Gerrit Karel Spaen van Voorstonden

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Baron Spaen van Voorstonden represented the Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna, here the final document

Gerrit Karel Baron Spaen van Voorstonden (born October 20, 1756 in Arnhem , † February 28, 1841 in Vienna ) was a Dutch diplomat who represented his country at the Congress of Vienna .

origin

He was the son of Alexander Diederik Baron Spaen van Ringenberg, Lord von Rosande (* 1710–1764) and Elisabeth Anna Maria van Riebeeck (* 1725–1776). He spent his youth in Heerde and Brummen in the Dutch province of Gelderland .

Life

His professional career began in 1787 in the Dutch East India Company , but a year later he was elected Mayor of Hattem and in 1791 appointed to the Audit Office of the Generality Lands.

Spaen then opted for diplomacy, initially as an envoy in Lisbon (1791 to 1794). He was then the authorized representative of the Netherlands to the emperor and was received for the first time on September 29, 1802. In 1807 he left Vienna again and was appointed ambassador to the Bavarian court in Munich . During the coalition wars he was delegated to the Allied headquarters, where he was received in audience for the first time in December 1813. He was then a plenipotentiary envoy to the Emperor of Austria and represented the Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna (1814 to 1815). He was also a member of the Commission for Free Shipping, as the Netherlands, as a state bordering the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt rivers, was particularly interested in this question. After the congress, Spaen stayed in Vienna and represented the Netherlands there as envoy until his death in 1841.

marriage and family

On October 16, 1778, at the age of 21, he married Juliana Wilhelmina Heilwich van Heeckeren (born February 8, 1757 in Enghuizen Castle ; † March 28, 1795 in Paris ). The couple had four children, three of whom died by drowning in a tragic accident on July 1, 1798 in Lochem and none of them survived their father:

  • Alexander Diederik Baron Spaen van Voorstonden (1779–1834)
  • Jacob Adolf Spaen (1780–1798)
  • Gerrit Karel Spaen (1782–1798)
  • Johan Frederik Willem Spaen (1783–1798)

Honors

  • Knight of the Union Order (November 25, 1807)
  • Knight of the Order of Reunification (March 7, 1812)
  • Admitted to the knighthood of Gelderland by decree of August 28, 1814
  • Knight (1815) and Commander (1816) of the Order of the Dutch Lions (donated in 1815)

Remarks

  1. ^ The order of reunification was founded by Napoleon in 1811 on the occasion of the "reunification" (Réunion) of Holland and France; the Union Order was abolished at the same time.
personal data
SURNAME Spaen van Voorstonden, Gerrit Karel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spaen van Voorstonden, Gerrit Karel Baron
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Arnhem
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1841
Place of death Vienna