Cornelis de Graeff (15 October 1599 – 4 May 1664), often named Polsbroek or de heer van (lord) Polsbroek during his lifetime, was an influential regent and Burgemeester (Borough Master or Mayor) of Amsterdam, statesman and diplomat of Holland and the Republic of the United Netherlands at the height of the Dutch Golden Age. He was the most illustrious member of the De Graeff family, which in the Golden Age originally held political power together with the Bicker family and by marriage in Amsterdam Holland and finally the Dutch Republic.Biography Andries Bicker at DBNL
De Graeff belonged to the republican political movement also referred to as the state oriented, the Dutch States Party, as opposed to the Orangisten and opponent of the political ambitions of the House of Orange.Jephta Dullaart: Triumph of Peace He was one of the leading figures who sought to end the Eighty Years' War between the United Netherlands and the Kingdom of Spain, which took place in 1648 with the Peace of Münster.Oliver Krause: Die Variabilität frühneuzeitlicher Staatlichkeit. Die niederländische „Staats“-Formierung der Statthaltosen Epoche (1650–1672) als interkontinentales Regiment (Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2018)Amsterdam: a brief life of the city. By Geert Mak, Harvill Press (1999), p 123Buitenplaatsen in de Gouden Eeuw: De rijkdom van het buitenleven in de Republik. By Y. Kuiper, Ben Olde Meierink, Elyze Storms-Smeets, p 71 (2015) Inside Amsterdam De Graeff became the moderate successor to his ultra-republican cousin Andries Bicker. In the following era after the sudden death of stadholder William II of Orange, the First Stadtholderless Period, which was promoted by De Graeff,The World, by Simon Sebag Montefiore (2022) he and his nephew Grand pensionary Johan de Witt were regarded as the leading republican protagonists.Life/Death Rhythms of Capitalist Regimes – Debt before Dishonour, p 98, by Will Slatyer (2014)
The progressive cooperation between De Graeff and his protégé, De Witt, was an important political axis that ordered the political system within the republic.DeWitt" — an annotation to Thomas Carlyle's "Signs of the Times" Rachel Klotz '13, English 0600J, Brown University, 2010 Both belonged now to the two republican and state-minded families where political power within Holland rested primarily with. In Amsterdam this lay with the brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, and in The Hague with the brothers Cornelis and Johan de Witt.Die vielen Leben des Jan Six: Geschichte einer Amsterdamer Dynastie, by Geert Mak (2016) Until his death in 1664, De Graeff was Amsterdam's leading politician, then the republican center of the republic. However, he not only had the interests of these in mind, but also those of Holland and the political settlement with the other provinces.Brugmans, H. (1973) Geschiedenis van Amsterdam. Deel III Bloeitijd, 1621-1697, p 159–167
De Graeff was considered a prudent and skilful statesman and diplomat who was concerned about the balance between the religious and political factions and was held in high esteem by the population.Pieter C. Vis: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) ’t Gezagh is heerelyk: doch vol bekommeringen His political stance was characteristic of his family: on the one hand libertine and state-minded, on the other hand, if only to a limited extent, loyal to the House of Orange. The proponents of the De Graeff family has shown they had an eye for national politics and tried to find some balance between the House of Orange and the Republicans. They were against too much influence of the church on political issues. After his death, his younger brother Andries de Graeff continued the De Graeff faction and its republican and more liberal politics. Like his brother, Andries De Graeff, he was an art collector and patron of the arts. De Graeff was Free Lord of Zuidpolsbroek, Ambachtsheer (Lord of the manor) of Sloten, Sloterdijk, Nieuwer-Amstel, Osdorp and Amstelveen and acted as President of the Dutch East Indies Company.Biography Cornelis de Graeff at Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 2
Family De Graeff Origin Cornelis de Graeff was the oldest son of Jacob Dircksz de Graeff, burgomaster of Amsterdam and Vrijheer of Zuid-Polsbroek, and his wife Aeltje Boelens Loen, member of the family Boelens Loen, one of the oldest patrician families of Amsterdam and great-great-granddaughter of the important late medieval Amsterdam city regent and burgomaster Andries Boelens. His father was of free-thinking, republican sentiment, but also known for his obsession with fame. He was one of the leading Remonstrants and state-loving patricians,Geschiedenis van Holland, volume 2, book 2, by Eelco Beukers who was nevertheless not a principled anti-Orangist (supporters if the House of Orange-Nassau). He honored the inheritance of his father, Dirck Jansz Graeff, who was on friendly terms with William the Silent of Orange. The young De Graeffs were influenced by their father's antagonistic attitude towards political issues.
