Willem van Heeckeren van Kell

Willem van Heeckeren van Kell

Willem Baron van Heeckeren van Kell (born July 1, 1815 in Ruurlo ; † February 10, 1914 there ) was a lawyer and a liberal Dutch politician . From November 3, 1877 to August 20, 1879 he was Foreign Minister in the Kappeyne van de Coppello cabinet .

Van Kell was the son of the governor and minister of state Willem Hendrik Alexander Carel van Heeckeren van Kell and Geertruid Sara Agatha van Pabst van Bingerden and came from the wealthy noble family Heeckeren from the Duchy of Geldern . He was educated in Utrecht, where he initially received private tuition in order to study law from 1834 to 1839 at the University of Utrecht . He received his doctorate on June 22, 1839 cum laude with "De jure, quo Gelriae Trajecti, et Transisalaniae regiones, postquam anno 1672 from hoste fuerant occupatae, in antiquum foedus recipi debuissent" .

From 1842 on he was dikgrave of the polder district of the Baarbroekse dike and the Angerlose summer dike.

On October 19, 1843, he married Sophia Johanna Justina Baroness Taets van Amerongen , who died on April 25, 1861. On December 3, 1868, he entered into a second marriage with Albertine Marie Countess van Limburg Stirum . His first marriage had three sons and three daughters, and his second marriage had two more sons.

From 1845 to 1860 he was mayor of Angerlo .

Large landowners.

As head of the king's cabinet, he developed into an influential advisor and played a key role in private affairs for the royal family, including the conflict between Wilhelm II and his son, King Wilhelm III. when he was about to marry Emma zu Waldeck and Pyrmont , who was 41 years his junior , or when he was because of an affair with Wilhelm III. with a French opera singer inciting public scandal.

In 1877 Joannes Kappeyne van de Coppello appointed him to his cabinet as Foreign Minister. As an anecdote, it was said that van Kell employed more private servants in the family castle Ruurlo and in his villa at Lange Voorhout 32 in The Hague than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had.

His predecessor in the office of foreign minister was Joseph van der Does de Willebois , his successor Constantijn Theodoor van Lynden van Sandenburg .

He is also one of the very early photography pioneers in the Netherlands. In August 1842 he took a picture of his servant Reinder Berenschot for the first time using photographic equipment obtained from Paris.

Web links

• Parlement & Politiek: Biography (Dutch)