Mads Lange

Mads Johansen Lange
Painted by unknown Chinese painter on Bali
Born	(1807-09-18)18 September 1807 Rudkøbing, Denmark
Died	13 May 1856(1856-05-13) (aged 48)
Cause of death	Possibly poisoning
Resting place	Kuta, Bali, Indonesia (then Kotta)
Other names	King of Bali
Title	Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
Children	3
Parent(s)	Lorents Lange Pedersen (father) Maren Lange (mother)
Relatives	Sultan Ibrahim, the Sultan of Johor (grandson)
Awards	Danish gold medal of achievement
Signature

Mads Johansen Lange, nicknamed King of Bali, (18 September 1807 in Rudkøbing, Denmark – 13 May 1856 in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia) was a Danish trader, entrepreneur, peace maker on Bali, knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and recipient of the Danish gold medal of achievement. He was the son of Lorents Lange Pedersen and Maren Lange, a merchant and a merchant's daughter, respectively.

Lange travelled to the East Indies at an early age and settled on the island of Bali. Here he built a thriving commercial enterprise, exporting rice, spices and beef, and importing weapons and textiles. He maintained good relations with the local Rajas and mediated between them and the Dutch colonists with great success.

Lange died 48 years old, possibly because of poisoning. His business had been in decline by then, and even the joint efforts of his brother and nephew could not change this. The remains of the business were sold to a Chinese merchant. He had three children with local Balinese women. His daughter Cecilia married into Johore royalty and bore a son, Ibrahim, who became the Sultan of Johor. Lange is buried in Kotta (now 'Kuta').

Mads Lange was born in Rudkøbing on 18 September 1807, as the second son of Lorents Lange and Maren Hansen. He had one sister and ten brothers, three of whom were children from an earlier marriage of his mother. The youngest brother died when he was six years old. Little else is known about Mads' childhood.

His father, Lorents Lange Pedersen, was the son of master builder Peder Frandsen Knudsøn and Johanne Margrethe Lorentzdatter Lange. He was the only one of his nine brothers and sisters to take his mother's surname, Lange, as his baptismal name. Although the idea was for it to be a middle name, in practice it became his surname, meaning his mother's surname lived on through him. Lorents was the only boy among the three children who survived into adulthood. In later life Lorents was a member of the Langeland militia. He had an indirect role in the Napoleonic Wars: Spanish soldiers were billeted in his house from 1812 to 1813. He received 4 florins a month for this, but it meant his family home was now occupied by about fifteen people. This was surely a contributing factor in his decision to buy a new house on the Østergade, No. 12–14, in 1816. In 1822 Lorents started a transport company with a mail coach and two horses, not uncommon for a merchant in those days. His cousin was master of the ferry services, which probably benefited the small company enormously. Lorents died in 1828.