BELOW, WILHELM [SSNE 1493]

Surname: BELOW, BELOV, BELO, BELOU
First name: WILHELM, VILHELM, WILLIAM
Title/rank: PAGE, AGENT
Nationality: DANE
Social status: GENTRY

Text source

Wilhelm Below/Belov (1579?-1629?) is listed as a Danish agent to the Stuart Court during the late sixteenth-early seventeenth centuries. He held various accreditations, including ones to negotiate with the King and Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Buckingham.

Riis lists him as the son of Wilhelm Below of Kargru and his second wife, Benedicte Peccatel Henriksdatter. He may have been related to Henrik Below of an established Mecklenburg-based family. According to one source William Below began serving as a page boy to James VI's consort Queen Anna of Scotland in 1589, presumably accompanying Anna from Denmark following her marriage to James VI of Scotland. Doran claims Below joined the royal court aged 10, implying that Below was born in 1579.

Elsewhere Wilhelm Below is recorded being in the service of Queen Anna from at least 1591. Field notes that: "Between August 1591 and January 1596 [...] he had garments fashioned in violet, red, purple, yellow, green, orange, black, brown, and columbine." This certainly indicates that Below held a permanent position within Anna's court. Pearce suggests that the elaborate expenditure on Below's clothing, sometimes to match that of his royal mistress, indicated that the boy was a royal favourite.

Queen Anna recommended Below's service to her brother, Christian IV of Denmark-Norway, by correspondence dated 15/8/1605. It was Below who was requesting the move to Denmark, but this did not come to pass and he remained in Britain.

Intriguingly, in Christian IV's letter to Gert Rantzau, dated mid-June 1618 the Danish king includes a request that his sister Anna respond favourably to (her brother) Duke Ulrik of Holstein's request regarding Wilhelm Below. In this letter Christian IV describes Below as his "abwesende tjener" (absent servant, presumably in reference to Below's service in Britain).

Upon the death of Queen Anna in 1619 Below initially found brief employment with James VI who granted Below a lifelong annuity of 100 pounds, according to Doran. Below subsequently took up service with the late queen's brother, Duke Ulrik of Holstein.

On 20/11/1622 Christian IV approached the Prince of Wales on Below's behalf, as the latter was seeking payment of his pension.

Doran also publishes an undated letter written by Below to Secretary Conway (perhaps in 1625 or 1626?) bemoaning his penury and inability to return to his native country with his unnamed wife and daughter. This is seemingly the only mention of these two females.

Riis notes Below as "Danish agent in England 1606-26". Sir James Spens [SSNE 1642] mentions "Master Below" in a letter to the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, dated London 10 June 1626, indicating that Below was still at the Stuart court at that time. The letter concerns, in part, relations between Charles I of Great Britain and his uncle Christian IV regarding the cause of the exiled king of Bohemia and the wider aims of what became known as the Thirty Years' War. Charles I intends to send an envoy to Denmark, presumably Below. Spens notes that "Master Below is afraid that his king [Chr IV]will take this rather badly and withdraw himself [from the alliance] provided he can make an advantageous peace with the Emperor." The Danish king did not in fact withdraw from the war until 1629 when the Peace of Lübeck was signed.

Fridericia and Bricka comment on a letter by Christian IV to Fredrick Günther dated 19 December 1627 that the "English agent" noted therein could not be Wilhelm Below as he had already returned to Denmark by then.

Field notes that Below died in 1626. However, according to Fridericia there is a reference to Below in Mecklenburg in 1629.

Sources: For Christian IV's letters see Rigskarkivet, TKUA Alm. del 1 no.10: Latina 1616-31, fol.124v-125r. and TKUA England A I 2; Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1625–26 (London, 1858), p. 526; Swedish Riksarkiv, Oxenstiernska samlingen E724, Sir James Spens to Axel Oxenstierna, 10 June 1626; Danmarks Adels Aarbog V, pp.35-6; Kong Christian den fjerdes egenhaendige breve (Copenhagen, 1969) ed. C.F. Bricka and J.A. Fridericia, vol. 1, pp 142-3; Kong Christian den fjerdes egenhaendige breve (Copenhagen, 1969) ed. C.F. Bricka and J.A. Fridericia, vol. 2, p.131; J.A. Fridericia, Danmarks ydre politisk historie vol.1, p.137; Letters of King Kames I to King Christian IV, ed. Meldrum, pp.51-2. See also E. Marquard, Danske Gesandter og Gesandtskabspersonale indtil 1914 (Copenhagen, 1952); T. Riis, Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot (Odense, 1988), II, p.281; J. Field, Anna of Denmark the Material an Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts, 1589-1619 (Manchester, 2020), pp.131-133; J. Doran, The History of Court Fools (London, 1858), pp.201-203; M. Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland',The Court Historian vol.24, issue 2, 2019, pp. 138-151. See also Wikipedia entry for William Belo.

Service record

DENMARK-NORWAY, STUART KINGDOMS: Arrived 1592-01-01; Departed 1627-12-31; Capacity AGENT, purpose DIPLOMACY