Christian von Lente

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Christian von Lente

Christian von Lente (born March 29, 1649 , † November 2, 1725 ) was a Danish diplomat and civil servant . From 1699 to 1710 he served Denmark-Norway as Chief War Secretary .

Family and origin

Von Lente's father was the Chancellor Theodor von Lente (1605–1668), his mother his wife Magdalena, nee. Schönbach (1612-1670). The diplomat Johann Hugo von Lente (1640–1719) was his brother. In 1680 von Lente married Jacobina Charlotta Sasburgh († 1688), daughter of the diplomat Thomas Sasburgh (1612–1687) and his wife Charlotta, b. van Bleyenburg (1625-1689).

Life

Until 1698

Lente's father raised him for court service. After graduating from school, he attended Heidelberg University in 1666 and traveled to France in 1667; In 1668, due to the death of his father, he had to stay at home for a short time and then continued his studies in Strasbourg and Leiden until his mother's death called him home in 1670. In the same year von Lente was appointed secretary in the German Chancellery and celebrated the engagement to the twelve-year-old Margrethe Elisabeth, daughter of his colleague Mathias Rudolf Rheinfrank zu Fævejlegård and half-sister of Griffenfeld's wife Karen , in the house of Chancellor Griffenfeld . The alliance was part of his ambitious plans for the future and helped secure a post as Danish diplomat in Brussels in 1675. After Griffenfeld's fall, he found this no longer useful and solved it. From 1679 to 1680 he was a diplomat in The Hague , from 1680 to 1688 he was envoy extraordinary to London. When Charles II. He made a good impression and was offered to be knighted, but what he did with the approval of the Danish King Christian V refused. In 1682 he and his brother were accepted into the Danish nobility. During his stay in England, negotiations about the marriage contract between George of Denmark and Anne Stuart took place , at whose wedding in 1683 he acted as master of ceremonies. Shortly before the Glorious Revolution in 1688, he fled to The Hague, where he served as envoy extraordinary until 1698. Here he established a close friendship with Christian Siegfried von Plessen , and was repeatedly the extraordinary ambassador to the Netherlands . The friendship was extremely beneficial to von Lente's career. In June 1691 he had a not inconsiderable share in the Copenhagen Convention on the Compensation for Damage for Dutch and English attacks on Danish-Norwegian shipping as well as English and Dutch trade with Denmark-Norway and Danish-Norwegian trade with France. He later accepted von Plessen's negotiations with Wilhelm III. about the Elbe tariff levied by Denmark-Norway and about an alliance between the two states that was decided in 1696. Although Christian V was not entirely satisfied with von Lente's services, he sent him to the Rijswijk Congress with von Plessen as the Danish plenipotentiary the following year . At the same time as his envoy post he held the position of deputy monastery commander in the diocese of Ribe from 1688 to 1697 . In 1698 he was called home by Lente from The Hague and in August of the same year he was chief steward at the Knight's Academy in Copenhagen.

As chief war secretary

In January 1699 he replaced Adam Levin von Knuth as deputy for the court administration and, after the change of throne in August of the same year, became a member of the Gehejmekonseil in place of the late Jens Juels as well as chief war secretary and deputy in the commissariat for land and naval forces. At fifty he got a seat in the central administration . Von Lente was undoubtedly the brightest head in the central administration - as many foreign diplomats have said - but he lacked in-depth experience and sufficient manpower. The latter was partly related to volatile health and personal worries; so he lost his wife and three daughters from 1684 to 1704 and was subsequently childless widower. However, shortly after he took office as Chief War Secretary, his career went through several very happy changes. From 1708 to 1709 he was on Frederick IV's trip abroad and on his way home in Dresden, together with Ditlev Wibe, concluded the Danish-Saxon treaty of July 1709. In August of the same year he and the secret minister of state Johan Georg von Holstein rejected a resumption of the war because there was a lack of men, money and grain and there were no subsidies from Russia in sight. Von Lente was also convinced that the sea powers did not want Denmark to be in control of both coastlines . Since the two gentlemen were outvoted, said von Lente that he was thinking about retiring "for at tænke på sjælens frelse" ( to think about salvation ). Only after the defeat at Helsingborg and the violent complaints of General Christian Detlev von Reventlow about the deficiencies of the war administration, he made his threat and gave up both of his offices and the seat in the Gehejmekonseil. However, he retained the king's favor and received a substantial pension. He also became a member in 1712 of the Directorate of Poor Relief, 1713 Director of the postal service in Denmark and the duchies and 1717 pen bailiff on Funen and Langeland and keeper of Odense , Dalum Sankt Knud and Rugård.

return

Von Lente's political role was not yet played out. In 1718 the king sought opinions on whether to continue the war or to achieve a separate peace with Sweden. After the Peace of Frederiksborg von Lente moved into the Gehejmekonseil again - this time as Christian Sehested's successor - and kept the seat until shortly before his death when illness and old age forced him to resign. After Johan Hugo von Lente died in 1719, Christian inherited the Sarlhusen estate , which after his death - as he was the last male descendant - fell into strange hands. In his will, he bequeathed his private fortune, his library and his selected collection of materials - an inheritance from his father - to the son of his brotherly sister, Christian Adeler, who adopted the name Lente-Adeler and the Lentische coat of arms as his own.

Awards

literature

personal data
SURNAME Lente, Christian von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish diplomat and civil servant, chief war secretary
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1649
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1725