Mads Johansen Lange - Mads Lange's Death

Mads Lange's Death

Mads Lange died on 13 May 1856, 48 years of age. His daughter Cecilia was only eight years old, but like Lange's English physician she also suspected he had been poisoned during a visit to a Raja. There were rumors he had been poisoned by the Dutch as well. Since no official inquiry has ever been made, it impossible both to prove or to disprove any theories.

In talks with writer Aage Krarup Nielsen, Cecilia accused Mads' nephew Peter Christian Lange of stealing everything of value and fleeing. Nielsen: "He was a robber who left for home in Denmark with all that was left of my fathers riches, without leaving us two childeren a single penny." Writer Ludvig Verner Helms defend this nephew, based on a letter he had received in 1883 from one of Hans Nielsen Lange's sons, who wrote about Peter Christian Lange: "He sold everything that had belonged to my father, ships and buildings, nothing was left for me. The house in Banjuwangi was left to Cecilia, but because she had no documentary evidence that she was Mads Lange's daughter, the government would not allow this."