Discover chamberlain, diplomat, ambassador Hans Willem Bentinck (1st Earl of Portland)

Name variations

This field records and makes accessible name variations, as found in sources. Alternate spellings, nicknames, maiden names - with or without the married name - are included in this category.

: Bentinck, William (1st Earl of Portland)
Bentinck, Hans Willem baron

Qualifications: chamberlain, diplomat, ambassador, commissioner (person who orders works), art collector
Philippe d'Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV and master of etiquette, called him delightedly the most polite man in Europe, because, when Philippe said, when coming to an open door 'after you', Bentinck unhesitatingly thanked him and passed through (Saint Simon, Mémoires)

Nationality/school: North Netherlandish, English

Born: Diepenheim 1649-07-20

Deceased: Bulstrode Park 1709-11-23

Family relationships this field records any family relationship to one or more other artist(s).: son of Bernard, Baron Bentinck, lord of Diepenheim (1597-1668) and Anne Hendrik van Bloemendale (1622-1685, married 1638), brother of Hendrik (1640-1691), Eusebius Borchard (1643-710), Isabella (1651-1687) and Anna Adriana Bentinck (1652-1721). Married 1) 1678 Anne Villiers, parents of Mary (1679-1726), Henry (1682-1726), Anne Margriet (1683-1763) and Isabella Bentinck (1688-1728) and 2) in Chiswick, Middlesex, on 12 May 1700 Jane Martha Temple (1672-1751), parents of William (1704-1774), Harriet (1709-1792) and Sophia Bentinck (died 1741)

See also In this field, you will find references to names of groups or to the artists that made/make up groups. You may also come across references to other artists if there was/is question of collaboration without a joint name. This is the case, for instance, with artists who rendered parts of works by other artists (such as with P.P Rubens and J. Brueghel I).

Voet's mother was a Bentinck

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Biographical information

Active in

Den Haag (stad) 1664 - 1675
When, in 1675, Prince William was attacked by smallpox, his physicians, knowing his sexual preferences, suggested he sleep with one of his pages to absorb 'animal spirits' from a young, healthy body. Bentinck was the page and he nursed the prince assiduously back to health. This devotion secured for him the special and enduring friendship of William. From that point on, Bentinck had the Prince's confidence, and in their correspondence William was very open.
Engeland 1677 - 1688
Sent to England on diplomatic missions: 1677 to solicit for Prince William the hand of Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York, and in 1683 and 1685. Especially in 1688 instrumental in orchestrating the Glorious Revolution, including an invasion by Dutch troops, securing support/neutrality of several German princes. He had also been, since 1687, a medium of communication between his master and his English friends. Bentinck superintended the arrangements for the invasion, including raising money, hiring an enormous transport fleet, organising a propaganda offensive, and preparing the possible landing sites, and also sailed to England with Prince William.
Londen (Engeland) 1688
Quickly rose in the new court: Groom of the Stole, first gentleman of the bedchamber, and a Privy Counsellor. April 1689 created Baron Cirencester, Viscount Woodstock and, in its second creation, Earl of Portland. His main tasks were dilomatic in nature, like the arranging of the peace of Rijswijk in 1697.
Oldbridge (Ierland) 1690
Batlle of Boyne
Neerwinden 1693
Namen (stad) 1695
present at the Siege of Namours
Parijs 1698
ambassador in Paris for six month
Bulstrode Park 1701 - 1716
His jealousy for the rising new favourite, Arnold van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle, made that he withdrew himself from William III c. 1699. The enormous gifts had had received over the years in money, tiltes and land had made him the target for a nationwide hatred and even led to a (failed). impeachement in 1701. Although he resigned from all his official tasks, he was occasionally used under Queen Anne. But on the whole he withdrew to his country estate, Bulstrode Park in Buckinghamshire, were he evntually died in 1716.