Bengt Skytte

Bengt Skytte (1614–1683) was a Swedish courtier and diplomat. He was a follower of Comenius and proposed a pansophic city, "Sophopolis".

He was the son of Johan Skytte and Mary Neave and brother of Vendela Skytte.

He matriculated at the University of Uppsala, aged 10. In 1629, he, with Schering Rosenhane, accompanied Sir James Spens to court in London, where he was knighted by Charles I of England.

Skytte was then probably at the University of Leiden in 1629–30; and went on to study at Dorpat. In 1631, he was studying in the Tsardom of Russia. After that, he had two periods of study with Gerardus Vossius, to 1634.

Skytte was appointed chamberlain to Christina, Queen of Sweden in 1633. In 1634–5, he was attached to Axel Oxenstierna in Magdeburg, on a mission to Cardinal Richelieu in Paris, and in southern Italy.

In 1651, he visited Comenius in Hungary; in that year, he was implicated by Arnold Johan Messenius in his confession before his execution. In 1651–2, he travelled from Vienna to Istanbul. On the way, he noticed analogies between the Hungarian language and the Finnish language. This was an unofficial journey. While there, he stayed for half a year in the house of a Turk, whose son Yusuf later was a Christian convert under the name of Richard Christophilus in England, as Skytte later testified.

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