Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan, the Earl Schimmelpennick ( born October 31, 1761 Deventer, † February 15, 1825 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch diplomat and statesman.
Life and work
Rutger Jan Schimmelpennick came of an extra-marital, non- noble family branch of Schimmelpennincks, which was charged by his political successes in the count conditions. He studied at Leiden Law and then worked in Amsterdam as a lawyer. Schimmelpennick stood together with Hendrik Hooft, Joan Derk van der chapels dead the pole and Jan Bernd Bicker at the top of the Dutch Patriot movement, which was aimed to prevent the monarchical power claim the House of Orange -Nassau in the Dutch Republic.
After the conquest of Holland by Jean -Charles Pichegru 1795 he became a member of the first Amsterdam Stadtmagistratur and later the Batavian National Assembly in 1798 and went as an envoy to Paris in 1801 to London. After 1803, the neutrality of Holland to preserve sought in vain during re outbreak of war between England and France, he joined the civil service back, but soon went back as ambassador to Paris, won Napoleon's full confidence there and after the imposition of the new Constitution of the Batavian Republic (5 April 1805) as Grand Pensionary at the head of the government. He called some good, particularly in financial matters, in life; a protracted eye disease prevented him from running the business, and Napoleon used this fact in 1806 to his brother Louis propose to the king, whose survey sought to thwart Schimmelpennick vain. After the union of Holland with France in 1810 Napoleon made him a Count and Senator. In the formation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, he was appointed Member of the First Chamber. He died on February 15, 1825 in Amsterdam.
His son Gerrit Schimmelpennick 1848 was Chairman of the Council of Ministers.