Georg Rudolf Weckherlin

Georg Rudolf Weckherlin (1584-1653) was born in Stuttgart in the Duchy of Württemberg. Württemberg neighboured the Reformed Electoral Palatinate, with which it had close links. It also had links with England: Duke John Frederick’s father was awarded the Order of the Garter by Elizabeth, and received it in a ceremony during the early years of James’s reign. These connections, both east to the Palatinate and West to England, played an important part in Weckherlin’s life. He travelled in the service of the Duke to England, Italy and France, where developments in French poetry spurred him on to attempt metrical innovations in German verse. The results were seen in his 1618-19 anthology Oden und Gesänge (Odes and Songs).

In 1616, still in the service of the Duke of Württemberg, Weckherlin wrote the published account of the festivities for the christening of the Duke’s third son. This lavish spectacle included processions and ballets, such as the one illustrated here, where heads representing different nations opened to release couples who performed dances native to that part of the world. Weckherlin’s English ability is reflected in the fact that the book was published in both German and in English (as Triumphall Shews), and he dedicated the English edition to Elizabeth Stuart, consort of Frederick V, Elector Palatine.

Whilst in England, Weckherlin oversaw two editions of his anthology, published in Amsterdam, and in one of the drinking poems he shows off his skills as a linguist by including the drinking toasts for different languages, including in Welsh, English and Irish.

Weckherlin in Britain

Weckherlin appears to have lived in England for some years in the second decade of the century, and in 1616 he married a woman from Dover, Elizabeth Raworth. The couple had two children: Ralph and Elizabeth. Weckherlin returned to England around 1619/20, apparently in the service of the Palatine court, and he settled here, finally taking citizenship in 1630. Sometime in the mid 1620s he entered the English Civil Service, working as secretary to a succession of Secretaries of State. He was on relatively close terms with Charles I, discussing his children’s education with him. He also worked as a press licenser.

Weckherlin and political life

In his official capacity Weckherlin often accompanied Charles I on his travels, including in 1639, when he was present at the negotiations in Berwick-upon-Tweed, which brought to an end the First Bishops’ War, which had been provoked by Charles’s attempt to impose his Book of Common Prayer in Scotland. Weckherlin witnessed the turmoil of the Civil War up close, testifying against the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, at his trial in 1644. He worked as a cryptographer for Parliament, and was offered employment as a secretary to the Committee of Both Kingdoms. In this capacity he worked with John Milton, his successor in post, whom he returned to assist when Milton lost his sight.

Weckherlin’s family correspondence

In 1638 Weckherlin’s daughter Elizabeth married the son of a diplomat, William Trumbull. Weckherlin’s close relationship with his daughter’s family is shown in their correspondence, today housed in the British Library, which provides a very tender picture of a loving father and grandfather. The correspondence survives, together with Weckherlin’s diary and some of his official correspondence, because the Trumbull papers were collected and preserved by Weckherlin’s grandson, Sir William Trumbull, friend of Pope and Dryden. The papers show how a man born in a German duchy came to occupy a place at the heart of British political life in the first half of the seventeenth century.