Andries de Graeff
Andries de Graeff (born February 19, 1611 in Amsterdam , † November 30, 1678 ibid), Knight of the Holy Roman Empire , was a regent and mayor of Amsterdam and Dutch statesman of the Golden Age .
He came from the ruling family De Graeff , who, together with the Bicker family, held political power in Amsterdam, Holland , and ultimately in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces . In the first period without governor Andries de Graeff was together with his brother Cornelis de Graeff one of the most influential republican and state-minded rulers of the republic and an opponent of the political ambitions of the House of Orange . After his brother's death, De Graeff took over the leadership of the De Graeff faction and continued its policy. Andries de Graeff's political stance after his brother's death was characteristic of his family: on the one hand, libertine and state-minded, on the other hand, if only to a limited extent, loyal to the Orange people.
De Graeff was also as a fief recipient of the city of Amsterdam Ambachtsherr von Urk and Emmeloord .
Socio-political background, origin and family
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During the Dutch Golden Age, the members of the De Graeff family were harshly criticized for the growing influence of the House of Orange-Nassau . Together with the leading republican statesmen, the Bicker brothers and the De Witt , they were in favor of the repeal of the governorship, at least in the province of Holland. Furthermore, they claimed to receive (their) full sovereignty as city rulers.
Andries de Graeff was born in 1611 as the youngest son of the Amsterdam regent Jakob Dircksz de Graeff and Aaltje Boelens Loen in "Huis De Keyser" (named after the "Keizerskroon" outside the building). His mother was a great-great-granddaughter of the important late medieval Amsterdam city ruler Andries Boelens . His father had a free-thinking , republican disposition, but was also known for his addiction to fame . He was one of the leading re- demonstrators and state-minded regents, who was nevertheless not an anti-Orangist (House of Orange) in principle. He cherished the legacy of his father Dirck Jansz Graeff , who linked him on friendly terms with Wilhelm the Silent of Orange . The young De Graeffs were influenced by their father's antagonistic stance on political issues.
De Graeff's relatives included Holland's great writer Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft , the powerful regents Andries , Cornelis , Johan Bicker and Frans Banning Cocq, and Holland's pensioner Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis de Witt . He himself was married to his great-niece Elisabeth Bicker van Swieten, with whom he had four children:
- Cornelis de Graeff , Imperial Knight (1650–1678), married to Agneta Deutz ; they died the day after the peace of Nijmegen .
- Alida de Graeff , Vrijvrouwe der Hohen Herrlichkeit Jaarsveld (1651–1738), married to Diederik (Theodorus) van Veldhuyzen , Lord of Heemstede (1651–1716), City Regent of Utrecht , President and Councilor of the States of Utrecht
- Arnoldina (Aertje) de Graeff , Vrijvrouwe von Jaarsveld (1652–1703), married to Transisalanus Adolphus Baron van Voorst tot Hagenvoorde van Bergentheim , Vrijheer von Jaarsveld, member of the knighthood of Holland, confidante and steward of Wilhelm III. and lieutenant governor of Gorinchem
- Jakob de Graeff , died early
Andries de Graeff was also tempted to marry off his children to people from different backgrounds. The marriages of his daughters, especially those of Arnoldina with Baron Van Voorst, showed a conscious rapprochement with the Orange camp in the republic even after his political end. Andries de Graeff was probably not as anti-rangistic as his politics would suggest.
Political career
As Rekenmeester van Holland en West-Friesland in The Hague
Andries de Graeff finished his law studies in Poitiers in 1634 . In 1646 he became a lay judge (Dutch: schepen ) and a member of the Vroedschap of Amsterdam. After his marriage he went to The Hague as a councilor of the Dutch Court of Auditors (Dutch: Rekenkamer van Holland ) , whose auditor (Dutch: Rekenmeester der Grafelijke domeinen van Holland en West-Friesland ) he soon became through the mediation of his brother Cornelis. During his time as Meester ordinaris (German: professorship ) he also lived in the Vredenhof estate near Voorschoten , which his grandfather Dirk Jansz Graeff had bought . There he had the manorial right to breed swans. De Graeff moved back to Amsterdam for some time in 1653. During this time he held offices as commissioner of the Haarlemmermeer, Hoofdingeland (highest rank in the dike management ) of the Watergraafsmeer and dikemaster of Nieuwer-Amstel . He finally resigned from his job as Rekenmeester of the Grafelijke domeinen van Holland en West-Friesland in 1657.
