Gillis Hooftman

Gillis Hooftman and Margaretha von Nispen, painting by Marten de Vos

Gillis Hooftman van Eyckelberg , in German-language sources, Agidius Hauptmann , (* 1521 in Eupen ; † January 19, 1581 in Antwerp ) was an influential merchant, trader and banker as well as shipowner from the Duchy of Limburg and was one of the richest citizens of Antwerp in his time. at that time the trading center of the Spanish Netherlands .

Live and act

Gillis Hooftman was the son of Erken (Arnold) Arnt Hauptmann († 1545), Meier des Lathofes in the Eupen district of Stockem, and Tryntgen (Katharina) Hoesch. The family originally came from the Rhineland and was once called Eichelberg (converted into: van Eyckelberg in Limburg ) and is the namesake of the Hauptmannslehen in Eupen-Stockem and the “Hauptmannssäulen” in the High Fens , which are set up for orientation in the moorland.

In 1541, at the age of twenty, the until then penniless Hooftman moved to Antwerp, where he initially entered the timber trade as a small trader. Just a few years later he founded his own trading and banking company, with which he became known throughout Europe. Hooftman gathered a group of capable young people around him, most of whom he recruited from his family or the Eupen circle of friends. For example, he gave his brother Heinrich a leading position in the company and in 1554 hired Johan Radermacher from Eupen, a young man who was primarily known as a humanist , who took over a branch from Hooftman in London in 1567 and married a niece of his. Hooftman also appointed the Eupener forest specialist Peter Panhaus († around 1597 in Stade ) as his business partner for the international timber trade and supported the Walhorner Antonio Anselmo (1536–1611) in setting up a global cloth trade. Both later became Hooftman's sons-in-law and Anselmus Schöffe on the Antwerp City Council.

The international timber trade in particular became the trading company's success guarantee. Trade contacts were established as far as Russia and Hooftman was able to acquire several merchant ships over time. Sources write of over 100 ships that Hooftman owned in his prime. These drove to ports in the Baltic Sea and the White Sea , where he pioneered Dutch trade, as well as ports in North Africa . In 1559 Hooftman was now one of the richest citizens of Antwerp and initially lived in the Steenstraat near the city castle "Het Steen". In 1578 he bought the “Pulhof” quarter in Berchem and in 1580 the refuge of Afflighem Abbey in Mattestraat. In the same year he also acquired Cleydael Castle, which had previously been besieged and looted by the Spanish troops, and became the landlord of Cleydael and Aartselaar . In the meantime, Hooftman got involved in local politics and was a member of Antwerp City Council for many years.

Medal by Steven van Herwijck with the portrait of Gillis Hooftman

As a banker and financier, Hooftman supported several important people of his time, whose activities corresponded to his professional and private ideas. In 1570 he financed the first publication of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius , which was the first modern and commercially successful collection of maps in book form (the term atlas was not used at that time). In 1580, Hooftman sponsored the first edition of the Nieuwe Onderwysinge op de principaelste puncten der Navigatie by the mathematician Michel Coignet in the same way , a treatise in which the latter referred to the possibility of determining length at sea by means of clocks carried along. Hooftman also supported the painter Marten de Vos when he returned to Antwerp from Italy in 1558 and had to set up a new workshop. De Vos had also been commissioned to decorate the Hooftman estate with valuable paintings and to create portraits of the family. In 1559, the Dutch artist Steven van Herwijck also designed a medal with the portrait of the 38-year-old Gillis Hooftman, who was working in Antwerp at the time.

