Willem Leyel (alternative spellings include Willum and Wilhelm; – Spring 1654) was a Danish governor of Tranquebar and captain in the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy.
Willem Leyel was born in c. 1593 in Elsinore and would be employed by the V.O.C. in Batavia during his early 20s. During his employment, Leyel lived in Persia, where he was acknowledged for his hard work.
In 1639, Leyel was appointed as head of Christianshavn and was to inspect the financial conditions caused by Governor Bernt Pessart in India. However, in early 1640, during her voyage, Christianshavn was detained at Tenerife, and Leyel subsequently spent the next three years negotiating with Spanish officials for her release. A deal was finalized in March 1643, and Leyel would reach Danish-owned Tranquebar in September of the same year.
Regardless, Leyel was to use military force to become the governor of Tranquebar, succeeding Dutchman Bernt Pessart. During his governorship, Leyel improved and stabilized the Company's trade and local relations. Despite this, discontent from the other Danish officers led to a mutiny against him in 1648. Leyel would be arrested and sent to Copenhagen, where he would die, possibly from the plague, in 1654.
Early life Willem Leyel was born in Elsinore () around 1593 to the highly respected Leyel family. The Leyel family migrated from Scotland to Elsinore in the 16th century, and Willem Leyel liked to mention his family's origins.
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. Louis de Dieu in his Historia Christi mentions Leyel briefly:
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. 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.
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. 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. The Company was in a dire situation and needed an experienced man like Leyel to sort things out. 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. Thereafter they went to Varberg, and then, after a heavy storm, they reached Plymouth. After a couple of weeks, they continued south reaching Tenerife in early 1640. However, at Santa Cruz, the ship and captain were inspected by the Spanish, who were skeptical of other European nations trading and colonizing India.
Obstacles with the Spanish
First, the Spaniards demanded that the captain come ashore; however, after a couple of hours they also demanded Leyel himself to come ashore. Leyel rejected this for the reason that it was getting too late and that he would rather wait until the night was over. However, to reduce the delay of his arrival in Tranquebar, Leyel initiated an escape plan. Leyel theorized that he and his men must attempt to escape as soon as the darkness hits, otherwise they might be delayed indefinitely. Notwithstanding Leyel's efforts, the Spanish would intercept his escape, and Leyel was forced to surrender.
Leyel and his men were thereafter sent to La Laguna, where they would be imprisoned. Leyel and the local governor, Don Luis Fernandez de Cordoba, exchanged intense conversations and meetings over the next couple of days, yet de Cordoba hesitated to trust Leyel. In the end, de Cordoba mockingly suggested that if Leyel was to complain, he was free to go to Madrid, which Leyel, after consideration gave in on. On 16 March, three Danes, including Leyel, left Santa Cruz for Madrid over the privateer-marred ocean. Arriving at Madrid, Leyel issued a complaint about the treatment he and his men had received and demanded that Christianshavn be released on behalf of the Danish king. Because of the Spanish bureaucracy, Leyel waited for his complaint to be attended to for months.
Much to Leyel's fortune, Christian IV's son-in-law, Hannibal Sehested, had arrived in Spain to negotiate an alliance treaty with King Philip IV, and Leyel saw this as a chance to get his complaint attended to. After much effort, Leyel's complaint reached Spanish officials, and after heavy negotiation, Christianshavn could finally be released. Subsequently, after three years, a relieved Leyel could once again set sail for Tranquebar. After reaching Cape Verde, Table Mountain and possibly also Madagascar, Leyel was finally within reach of Tranquebar.