As the regent of Amsterdam
- Sub-article: Regent of Amsterdam
From 1657, Andries de Graeff devoted himself exclusively to his political activities in Amsterdam, where he was first elected mayor. The De Graeff Group had under his brother Cornelis de Graeff the government of the city in their hands. Between 1658 and 1659 he sat on the board of the Admiralty of Amsterdam . In 1660 De Graeff became ambassador of Urk and Emmeloord in what is now the province of Flevoland for the city. In the years 1660/1661 the De Graeff brothers pursued a pro-English strategy which secured them military support against Spain and free trade (vrij schip, vrij goed) . For this reason, they founded a commission that presented the English King Charles II with the Dutch Gift , consisting of numerous valuable paintings and objets d'art.
Andries de Graeff was State Councilor of Holland between 1661 and 1663 . After his brother's death in 1664, he chaired the De Graeff parliamentary group in Vroedschap . It was now up to Andries de Graeff to take over his brother's part as a balanced and pragmatic manager. This was difficult to accomplish in the later 1660s as the power struggle between the Republicans and the monarchists began. From now on Andries de Graeff steered together with Johan de Witt and Gillis Valckenier the development and training of the Orange prince and later King of England Wilhelm III. , the child of State . In 1666, together with the mayors Valckenier, Hendrick Dircksz Spiegel and Gerard Claesz Hasselaer, he gave a representative painting of Amsterdam by Ludolf Backhuysen to the French Foreign Minister Hugues de Lionne . The rulers of Amsterdam hoped for the benevolent support of France. In 1667, De Graeff was the initiator of the Eeuwig edict , which included the abolition of the (Orange) governorship, alongside De Witt and the later prince-minded statesmen Gaspar Fagel and Gillis Valckenier . In 1669 there was a first break with Valckenier, who was in opposition to the ruling De Graeff faction under Andries.
However, the younger De Graeff did not manage to be as state-sustaining as his brother Cornelis. Support for the council pensioner Johan de Witt was also weakened; Cornelis de Graeff had been an excellent companion and counselor to De Witt, whose role the younger De Graeff could not fulfill equally. As a result, De Witt lost the advocacy from Amsterdam, which was vital for his politics . Within the government, Andries de Graeff was increasingly losing ground to Gillis Valckenier. The latter openly sided with the Orange in 1670 and conducted secret negotiations with William III in Paris . of Orange-Nassau , which had the purpose of bringing the Orange back to power. The state-minded party Fraction De Graeff (including, among others, Pieter de Graeff , Lambert Reynst , Cornelis van Vlooswyck and Henrick Hooft ) managed to exclude Valckenier and his colleagues from the government of Amsterdam in 1671. For Andries de Graeff this was the reason to position the goods Vrijheid der Republik in a painting in his mayor's hall. In the Triomf der Vrede, the artist Gerard de Lairesse portrayed the role of the De Graeff family as the protector of the republican form of government, defender of freedom. It is also to be understood as a statement of opposition and against the return to the Orange governorship.
De Graeff in the disaster year 1672
As in Rampjaar the situation in the Republic by the incident French troops became more precarious in 1672, succeeded in oranisch minded party Valckenier and the desselbigen in July year to Orangemen become statesmen Coenraad van Beuningen , Nicolaas Witsen and Johannes Hudde , the power of the enemy To usurp De Graeff parliamentary group again and to gain a majority in the Vroedschap . In early summer, the population threatened by the French invasion refused to follow Johan de Witt and thus played themselves into the hands of the Orange Party. Amsterdam did everything to avoid having to surrender Holland to the French. The states of Holland planned to build a Holland line as protection. On the part of Amsterdam, Andries de Graeff pushed ahead with the protective construction and served as the fortress commissioner.
In July, the Amsterdam city parliament (Vroedschap) decided to repeal the Eeuwig edict created in 1667 - the abolition of the (Orange) governorship - and decided to give Wilhelm III. to be proclaimed the new governor of Holland. De Graeff took on the task of bringing the resolution to The Hague. When he was about to leave, he was attacked by the crowd, incited by one of his political opponents, who wanted to murder him. The main reason for this was that De Graeff was accused of treason at the same time as Johan de Witt and that he wanted to hand over the important documents and money for The Hague to the French. De Graeff managed to escape back to the town house op de Dam with the help of some soldiers from the loyal civil guard . From there he was smuggled out of the city through the Haarlemmerpoort by the military guard under Colonel Cornelis Geelvinck .
