Cornelis de Graeff

Cornelis de Graeff was the oldest son of Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and his wife Aeltje Boelens Loen. He grew up in the Niezel, a small street not far from the Oude Kerk. De Graeff was crippled for life in the left arm by a childhood accident, as can be seen in his painting. At twenty he went to Paris and in 1633 he married Geertruid Overlander (1609–1634), daughter of Volkert Overlander, whose brother-in-law was Frans Banning Cocq, the captain in Rembrandt's Night Watch. She died only a few months later and he remarried with Catharina Hooft, nineteen years younger and his first wife's cousin (her mother was another Geertruid Overlander, 1577–1653, the sister of Catharinas father). They had two children: Pieter de Graeff and Jacob de Graeff. The married couple inhabited a fine building with precious woodwork, not far from the city hall, at what is now Herengracht 216.

Both his brother Andries and Cornelis were very critical of the Orange family’s influence. Together with the Republican political leader Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, the De Graeff brothers strived for the abolition of stadtholdership. They desired the full sovereignty of the individual regions in a form in which the Republic of the United Seven Netherlands was not ruled by a single person. Instead of a sovereign (or stadtholder) the political and military power was lodged with the States General and with the regents of the cities in Holland.[2]

During the two decades the De Graeff family had a leading role in the Amsterdam administration, the city was at the peak of its political power. This period was also referred to by Republicans as the ‘Ware Vrijheid’ (True Freedom). It was the First Stadtholderless Period which lasted from 1650 to 1672. During these twenty years, the regents from Holland and in particular those of Amsterdam, controlled the republic. The city was flush with self-confidence and liked to compare itself to the famous Republic of Rome. Even without a stadtholder, things seemed to be going well for the Republic and its regents both politically and economically.[2]

Cornelis de Graeff and his younger brother Andries de Graeff – who after Cornelis's death succeeded him as regent and mayor – busied themselves with art and genealogy, working on their lineage. Of his five brothers and sisters, four married a Bicker, who also originated from the Niezel. Around 1650, De Graeff founded a country house, now known as the Palace Soestdijk, which was later sold by his son Jacob to stadholder William III, Prince of Orange in 1674.

Statue of De Graeffs nephews Johan and Cornelis de Witt in Dordrecht

Cornelis was a merchant and administrator of the VOC, and from 1639 a member of the vroedschap and in 1643–1662 mayor ten times (by turn as magnificus, or chairing mayor with the deciding vote) in the difficult times of the First Stadtholderless Period.

He began as a captain at the schutterij, and it was his company that was painted in 1642 by Jacob Adriaenszoon Backer (to be seen in the Rijkmuseum Amsterdam). In 1645 Cornelis became an advisor of the States of Holland and West Friesland. In 1648 De Graeff was one of the main figures behind the building of a new city hall on the Dam, that was inaugurated in 1655. In the failed attack on Amsterdam in 1650, De Graeff realised that Andries, Cornelis and the other Bickers had to leave the vroedschap. De Graeff was one of the prime movers behind the Peace of Münster in 1648[4][5] and the Act of Seclusion in 1654, in which William III was excluded from the office of Stadtholder.[6] He reached the height of his power as chairing mayor of Amsterdam, together with Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen. Cornelis de Graeff was brilliant not only in living languages, but also in Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic. He never went to church, but only for political reasons. It was probably due to his influence that Nieuwe Kerk was built without a tower. He was the patron of Vondel and Jan Vos and commissioned eight paintings from Govert Flinck for the city hall.

De Graeff and William III of Orange

Cornelis de Graeff at Soestdijk, painted by Thomas de Keyser and Jacob van Ruisdael (1656-1660).

On 25 September 1660 the States of Holland under the prime movers of De Witt, De Graeff, his younger brother Andries de Graeff and Gillis Valckenier resolved to take charge of William III of Oranges education to ensure he would acquire the skills to serve in a future—though undetermined—state function.[9] During the summers the family spent a lot of their time at the Palace Soestdijk, and the sons of De Graeff played with the young William - who became later King of England, Scotland and Ireland and stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands - at the lake and woods at Palace Soestdijk. After the rampjaar his son Jacob sold it to stadholder William III.

The rear of the townhall by Gerrit Berckheyde.

Cornelis's tomb chapel is to be found of in the Oude Kerk, and after his death his younger brother Andries and the cunning Gillis Valckenier took over his role on the council. After De Graeff's death Johan de Witt lost his power and reputation in Amsterdam and afterwards in the Province Holland.

• Israel, Jonathan I. (1995) The Dutch Republic - Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall - 1477-1806, Clarendon Press, Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-820734-4
• Rowen, Herbert H. (1986) John de Witt - Statesman of the „True Freedom“, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-52708-2
• Kernkamp, G.W. (1977) Prins Willem II 1626-1650, p. 107-110.
• Dudok van Heel, S.A.C.(1995) Op zoek naar Romulus & Remus. Een zeventiende-eeuws onderzoek naar de oudste magistraten van Amsterdam. Jaarboek Amstelodamum, p. 43-70.
• Zandvliet, Kees De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw - Kapitaal, macht, familie en levensstijl (2006 Amsterdam; Nieuw Amsterdam Uitgevers)
• Burke, P. (1994) Venice and Amsterdam. A study of seventeenth-century élites.
• Brugmans, Hajo (1973) Geschiedenis van Amsterdam - Deel 3 Bloeitijd, 1621–1697, p. 159 t/m 167, (Het Spectrum, Utrecht) ISBN 90-274-8193-8
• Graeff, P. de (P. de Graeff Gerritsz en Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek) Genealogie van de familie De Graeff van Polsbroek, Amsterdam 1882.
• Bruijn, J. H. de Genealogie van het geslacht De Graeff van Polsbroek 1529/1827, met bijlagen. De Built 1962-63.
• Moelker, H.P. De heerlijkheid Purmerland en Ilpendam (1978 Purmerend)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cornelis de Graeff.

• Biografie from Cornelis de Graeff at the Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 2 (nl)
• Biografie from Cornelis de Graeff at the Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 7 (nl)
• Triumpf of Peace
• Portrait of Cornelis de Graeff by Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
• Medaillons of Cornelis de Graeff, his wife and his brother Andries in the Rijksmuseum
• Poem on him by Vondel
• History of Herengracht 573, now the Handbagmuseum