The relationship between the leading patriciat was very close. Four of Cornelis ' siblings married members of the Bicker family. One of his sisters Agneta de Graeff van Polsbroek married Jan Bicker. The couple had Wendela Bicker and Jacoba Bicker among others; Wendela married to Grand pensionary Johan de Witt and Jacoba to his own son Pieter de Graeff. His close relatives included also Hollands writer and poet Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft as one of his uncles, the influential Amsterdam burgomasters and statesmen Andries, Cornelis, Jan Bicker who were his cousins, and burgomaster Frans Banning Cocq (captain of Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch), who was his brother-in-law. He was also linked to the noble family of Van Hogendorp by marriage and burgomaster Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen was his great cousin.Rembrandt's Universe: His Art, His Life, His World, p 193, by Gary Schwarz (Thames & Hudson, 2006)
Historical and political Legacy
Cornelis de Graeff said that the ancient Amsterdammers had no habit of keeping genealogical records of their families, and knew no more of their generation than what they have learned from their fathers and grandfathers. The dates of his own family in Amsterdam do not go back very far:
And first I'll start with the family de Graven from which I descended on my father's side. This is a family from Amsterdam, coming from the house 'de Keijser', that was located at the Waeter (= now Damrak No. 91). This house shows the impression of its vaulted appearance, owned by Jan Pieters de Graeff, and then by Dirck Jans de Graeff, who also sold this house. My father Jacob de Graeff and his brothers were also born here.DBNL, Amsterdamse burgemeesters zonder stamboom. De dichter Vondel en de schilder Colijns vervalsen geschiedenis, by S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, p 146 (1990)
The De Graeff family has therefore never boasted about the age of their own family in Amsterdam. But Cornelis and his brother Andries together with their cousins Andries and Cornelis Bicker, saw themselves as the political heirs of the old regent family Boelens, whose main lineage, which had remained catholic, had died out in the male line in 1647. They had received the very significant first names Andries and Cornelis from their Boelens ancestors. As in a real dynasty, members of the two families frequently intermarried in the 17th century in order to keep their political and commercial capital together. Its great historical ancestor was Andries Boelens (1455-1519), the city's most influential medieval mayor. Both families, Bicker and De Graeff, descend in the female line from Boelens. He was allowed to hold the highest office in Amsterdam fifteen times.DBNL, Amsterdamse burgemeesters zonder stamboom. De dichter Vondel en de schilder Colijns vervalsen geschiedenis, by S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, p 147 (1990)
Coat of arms
Cornelis de Graeff's coat of arms of origin was quartered and showed the following symbols: field 1 (left above) the silver shovel on a red background of their paternal ancestors, the Herren von Graben field 2 (right above) it shows a silver falcon on a blue background. The origin of the falcon lies in the possession of the Valckeveen estate (later the Valckenburg estate) in Gooiland field 3 (left below), same as field 2 field 4 (right below), same as field 1 helmet covers in red and silver helm adornment shows an upright silver spade with ostrich feathers (Herren von Graben) motto: MORS SCEPTRA LIGONIBUS AEQUAT (DEATH MAKES SEPTRES AND HOES EQUAL)
The personal coat of arms of Cornelis de Graeff since 1638 is quarterd with a heart shield and shows the following symbols: heart shield shows the three silver rhombuses on red (originally from the family Van Woerdern van Vliet) of the High Lordship Zuid-Polsbroek field 1 (left above) shows the silver shovel on red of their paternal ancestors, the Herren von Graben field 2 (right above) shows the silver swan on blue of the Fief Vredenhof [or that one (Waterland) of their maternal ancestors, the De Grebber field 3 (left below), same as field 2 field 4 (right below), same as field 1 helmet covers in red and silver helm adornment shows an upright silver spade with ostrich feathers (Herren von Graben) motto: MORS SCEPTRA LIGONIBUS AEQUAT (DEATH MAKES SEPTRES AND HOES EQUAL)
Marriage
In 1633 Cornelis de Graeff married Geertruid Overlander van Purmerland (1609–1634), daughter of burgomaster Volkert Overlander and sister of Maria Overlander van Purmerland who was married to Frans Banning Cocq, the captain in Rembrandt's Night Watch.Johan Engelbert Elias, De Vroedschap van Amsterdam, 1578-1795, Deel 1, p 274 She died only a few months later and he remarried with Catharina Hooft, nineteen years younger and his first wife's cousin (daughter of her aunt . She was the daughter of Pieter Jansz Hooft and Geertruid Overlander (1577-1653), sister of Volkert. She was family with Amsterdam burgomaster Cornelis Pietersz. Hooft and the renowned poet and writer P. C. Hooft of the Muiderslot. The couple De Graeff-Hooft had two sons: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 Pieter de Graeff (1638-1707), Vrijheer of Zuid-Polsbroek, Purmerland and Ilpendam, member of the government of Amsterdam, trusted councilor of his cousin and brother-in-law Johan de Witt and one of the leaders of the Dutch East India Company; married his cousin Jacoba Bicker Jacob de Graeff (1642-1690), Vrijheer of Purmerland and Ilpendam, one of the players of the foundation stone of the Amsterdam city hall Op de Dam, Schepen of Amsterdam; married Maria van der Does
The married couple inhabited a fine building with precious woodwork, not far from the city hall, at what is now Herengracht 216.
Life and Political work Influence
Both brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff 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.