Geurt van Beuningen

The old town house of Amsterdam painted by Pieter Jansz Saenredam

Geurt van Beuningen (* 1565 in Amsterdam ; † November 1633 ) was an Amsterdam mayor , administrator and one of the first partners in the Dutch East India Company (VOC).

biography

Geurt van Beuningen came from the aristocratic Van Beuningen family . His father Dirck van Beuningen was a cheese merchant, his uncle Gerrit van Beuningen was a Dutch vice admiral. Geurt began trading dairy products like his father. In 1602 he became the largest partner in the newly founded VOC. In 1623 he bought all of the VOC's pepper stocks, including the cargo still on the ship's lane. This transaction turned out to be very profitable for him and was later repeated by other merchants.

Van Beuningen moved from Kalverstraat to Sint Antoniesbreestraat , where he lived next to Pieter Lastman , with whom Rembrandt was studying at the time .

Religiously he was on the Remonstrant side and was to be found in the political entourage of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt . The remonstrants did not go to church or went to church very little, their children were baptized at home, were tolerant of Catholics and inclined to peace with Spain.

Geurt van Beuningen was a member of the Amsterdam Vroedschap for many years and was mayor in 1627, 1628, 1630 and 1632. Van Beuningen had many socio-political problems to contend with with Amsterdam's regent Reinier Pauw , because while he was a Remonstrant and Republican, Pauw, as a Calvinist , stood on the side of the Orange governor .

Geurt van Beuningen married Eva Appelmann , with whom he had the son Dirk (1588–1648). He married Catharina Burgh, the sister of Mayor Albert Burgh . Dirk van Beuningen was a grain trader in trade between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Levant . His brother-in-law Reynier Reael also took part in this trade . Dirk's son was the diplomat and regent Coenraad van Beuningen .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ biography
2. ↑ Joost van den Vondel's obituary for Geurt van Beuningen (left to right)