Willem Eggert

Knight Willem Eggert (* 1360, † July 15, 1417 in Purmerend, North Holland ) was an influential Dutch nobleman in the reign of Count Willem VI. and its governor and financier.

Work

Willem was born the son of Jan Eggert, the wealthy landowners of the family of Eggert. In 1392, he supported the uprising Wilhelm van Oostervants against the Bavarian Duke Albrecht. After Oostervants election to the Count of Holland, Willem Eggert was appointed councilman and treasurer of the city of Amsterdam, and in 1415 chief treasurer of Holland. Eggert was the Count's ambassador and deputy and lent him money for his various wars. So Eggert was the second man on the court and in Dutch politics. In the years 1416 and 1417 his short tenure as governor of Holland, in this capacity, he worked in property matters - the county concerning - as a clever, skillful and prudent steward of the Count. He could gain a lot from this privileges for the city of Amsterdam.

On November 4, 1410 when he was by Count Willem VI. appointed the first armies of Purmerend and Purmerland, whose first castle - Purmerstein - was built in 1413. 1414 built Eggert built by him in the Nieuwe Kerk, a Collegium Theologicum. In 1414 he mediated Holland Count a 30-year peace with the Frisians. In 1416 he was also named as provost of Utrecht.

After William's death Earl Eggert experienced his retirement at Castle Purmerstein. When he died a short time after the Earl in 1417, he was buried in the Amsterdam Nieuwe Kerk. His son Jan followed him in as Lord of Purmerend and Purmerland.