HAMILTON, HENRY ALBERT [SSNE 879]
- Surname
- HAMILTON
- First name
- HENRY ALBERT
- Nationality
- SCOTO-DANE
- Region
- COPENHAGEN
- Social status
- GENTRY
- Education
- UNIVERSITY
Text source
Henry Hamilton was born in 1590 in Copenhagen, the son of the mayor Christen Albertsen Hamilton [SSNE 878] (1567-1616), and consort Margrethe von Morsen. His father's family was of Scottish origin. Hamilton studied mathematics at German universities 1607-15 (specifically, Heidelberg from 1608). He was later employed as a secretary in the 'Tyske Kancelli' [German/foreign chancellery] between 1615-1619. He desired to travel for some years in France, Spain, Italy and Britain in order to prepare himself further for public service and obtained the king's passport on 12/1/1619. Hamilton left Denmark in 1619 as praeceptor for Frederik Buchwald, a Holstein nobleman who was around fourteen years old, and studied again at German universities between 1619-21, and at Geneva in 1622. During his time at Heidelberg university, Hamilton entered into a close friendship with the foremost German poet of the time, Martin Opitz. The latter composed a poem in Hamilton’s honour, while Hamilton penned two Latin epigrams for Opitz’s Teutsche Poemata (1624). As well as Opitz, Hamilton became a close acquaintance of Flemish-born philologist and scholar Jan Gruter to whom he addressed many of his poems. Hamilton turned up in northern Italy and Paris in 1623 and apparently died in Egypt sometime after that date.
Henry had a brother John Christensen Hamilton. He may be identical with a man named Johan Albert Hamilton [SSNE 8480], who served in the Danish East India Company.
Sources: DBL,1633-44, vol.5, p. 511; T. Riis, Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot (Odense, 1988), II, pp.194-5; M. Opitz, Gesammelte Werke, ed. G. Schulz-Behrend, 4 vols., (Stuttgart, 1968-90),I, pp. 267-8, 277; M. Opitz, Briefwechsel und Lebenszeugnisse, ed. K. Conermann, 3 vols. (Berlin, 2009), I, pp. 273, 349, 414; M. S. Jensen, ‘Denmark’, in M. S. Jensen (ed), A History of Nordic Neo-Latin Literature (Odense, 1995), pp. 40, 49, 52.
This entry was kindly updated by Dr Thomas Brochard.
Service record
- DENMARK-NORWAY, COPENHAGEN
- Arrived 1590-01-01
- Departed 1607-12-31
- Capacity SECRETARY, purpose CIVIL SERVICE
- DENMARK-NORWAY, HEIDELBERG
- Arrived 1608-01-01
- Departed 1608-12-31
- Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
- DENMARK-NORWAY, DENMARK [COPENHAGEN]
- Arrived 1616-01-01
- Departed 1619-01-30
- Capacity SECRETARY, purpose CIVIL SERVICE
- DEMMARK, GERMANY
- Arrived 1619-02-01
- Departed 1621-12-31
- Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
- DENMARK-NORWAY, GENEVA
- Arrived 1622-01-01
- Departed 1622-12-31
- Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
- DENMARK-NORWAY, PARIS
- Arrived 1623-01-01
- Departed 1623-12-31
- Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
- DEMMARK, EGYPT
- Capacity ACADEMIC, purpose ACADEMIC