Gillis Valckenier

Gillis Valckenier ( born August 13, 1623 Amsterdam, † November 6, 1680 same place ) was in the Golden Age an influential ruler of the Dutch Republic.

Political beginning as a Republican

See also: Regent of Amsterdam

Gillis was born as the son of the mayor of Amsterdam Wouter Valckenier. He was a scion of the patrician family Valckenier. After his studies in Leiden Valckenier was recorded in 1649 in the Amsterdam Vroedschap, where he soon held the office of a Schepen. He made ​​a quick political career when he was appointed in 1657 as head of the Dutch East India Company.

Gillis Valckenier has been described as stubborn, clever, domineering, greedy and harsh, but also as a very industrious and hardworking man. He succeeded after the death of Cornelis de Graeff to weaken the supremacy of the mighty De Graeff government of Amsterdam and uplift himself as the new strong man. He succeeded in the years 1665, 1666 to be 1668 and 1670 appointed governing mayor to withdraw the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt for his policies the vital support of Amsterdam and at the same time its most important competitors Andries de Graeff in his ancestral Pro- De Witt policy significantly impair.

Valckenier as a faithful oranischer Statesman

Valckenier learned his political transformation from Republican statesman of the year 1667 - in collaboration with De Witt and Gaspar Fagel he was one of the preparers of Eeuwig edict ( century decree), which included the abolition of the governorship, and thus the final fall of the house of Orange - for oranisch minded statesman with political boycotts against the system of De Witt.

From the late 1660s led Valckenier in Paris with William III. to overthrow secret political negotiations, the purpose of prosecuting, the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt and their political system to William III. to put in their place.

In 1671 his political mission seemed to fail when he, along with Nicolaas Witsen against the ultrarepublikanisch minded faction of the De Graeff - in and Henrick Hooft his position - which Andries, whose two nephews Pieter and Jacob de Graeff and their cousin Lambert Reynst included Amsterdam's policy lost, but regained it again through the turmoil of Rampjaares and the consequent emergence of anti- De Witt mood in the Republic in the summer of 1672.

As even the Republic 's most successful diplomat Coenraad van Beuningen was sent as an envoy to England, Valckenier could with the new Erbstatthalters ascend ( William III. ) Help in the years after 1672 the most powerful politicians in Amsterdam. Together with Henrick Hooft prevented Valckenier with the efforts of Cornelis Geelvinck and William III. an entry into the war against the Republic of France.

The British Ambassador, Sir Henry Sidney said of the Posititon Valkeniers mutatis mutandis, that even the Turkish Sultan had has not so much power in his country as Valckenier in Amsterdam.