Benjamin von Buwinckhausen (1571–1635) was a German diplomat who served the Duchy of Württemberg, and the German Princes of the Protestant Union.
Biography Buwinckhausen wrote an account of the London coronation of James VI and I and Anne of Denmark on 25 May 1603. He was lodged at Richmond Palace.William Brenchley Rye, 'Coronation of James I', The Antiquary, 22 (London, 1890), pp. 19, 22: Hans Jakob Breunings von Buchenbach, Relation über seine Sendung nach England im Jahr 1595 (Stuttgart, 1865), p. 86
On 4 October 1603, Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg was invested in the Order of the Garter by a delegation of James VI and I. Sir Robert Spencer and William Dethick brought him the insignia of the order. Benjamin von Buwinckhausen helped organise the ceremonies in the church and castle in Stuttgart.John Nichols, Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 282. The jewels including two garters with diamonds and rubies, and two St Georges with diamonds and rubies, and a gold chain or collar, made by the London goldsmiths, John Spilman and William Herrick.HMC Laing Manuscripts at the University of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (London, 1914), pp. 93-7.
He came to London again in 1608 with Louis Frederick, Duke of Württemberg-Montbéliard.M. S. Giuseppi & G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Earl of Salisbury, 20 (London, 1968), pp. 227–228. They returned the insignia of the Order of the Garter of the recently deceased Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg and visited Scotland where they were hosted by Andrew Melville of Garvock.William Fraser, Melvilles, Earls of Melville, and the Leslies, Earls of Leven (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 166: Dorothea Nolde, 'Religion and the Display of Power', C. Scott Dixon, Dagmar Freist, Mark Greengrass, Living with Religious Diversity in Early-modern Europe (Ashgate, 2009), p. 268.
During the 1609 War of the Julich Succession, often he communicated with French minister Villeroy. Buwinckhausen believed that the Protestant Union couldn't defeat the Habsburgs who occupied Julich on its own, and thought that it was necessary to acquire aid from surrounding nations. He also believed that Wolfgang Wilhelm (who jointly claimed the Duchies of Julich-Cleves-Berg alongside Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg) was an unreliable ally that might switch to support the Habsburgs.
He was in England again in 1610 on a diplomatic mission.HMC Downshire, vol. 2 (London, 1936), pp. 278, 306. On 30 April 1610 their secretary recorded that they saw Othello, l'histoire du More de Venise, at the Globe Theatre.Gilbert Waterhouse, The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1914), pp. 2, 11. The next day they went to Eltham Park to see Cornelius Drebbel demonstrate his perpetual motion machine.William Brenchley Rye, England as Seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth & James the First (London, 1865), pp. 61, 233: See external links. They also observed King James fishing with cormorants.James Edmund Harting, The Ornithology of Shakespeare: Critically Examined, Explained, and Illustrated (London, 1871), pp. 261-2: William Brenchley Rye, England as Seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth & James the First (London, 1865), p. 64: Arthur MacGregor, 'Animals and the early Stuarts: hunting and hawking at the court of James I and Charles I', Archives of Natural History, 19:3 (1989), p. 313.
In London in 1620 negotiating with Christopher von Dohna on behalf of Frederick V of the Palatinate and the Princes of the Union, Buwinckhausen refused a gift of valuable silver plate from James VI and I, on the grounds that he was not an ambassador. He was eventually persuaded to accept the silverware.Calendar State Papers Venice, vol. 16 (London, 1910), pp. 220, 229, nos. 310. He was also given a gold chain with a portrait medal of the king, provided by a London goldsmith John Acton. The exchequer record of the gift names him as "Benny Couzen".Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), pp. 244-5.
References
External links A German prince sees Othello at the Globe in 1610: Shakespeare Documented