Arrival at Tranquebar
On 5 September 1643, Leyel arrived at Fort Dansborg and started investigating the conditions. Leyel noticed heavy damage to the Dansborg fortress and found the warehouse completely empty. Pessart explained this by claiming that Danborg was no longer of much use and that the warehouse was emptied to load two ships. When the bad conditions became evident for Leyel, Pessart opted to leave Tranquebar for Madras; however, because of Leyel's distrust of Pessart, Leyel followed suit. After reaching Madras, they sailed to Masulipatnam, and after that, Emeldy. At Emeldy, Leyel attempted to arrest Pessart and his men, yet when Leyel reached Pessart's tent, Pessart had already fled. As a response, Leyel immediately sent out Jørgen Hansen with a longboat and a strongly armed crew to catch Pessart. Hansen's pursuit proved unsuccessful, and Pessart could with ease reach Tranquebar in safety.
At Tranquebar, Pessart had taken everything he could, bought a little Portuguese sloop at Carical, and sailed for Japan on 5 June 1644. Six days later, on 11 June, Leyel and his men reached the coast of Tranquebar but found the place completely lifeless.
Siege of Tranquebar
After sending multiple letters from his ship to Dansborg, Leyel finally got an answer. However, in the letter, the officers at Dansborg rejected the removal of Pessart as governor, and Leyel was thus compelled to take control of the fortress by force. With 70 black and white men, Leyel went ashore and besieged the fortress with the help of the local population and the Thanjavurian Nayak. After a shortage in Dansborg, the besieged Pessart Loyalists emerged from the fortress and surrendered. The surrendered officers thereafter promised to be Loyal to Leyel and decided the recognize him as their rightful governor.
Regime Inside Tranquebar, Leyel found everything in bad shape, and Pessart even seemed to have taken the Company's ledgers with him. Leyel now had to form a picture of Pessart's trade, which appears to have been minimized to only operating in Bantam and Makassar. Additionally, the garrison and citizens of Tranquebar were lazy and addicted to drinking.
On 28 June 1643, Leyel summoned the council to read out the orders from Christian IV and to get an overview of Pessart's debts. 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. 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 Dansborg, and after time, many of the houses were torn down and rebuilt. On 4 September, Leyel appointed Anders Nielsen as acting governor of Tranquebar whenever Leyel could not be present himself.
Leyel also came into problems with two clergymen, who had continuously caused havoc in Tranquebar. Pastor Niels Andersen was put in prison, attested in court, and sentenced to exile in Ceylon, while Pastor Christian Storm was executed based on his crimes.
Isolation from Denmark
In 1643, the Swedes marched across Jutland under Lennart Torstensson, occupying large parts of the country. The Danes were caught off guard, and Christian IV had to sign an ignominious peace in the summer of 1645. 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.
Leyel's original plan was to send the Christianshavn home immediately with a good cargo. However, there was a danger of the ship being seized by the Swedes as long as the two nations were still waging war. 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 Kongsbakke would be the only Dane left in Tranquebar. Yet, still, during Leyel's regime, there was an increasing lack of men. In 1644, Leyel reported that there were only 17 white men at Dansborg, and of these, at least 10 were from other European nations. As such, Leyel found a great need for lascar, which would serve the Company.
Additionally, there were not many ships. Originally, Christianshavn and the sloops Fortuna and Valby constituted the whole fleet, however, prizes from the Bengalis would supplement this.
Tranquebar During Leyel's administration, the Dutch advanced all over the region, and subsequently, many fleeing Portuguese sought refuge in Tranquebar. 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.
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. Some of the Portuguese refugees also joined the local Lutheran congregation, because of the efforts of the later exiled Niels Andersen.
Trade Because of Pessart's unorthodox commercial strategy and exponential debts, trade with Ceylon, Masulipatnam and Makassar was in total disorder. Leyel nonetheless still found Makassar to be the best place for trade on the Sunda Islands, and he hoped to pay off Pessart's debts there. According to K.H. Wirta from Leiden University, the Danish Company had three regular trade networks: The first was with Ceylon and consisted of arrack, cinnamon and elephants, all of which were key products. The second trade network was with Makassar and consisted especially of cloves. The third network spanded over the north of the Coromandel Coast and continued along Bengal. Here Leyel obtained quick profits by slavery and privateering voyages against the Bengalis.
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. 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.
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.
Privateering war against the Bengalis