Paul Beneke

Paul Beneke, also Paul Benecke, (Polish: Paweł Beneke) (early 15th century - c. 1480) was a 15th century Danzig (Gdańsk) town councilor (Ratsherr), who was commissioned by Luebeck, head of the Hanseatic League, as captain of the ship Peter von Danzig.

During the Anglo-Hanseatic War, Beneke defeated the English fleet at Zween in 1468. When Paul Beneke was commissioned to man the ship, Peter von Danzig, he became part owner instead of taking pay. In 1473, he followed and boarded the galleon St. Thomas in the North Sea that ran under Burgundian flag with the registered name of Thomas Portinari, but was actually owned by England. It was bound for Italy. Beneke seized, amongst other items, Hans Memling's triptych The Last Judgment. The painting had been commissioned for the chapel of a servant of the Medicis, Angelo Tani.

Not surprisingly, the owners objected to the seizure and the issue was taken up in the papal court. Danzig defended Beneke on the basis that the seizure was a legitimate act of war as the Hanseatic League was at war with England at the time. The painting was not returned. Instead, it was given by three Danzig patricians Sidinghusen, Balandt and Niederhof to the St. George Brothers in Danzig, from where it came to Danzig's St. Mary's Church. The Burgundian King, under whose flag, the English galere St. Thomas had run, was inclined to broker a peace between war-weary England and the Hanseatic League, restoring their trading rights.

Paul Beneke had a wife named Margreta, and a daughter, Elsbeth.

He is one of the historical characters who appear in Dorothy Dunnett's novel Caprice and Rondo in the House of Niccolò series.