Eva Ment

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eva Ment

Eva Ment (baptized January 1, 1606 in Amsterdam ; buried May 12, 1652 there ) was the wife of the Dutch governor-general Jan Pieterszoon Coen in Indonesia and gained a high reputation there.

She was baptized on January 1, 1606 in the Old Church in Amsterdam and must therefore have been born in the last days of 1605. She was the daughter of the brewer Claes Corneliszoon Ment and his wife Sophia Benningh (1561-1627). In 1625 she married the former Governor General of the Dutch East India Company , Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587–1629), who was twice her age . Two years later he returned to his post in Batavia , and his young wife went with him. She was accompanied by her mother, her brother Gerrit and her sister Lysbeth.

Coen wanted to turn the Batavia trading post into a real colony with Dutch families. By marrying a young woman and starting a new life with her in the city, which was founded in 1619, he wanted to set a good example himself. In the long term, however, it had only moderate success, because the Netherlands were considered the richest and freest state in Europe in the 17th century, so that its inhabitants felt little incentive to emigrate.

Once in Batavia, Eva Ment led almost the life of a queen with numerous servants. This prominent position is also reflected in a portrait that was painted shortly before her departure and is now in the West Frisian Museum of the city of Hoorn . Here she appears in precious clothes and hung with jewelry as the "First Lady of the Dutch East Indies". One of her jobs in the colony was looking after girls who had been conceived by company employees with local women and then left behind. One of these girls was the precocious Sara Specx (1617-1636), who caused a sex scandal in 1629 and was severely punished for it by Coen.

Within a very short time Eva Ment gained a high reputation among the population. Even an opponent of her husband, Jacques Specx, described her as "a lady who (...) was loved and respected by everyone because of her discreet, honest dealings and her good manners". This probably had something to do with the fact that she refused to go to safety when Batavia was besieged by the Sultan of Mataram .

After Coen's sudden death in September 1629, Ment returned to Amsterdam. Her daughter Johanna died on the way, just like her first child Geertruit before in Batavia. Her mother and brother also did not survive their stay in the tropics. Ment then married twice: the director of the Dutch West India Company , Marinus Louwissen van Bergen (1598–1645), and after his death the lawyer Isaac Buys (1618–1684). The marriage with van Bergen resulted in four sons and a daughter. On May 12, 1652, Ment was buried in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam .

literature

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Christoph Driessen: The nutmeg princess. Langwedel 2020, epilogue from page 502.
  2. ↑ ibid., P. 252 ff.
  3. ^ Jur van Goor: Jan Pieterszoon Coen. 1587-1629 . Koopman-koning in Azië, Amsterdam 2015, p. 485
  4. ↑ Quotation n .: Driessen: Die Muskatprinzessin , p. 505.
personal data
SURNAME Ment, Eva
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch governor's wife
DATE OF BIRTH baptized January 1, 1606
DATE OF DEATH buried May 12, 1652