Walraven III van Brederode

Walraven III van Brederode (1547–1614) was a Dutch aristocrat and diplomat. He was a son of Reinoud IV van Brederode and Margaretha van Doerne, and became Lord Van Brederode on the death of his father in 1584. He married Gulielma van Haeften.

Print from 1608 by Hendrik Hondius
Brederode found inappropriate heraldry in the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle

Scotland in 1594

He was ambassador to Scotland from the Dutch Republic or United Provinces for the christening of Prince Henry in August 1594, accompanied by "Jacobus Falkius", Jacob Valke or Valck, treasurer of Zeeland.[1] They stayed for two weeks in Leith and Edinburgh and then travelled to Linlithgow and then to Stirling. They had audiences with James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, and saw the Prince. After dinner and some persuasion, King James danced in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle.

Brederode and Valck described a meeting with the other ambassadors at the castle to discuss the naming of the prince, which was traditional and customary for godfathers. According to their account, the name "Henry Frederick" was chosen to allude to the late Frederick II of Denmark and Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and the late Henry, Duke of Mecklenburg, to Henry IV of France, and Henry VIII of England. Brederode and Valck were lodged in Stirling town and over the next few days came to the Palace for dinners hosted by the Earl of Mar and the other ambassadors. They also joined a hunt in the park.[2]

During the celebrations at Stirling Castle they presented two large gold cups weighing 300 ounces and a letter in a gold box giving Prince Henry a yearly pension of 5,000 "Gelderlings" or "Gudlenes".[3] He also brought a copy of the Scottish ratification of the Treaty of Binche[4] (5 December 1550) which was made on 1 May 1551, and he confirmed this league of friendship between Scotland and the Low Countries at Edinburgh on 13 September 1594. These documents were kept in a round box for many years. For a time the box was kept by William Keith of Delny, who was given the duty of collecting the pension. Delny left it in Edinburgh with John Gourlay, and in 1601 Gourlay delivered it to George Home of Spott.[5] The lawyer Thomas Hamilton examined Brederode's commission in 1619 and noticed useful details regarding East Indian trade.[6]

In the Chapel Royal at Stirling special seating and desks for the ambassadors had been decorated with coloured cloths and heraldry.[7] Brederode and Valck found their seat was decorated with the wrong coats of arms, and they asked for the arms of Holland and Zeeland to be taken down and replaced with the shields of the six United Provinces.[8]

The arrival of the ambassadors in Scotland on 3 August and their entertainment at the baptism was noted by William Fowler in his A True Reportarie of the Baptisme of the Prince of Scotland (Robert Waldegrave, Edinburgh, 1594). In September 1594 James VI gave them gold chains with a medal with portraits of James VI and Anne of Denmark worth 1000 French crowns as a parting gift.[9] They said goodbye to Anne of Denmark on the 25 September, and she recommended to them the soldier Alexander Murray, the uncle of one of her ladies-in-waiting in attendance, Anne Murray or Lilias Murray.[10][11]

England in 1594

Brederode and Valke travelled from Edinburgh first to Seton Palace, then to Newcastle upon Tyne where they were welcomed by the town officials and the mayor Lionel Maddison.[12] They were treated to a banquet including baked rabbit, fish, and swan, a barrel of London beer, and sugar confectionaries, to the accompaniment of music by the town waits.[13]

They travelled towards London and lodged at Bethnal Green, staying at the house of "Lord Schonewal", meaning the Lord Cromwell's mansion, originally built by John Colet.[14] They had an audience with Elizabeth I at Nonsuch Palace.[15] They made their report to the States General on 7 November 1594. They brought a portrait of Prince Henry, possibly the work of the court painter Adrian Vanson.[16]

He died in 1614.

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester had a portrait of "Mounsieur Brederodes" at Kenilworth Castle in 1583.[17]

References
  1. Thomas Birch, Memorials of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 184.
  2. James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 161-4.
  3. Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 16 (London, 1715), p. 264: Thomas Thomson, The Historie and Life of King James the Sext (Edinburgh, 1825), p. 335-7.
  4. Beaujon, A. (1884). The History of Dutch Sea Fisheries: Their Progress,Decline and Revival, in The Fisheries Exhibition Literature: Prize essays. London: William Clowes. p. 462. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  5. David Masson, Register of the Privy Council, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1884), p. 264.
  6. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1895), p. 23: The Melros Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1837), pp. 334-5.
  7. Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', Court Historian, 24:2 (2019) p. 144 citing NRS E35/13 (3) p. 22A.
  8. James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 164-5.
  9. James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 170: Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588-1596', Scottish History Society Miscellany, XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 77.
  10. James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 170.
  11. Alexander Murray, SSNE
  12. Annie Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 418.
  13. Richard Welford, History of Gateshead and Newcastle, vol. 3 (London, 1890), pp. 91-3.
  14. Gillian Tindall, The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London Journey (London, 2016), p. 107.
  15. James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 171-4.
  16. James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade in the service of the United Netherlands, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 154-174
  17. HMC Lord De L'Isle & Dudley, vol. 1 (London, 1925), p. 291.
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