In August the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt were cruelly murdered by a popular mob incited by Orange partisans. After these internal political upheavals, the people stood united behind the Orange. This prompted the Amsterdam Vroedschap and the Gecommitteerde Raden ( State Council ) in The Hague to exclude the Republicans from the government that were unwanted by the Orange Party. Andries de Graeff offered his submission to Amsterdam's new strong regent, Gillis Valckenier. Andries de Graeff resigned from politics on the same day, but was only expelled from government and from all offices in September. With him, his two nephews, Pieter and Jacob de Graeff (sons of his late brother Cornelis) and Lambert Reynst, were excluded from the government. In the end, Andries de Graeff, despite his best efforts, did not succeed in taking over the part of his late brother Cornelis and thus ensuring a stable Amsterdam (Dutch) government and the support of Johan de Witt. This meant the political end of the De Graeff faction in the government of Amsterdam and Holland.
Last years and death
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Andries Graeff initially lived in Amsterdam and moved to Utrecht in 1676. His old counterpart Gillis Valckenier reports him for tax evasion and De Graeff returned to his hometown after a year.
In 1677 Andries, the "Noble Herr von Graeff", and his only adult son, Cornelis de Graeff , were raised to the status of Austrian knighthood by Emperor Leopold I and their coat of arms improved . The reason was a relationship claimed by De Graeff to the noble family Von Graben von Stein ; but this was doubted by his political opponents during De Graeff's lifetime. With Wolfgang von Graben , a family member from Laibach came to Holland around 1483 , who had a son with Pieter Graeff (* 1484). A Pieter Graeff also appears as ancestor of the De Graeff family. He also appears as the first known coat of arms of the Graeffschen / Grabenschen (trunk) coat of arms with the silver spade on a red background and the silver bird [swan] on a blue background. The Dutch Nieuw Nederlandsch Biographisch Woordenboek doubts this family constellation.
Extract from the imperial diploma in Vienna:
- Fide digis itegur genealogistarum Amsteldamensium edocti testimoniis te Andream de Graeff non paternum solum ex pervetusta in Comitatu nostro Tyrolensi von Graben dicta familia originem ducere, qua olim per quendam ex ascendentibus tuis ejus nominis in Belgium traducta et, from proavum de Graum , Theodorum, avum, ac tandem Jacobum, patrem tuum, viros in civitate, Amstelodamensi continua serie consulatum scabinatus senatorii ordinis dignitabitus conspicuos et in publicum bene semper meritos propagata nobiliter et cum splendore inter suos se semper propobil gessaerit interque alios eoasque liberasque loc venandi jus in Hollandia, Frisiaque occidentale ac Ultrajectina provinciis habuerit semper et exercuerit.
The following year De Graeff died on November 30th and was buried in the family grave in Amsterdam's Oude Kerk .
coat of arms
The family coat of arms of Andries de Graeff shows in coat of arms field 1 the silver shovel (spade) on a red background of the Lords of Graben and in coat of arms field 2 a silver falcon with a red hood on a blue background. The origin of the falcon lies in Andrie's grandfather Dirck Jansz Graeff's estate in Gooiland , which he named in honor of his wife Valckeveen (later the Valckenburg estate ). Andries personal coat of arms shows in the coat of arms fields 1 and 4 the silver shovel on a red background and on the coat of arms fields 2 and 3 silver swans on a blue background. These stand for the wonderful rights of the Vredenhof estate near Voorschoten . Among other things, Andries' family had the manorial privilege of breeding swans there. With the acquisition of the imperial knighthood his coat of arms was provided with a foliage crown , the two shovels in the coat of arms were also hung with it.
lifestyle
Andries de Graeff was like his brother Cornelis one of the greatest art and culture promoters of his time. In addition to his friendly relations with Govaert Flinck and Joost van den Vondel , he was a supporter of Rembrandt van Rijn at a young age . But Rembrandt's promotion ended abruptly when he received a portrait commission from De Graeff, who, in the opinion of his family, portrayed him as "drunk and unfinished". De Graeff refused to reward him for this work, whereupon Rembrandt sued him and won the case. Since then he has not received any orders from the Amsterdam patrician class .
