Bengt Oxenstierna

Bengt Bengtsson Oxenstierna af Eka och Lindö, Baron of Eka and Lindö (1591 at Frösvik near Rydbo – 1643 in Riga, Swedish Livonia), in non-contemporary sources sometimes referred to as Resare-Bengt ("Bengt the Traveller"), was a Swedish diplomat and noble, Swedish Privy Councillor, and Governor-General of Ingria and Livonia. He is mainly known for his extensive travels, as he was one of the few Swedish contemporaries who travelled to Persia, Palestine and Egypt. Biography Bengt Bengtsson was a member of the influential Oxenstierna family and was born in 1591 to Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna the Elder, councillor to Charles, Duke of Södermanland, Närke and Värmland (later King Charles IX), and his second wife Brita Posse. As was customary in the Oxenstierna family, he was educated abroad and spent the years 1607–1613 travelling the European continent, studying at the German universities of Rostock, Jena and Wittenberg and visiting Poland and Italy. He visited Palestine in 1613 but was robbed and returned impoverished to Italy, where he entered the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II de' Medici. In 1616 he travelled to the Middle East again, through Asia Minor to Aleppo, Baghdad and Isfahan, making him the first Swede known to have visited Safavid Persia. He entered the service of Shah Abbas I for a time. From there, he continued to Hormuz, seeking passage to India, but was forced to return to Isfahan by way of Shiraz. After travelling back through Baghdad, Aleppo, Palestine and Egypt, he reached Venice in 1619 and returned to Sweden in 1620.