the same year, however, without success. ^[33] The threat of the growing influence of the Dutch makes Leyel to suspect that they will "completely crush and destroy us". ^[31]

Negotiations with the Bengalis and renewed warfare

Leyel tried to cause as much harm as possible to the Bengalis, which highly succeeded. ^[34] In 1645, the privateering war had harmed the Bengal interests so much that they sent a Jesuit, Antonio Rodríguez, to Leyel to reach a settlement. ^[35] Leyel was requested to estimate the combined Danish losses through Bengali injustices, however, they could not reach an agreement, and fighting intensified instead. ^{[35] [36]}

Later, the Dane, Jørgen Hansen, went to Balasore to conclude peace with the Bengalis. ^[37] However, Hansen felt that the governor was not interested, and he instead abandoned the talks and sailed off on a new privateering voyage. ^[37]

Personal interests

Later years

It can be guessed that Leyel found residence with either his mother or sister. ^[38] Despite the accusations, the new king, Frederick III, welcomed him in 1654 and recognized his service in India: ^[38]

it is Our gracious will and pleasure that Our steward shall give Our well-beloved Willem Leyel in view of his humble petition from Our victualling store belonging to Our Castle in Copenhagen annually until We decide otherwise, to be reckoned from the last St Philip’s and St James’ day the following victuals, that is rye 3 pounds, barley 4 pounds, butter 1 cask, beef two casks, pork 320 pounds, herrings 1 cask, cod 1 cask, oatmeal 1 cask, peas 1 cask, dried cod 1,320 pounds. From Our Castle in Copenhagen

— Frederik III of Denmark, Haffniæ 22, Februari anno 1654

From this, Frederik must have viewed Leyel without any suspicion of fraud and swindling against the Company, however, this reward was far from what Leyel had hoped for. ^[39] Leyel had probably hoped for a coat of arms and greater recognition such as his predecessor, Roland Crappé, had obtained, yet he had to be grateful for the supply of rations so that he could sustain his life. ^[40]

A month later of Leyel's arrival, the bubonic plague swept across Copenhagen, killing 8.000 people during the summer of 1654. It is uncertain if it was the plague that put an end to Leyel's life, however, at any rate, he died in 1654. ^[40]

Family Tree

References

Works cited

• Bredsdorff, Asta (2009). The Trials and Travels of Willem Leyel. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN  9788763530231.
• Haellquist, Karl Reinhold (2013-08-21). Asian Trade Routes. Routledge. ISBN  978-1-136-10082-6.
• Wellen, Kathryn (2015). The Danish East India Company's War against the Mughal Empire, 1642-1698 (PDF). Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies.
• Wirta, K.H. (2018). Dark horses of business : overseas entrepreneurship in seventeenthcentury Nordic trade in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. Universiteit Leiden.
• Rindom, Jan (1995). Ostindisk Kompagni 1616-50 [East Indian Company 1616-50] (PDF) (in Danish). Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek.
• Sethuraman, N. (2016). The Danish East India Company From Establishment To The Epilogue (1616 – 1729) - A Historical Perspective. Salem: Tamil Nadu History Congress Proceedings.