Authorised form of name | Spanheim; Ezekiel (1629 - 1710); Freiherr von; diplomat |
Other forms of name | Ezechiel |
Dates | 1629 - 1710 |
Nationality | German |
Place of birth | Geneva, [modern day Switzerland], Europe |
Date of birth | 7 December 1629 |
Place of death | London, England, United Kingdom Europe |
Date of death | 25 October 1710 |
DatesAndPlaces | Burial: St Paul's chapel, Westminster Abbey, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe (18 November 1710) |
Occupation | Diplomat |
Research field | Politics |
Numismatics |
Activity | Education: Leyden; Cambridge (DD 1689); Oxford (DCL 1706) Career: Professor of Rhetoric at Geneva (1651); Member of the City Council (1652); Tutor to the children of Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine, at Heidelberg (1656); undertook various diplomatic missions (from 1661); travelled to Italy (1664); Envoy of the Palatinate to Charles II (1674, 1678); Privy Councillor to the Elector of Brandenburg (1680); Prussian Envoy to France; returned to Berlin when relations were broken off between Prussia and France (1689); Ambassador Extraordinary from the King of Prussia to England (1702) |
Membership category | Fellow |
Date of election | 03/02/1679 |
Age at election | 49 |
Proposer | Theodor Haak |
Other Royal Society activity | Very occasional correspondent to Robert Boyle (FRS 1663) |
Relationships | Parents: Dr Frederick Spanheim and Charlotte du Port Married: Anna-Elizabeth Kolb Children: Mary Ann de la Rochefoucauld Additional relatives: Ludwig Friedrich Bonet (FRS 1711) |
OtherInfo | In the late 1650s, while employed as a tutor, Spanheim wrote a political treatise on the Palatinate and the claims of the Bavarian duchy. As a diplomat, he was privy to close insights into and involved in the political and geopolitical developments of the time, for example the Peace of Ryswick 1697, which ended the war between France and the alliance of England, Spain, Austria, and the Dutch Republic. Towards the end of his life, he sold his library to the Prussian King Friedrich I. Overall, he was not particularly active in the Royal Society's work and did not pay after his initial admission fee. |
Source | Sources: Bulloch's Roll; Venn; Foster; DBE; ADB Notes: There is no other evidence he was in Cambridge in 1689, but it seems unlikely that it was another 'Monsieur Spanheim' (His brother Friedrich the younger does not appear to have any English connection). |
Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/22269855 |
Code | NA8149 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNo | Title | Date |
IM/004330 | Spanheim, Ezekiel von | 1702 |