A major concern for the staunch Calvinist Hooftman was the support of religious groups. For example, in 1566 he initially sold around 200 Hebrew Bibles to the Jewish community in Morocco and commissioned another 400 from the Antwerp printer Christoffel Plantijn . As a staunch supporter of the Protestant reforms, he campaigned in his own special way both for the Geusen freedom struggle against the troops of the Duke of Alba and for William of Orange , the leader in the Dutch war of independence against Spain. Both Gillis and his brother Heinrich were then denounced as anti-subversive Protestants in 1566, but while Heinrich emigrated and then lost track of himself, Gillis Hooftman decided to withstand the hostility. Outwardly, he took the oath of allegiance to the Spanish king, went to mass and confession regularly, and took the meatless days into account. Likewise, in 1569 he was still supplying ports in Spain with goods from Antwerp with his fleet of ships. Internally, however, in 1572 he provided the citizens of the city of Vlissingen with weapons and ammunition with the help of his merchant ships and also intended to expand the port of the Dutch city of Brielle into a heavily fortified facility after the conquest by the Wassergeusen . After a destructive attack by the Spaniards on Antwerp in 1576, also known as the Spanish Fury , and the subsequent " Ghent pacification ", which was signed by the States General in Antwerp, Hooftman was part of the body that was instrumental in rebuilding the city. Openness and tolerance towards different faiths were evident in his will, in which he decreed that after his death 50,000 ducats were to be distributed evenly among the poor in the city regardless of their denomination.

Gillis Hooftman died on January 19, 1581 in Antwerp and, like his wife later, was buried in the Grote Kerk in The Hague .

family

Gillis Hooftman was married three times, first to Maria Petitpas, who died early and with whom he had no children. He then married Anna van Achterhout, daughter of his brother Heinrich and his wife Jeanne Ysebourts, who died in 1562, and gave birth to four children. Finally, Hooftman married on February 14, 1568 in the Antwerp Cathedral , Margaretha van Nispen (1545-1598), a sister of the brother-in-law of Peter Paul Rubens . This marriage resulted in seven children, all of whom were minors when the father died. In 1570 the oil painting by Marten de Vos depicting the Hooftman-Nispen couple and exhibited in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam .

The first-born and eponymous son of Gillis Hooftman from his second marriage succeeded his father on the city council and was an aldermen in Antwerp from 1582 to 1584 and Member of the States General in Delft in 1584 , which was the residence of William of Orange at that time. At the same time, he was the guardian and executor of his wills of his underage half-siblings from the father's third marriage. After the capitulation of Antwerp in 1585, due to which all Protestants had to leave the city, Gillis the Younger left the city with his brother Heinrich († around 1631) and moved to Bremen, where he died in 1598. His son Albert (* 1594 in Bremen; † 1655 in Groningen) later moved back to Holland, where he held high state offices and was mayor of the city of Groningen for many years . Gillis' brother Heinrich returned to Antwerp around 1588 to manage his father's business and property. However, economic difficulties meant that in the following years he lost half of his still large fortune and in 1614 had to sell Cleydael Castle, among other things.

Johanna Hooftman with Antonio Anselmo and two children; Painting by Marten de Vos

His sister Johanna married the aforementioned cloth merchant Antonio Anselmo. The portraits of the couple were also painted by Marten de Vos and are in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels .

Both Corneille († 1632) and Gillis Hooftman-Nispen, both of whom had adopted their mother's name as an addition, were made knights by the sons from the third marriage. Their sister Anne (1565-1624) married the financier and diplomat Sir Horatio Palavicino (1540-1600) and then the politician Sir Oliver Cromwell († 1655), an uncle of the eponymous Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, Oliver Cromwell . Her sisters Margaretha and Beatrix married influential people from the Dutch nobility.

Literature and Sources

• Willi Berens: A great Eupener: Gillis Hooftman In: Eupener Geschichts- und Museumsverein (Hrsg.): Geschichtliches Eupen. Volume II. Markus-Verlag, Eupen 1968. pp. 56-81

Web links

Commons : Gillis Hooftman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short biography (ndl.)
• Gillis Hooftman: Businessman and Patron (engl.)
• Deux Médailles à l'Effigie de l'Armateur Anversois Gillis Hooftman (French)