Andries de Graeff liked to appear in princely garb . The marble bust of Arthus Quellinus depicts him as a Roman consul . The rulers of Amsterdam saw themselves as successors to the Roman patricians. and Amsterdam as the successor to the Roman Republic .
De Graeff also dealt very intensively with the genealogy of his house and his ancestry, about which Van den Vondel wrote a treatise personally dedicated to him.
Andries de Graeff lived in the city palace Huis van der Graeff in Amsterdam's Herengracht - in its most magnificent part, the so-called Gouden Bocht (nowadays No. 446) - which is adorned with his coat of arms on its top. This residence also housed his collection of paintings by great Dutch masters from the Golden Century . In his palace there were also large ceiling frescos by Gerard de Lairesse , now in the Peace Palace in The Hague . In 2008 the two fashion designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren took over the old palace from Viktor & Rolf .
Painting collection
With a fortune of 700,000 guilders , Andries de Graeff was one of the 250 richest people of the Golden Age and it was easy for him to steadily expand his art collection. This collection included masterpieces by Rembrandt, Gerard ter Borch , Govaert Flinck and other Dutch masters of the 16th and 17th centuries. Probably the most famous painting in his collection was the Blessing of James by Rembrandt van Rijn , which hung over De Graeff's fireplace in his Amsterdam city palace in the Herengracht. The painting shows De Graeff's sister Wendela, her husband and their two sons in a biblical setting. Rembrandt's painting Minerva and Ter Borch's portrait Portret van Cornelis de Graeff - depicting Andrie's son Cornelis - were also in De Graeff's collection.
Gerrit de Graeff , a great-grandson of De Graeff's brother Cornelis, sold various masterpieces - including the Jacob's Blessing - to a Hamburg art dealer in the middle of the 18th century . Landgrave Wilhelm VIII of Hessen-Kassel bought the paintings from him and used them to furnish his picture gallery, today's Old Masters Picture Gallery .
De Graeff in popular culture
In Peter Greenaway's film Nightwatching , Andries de Graeff is portrayed as a drunk man who has just come out of the brothel. Greenaway reveals that De Graeff's portrayal of Rembrandt reflects him as a drunken bold . De Graeff had only accepted the portrait on condition that Rembrandt added an extra detail to the painting: a gauntlet that lies at De Graeff's feet; with this gesture one challenged the opponent to a duel.
Literature (selection)
- Jonathan I. Israel: The Dutch Republic - Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall - 1477-1806 . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 978-0-19-820734-4 .
- Kees Zandvliet: De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw: capital, power, family en levensstijl . blz. 77 tm 79 uitg. Nieuw Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2006, ISBN 90-8689-006-7 .
- P. de Graeff (P. Gerritsz de Graeff and Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek ): Genealogy of the family De Graeff van Polsbroe . Amsterdam 1882, Antiquariaat AG van der Steur.
- JH de Bruijn: Genealogy van het geslacht De Graeff van Polsbroek 1529/1827 . Antiquariaat AG van der Steur.
- P. Burke: Venice and Amsterdam. A study of seventeenth-century élites. 1994.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nederlands adelsboek 1914, p. 15
- ^ Biography of Andries Bicker in the DBNL
- ↑ Drawn: voorouders van Johannes van Neck en Margarita Roghs ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Triumph of Peace ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) 't Gezagh is heerelyk: but vol get. S. 5. ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB)
- ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) 't Gezagh is heerelyk: but vol get. P. 29/30 ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB)
- ^ A b Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) 't Gezagh is heerelyk: but vol get. P. 6. ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB)
- ↑ Google Book Search: Geschiedenis van Holland , Part 2, Volume 2, by Eelco Beukers
- ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) 't Gezagh is heerelyk: but vol get. P. 7. ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB)
- ↑ Burke, P. (1974) Venetië en Amsterdam. One onderzoek naar de elites in de zentiende eeuw.
- ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) 't Gezagh is heerelyk: but vol get. P. 4. ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB)
- ↑ Google book search: Burgemeesters van Amsterdam in de 17e en 18e eeuw. By JFL de Balbian Verster and Jan François Leopold Balbian Verster. P. 60.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Andries de Graeff's biography in the digital library voor de nederlandse letteren . Part 2
- ↑ Google Book Search: Israel, JI (1995) The Dutch Republic , p. 750.
- ↑ Google Book Search: Amsterdam: the life of a city, p. 185. By Geoffrey Cotterell
- ↑ Google book search: Ludolf Backhuysen, Emden 1630 - Amsterdam 1708, p. 17.
- ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) 't Gezagh is heerelyk: but vol get. P. 24. ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB)
- ^ Google book search: The ambassador prepares for war: the Dutch embassy of Arnauld de Pomponne, 1669–1671, p. 53. By Herbert Rowen
- ↑ Andries de Graeff's biography in de digital library voor de nederlandse letteren . Part 7
- ↑ JFL de Balbian Verster (1930): De bocht van de Heer canal . In: Jaarboek Amstelodamum, p. 235.
- ↑ Amsterdam tijdens de Verenigde Provinciën en de Bataafse Republiek (De Graeff family in 1672)
- ^ G. Schwarz (1987): Rembrandt , on page 278.
- ↑ Austrian State Archives: AT-OeStA / AVA Adel RAA 151.23 Graeff, Andreas de, Mayor of Amsterdam, conferring the status of Imperial Knight, "Noble Herr von Graef (f), Knight", coat of arms improvement, 1677.07.19 (file (collective file, base number, Bundle, dossier, file))
- ↑ (nl) De Graeff (Pieter Graeff) and Von Graben in the Dutch "DBNL"
- ↑ The German Herald: magazine for coat of arms, seal u. Family Studies, Volume 3, News about the de Graeff Family
- ↑ The Nieuw Nederlandsch Biographisch Woordenboek almost excludes this theory and reports on the descent of the De Graeff family: Zekere Wolfgang von Graben zou, naar Holland omstreeks 1483, daar gehuwd zijn en een zoon Pieter hebben gehad, the de stamvader van het hollandsch slaughtered zou zijn, wilted bushes here volgen . (nl) The De Graeff family in the DBNL
- ↑ The German Herald: magazine for coat of arms, seal u. Family Studies, Volume 3, News about the de Graeff Family
- ↑ Graven op Internet in the Oude Kerk (Amsterdam) (nl) ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Google Book Search: De werken van Vondel associated with zijn leven, en voorzien van ... By Joost van den Vondel. Pp. 245 and 246
- ↑ Imperial Knight's Diploma of July 19, 1677 for Andries de Graeff and his son Cornelis ( Austrian State Archives , Vienna)
- ↑ Google Book Search: Various reports and poems by Joost van den Vondel on Andries de Graeff
- ↑ Google Book Search: Rembrandt's bankruptcy: the artist, his patrons, and the art market in Seventeenth-century Netherlands, pp. 111-120.
- ^ Quellinus marble bust by De Graeff, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Als een Romeins patriciër)
- ↑ Vondels Afbeeldingen der stamheeren en zommige telgen van de Graven, Boelensen, Bickeren en Witsens, toegewyt den noble en strict Heere Andries de Graeff , enz. with hunne portraits
- ↑ Triomf der Vrede (German) ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ceiling fresco in the Peace Palace in The Hague, painted by Gerard de Lairesse, formerly owned by Andries de Graeffs ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Viktor & Rolf: "We don't just want to play", article from May 28, 2009 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ.net)
- ^ Zandvliet, K. (2006) De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw: kapitaal, macht, familie en levensstijl on pages 77-79 (Nieuw Amsterdam), Amsterdam, ISBN 90-8689-006-7 .
- ^ Rembrandt pictures: the historical collection of the Kassel Gemäldegalerie. S. 218. State Art Collections Kassel. Old Masters Picture Gallery. Hirmer Verlag 2006.
- ↑ Rembrandt's Minerva in her study of 1635 (on page 15) ( Memento of the original of August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gerard ter Borch's Portret van Cornelis de Graeff , depicting Andrie's son
- ^ Dudok van Heel, SAC: Het Maecenaat De Graeff en Rembrandt , p. 154. In: Maandblad Genootschap Amstelodamum (1969)
- ^ Rembrandt pictures: the historical collection of the Kassel Gemäldegalerie
- ↑ Peter Greenaway's film Nightwatching ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Cornelis de Graeff |
Regent and Mayor of Amsterdam 1657–1672 |
Gillis Valckenier , Coenraad van Beuningen and Joan (II) Huydecoper van Maarsseveen |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Graeff, Andries de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mayor of Amsterdam |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 19, 1611 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Amsterdam |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 30, 1678 |
| Place of death | Amsterdam |