Coenraad van Beuningen
Encyclopedia
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Amsterdam in 1669, 1672, 1680, 1681, 1683 and 1684, and from 1681 a VOC
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
(Dutch East India Conpany) director. He probably was a manic depressive, becoming unstable after the loss of his fortune.
Early life
Coenraad was baptized at home because his father Dirk van Beuningen and mother Catharina Burgh were remonstrantsRemonstrants
The Remonstrants are the Dutch Protestants who, after the death of Jacobus Arminius, maintained the views associated with his name. In 1610 they presented to the States of Holland and Friesland a remonstrance in five articles formulating their points of disagreement from Calvinism.-History:The five...
and did not want to cause a fuss. He was the grandson of Geurt van Beuningen
Geurt van Beuningen
Geurt van Beuningen was the son of a cheese-dealer, mayor of Amsterdam and administrator of the Dutch East India Company . He was one of the first of the VOC's subscribers in 1602. For years he was a member of the Amsterdam vroedschap.-Life:...
as well as of Albert C. Burgh
Albert Burgh
Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh was a Dutch physician who was mayor of Amsterdam and a councillor in the Admiralty of Amsterdam.-Biography:...
, both mayors of Amsterdam and heavily involved in the VOC. Coenraad grew up near the Sint Antoniesbreestraat
Sint Antoniesbreestraat
The Sint Antoniesbreestraat is a street in the centre of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The street runs south from Nieuwmarkt square to the Sint Antoniesluis sluice gates....
in a very multi-religious and multi-ethnic neighborhood, next to Pieter Lastman
Pieter Lastman
Pieter Lastman was a Dutch painter . Lastman is considered important because of his work as a painter of history pieces and because his pupils included Rembrandt and Jan Lievens...
. He was taught at the Latin school
Latin School
Latin School may refer to:* Latin schools of Medieval Europe* These schools in the United States:** Boston Latin School, Boston, MA** Brooklyn Latin School, New York, NY** Brother Joseph C. Fox Latin School, Long Island, NY...
of Gerhard Johann Vossius
Gerhard Johann Vossius
thumb|180px|Gerrit Johan VossiusGerrit Janszoon Vos , often known by his Latin name Gerardus Vossius, was a Dutch classical scholar and theologian.-Life:...
and Barlaeus, before commencing studies at the University of Leiden in 1639. In 1642, Hugo de Groot, Swedish envoy in Paris, made Coenraad his secretary and in 1643 he became town clerk in Amsterdam, although he did not feel himself capable.
Sweden
About 1650, Van Beuningen felt himself attracted to Spinoza and the CollegiantsCollegiants
In Christian theology, the Collegiants , also called Collegians, were an eclectic religious sect, formed in 1619 among the Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland...
in Rijnsburg
Rijnsburg
Rijnsburg is a community in the eastern part of the city Katwijk, in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The name means Rhines Burg in Dutch.-History:...
. He lived as simply as possible, without a job, somewhere within the area. In 1652, he was send on a mission to Queen Christina of Sweden
Christina of Sweden
Christina , later adopted the name Christina Alexandra, was Queen regnant of Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Grand Princess of Finland, and Duchess of Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and Karelia, from 1633 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora...
, who was being taught Greek by his schoolfriend Isaac Vossius
Isaac Vossius
Isaak Vossius, sometimes anglicised Isaac Voss was a Dutch scholar and manuscript collector.-Life:...
. In 1654 he traveled to Stade
Stade
Stade is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . It is the seat of the district named after it...
to negotiate an end to an argument about the entry point to the Oresund
Oresund
The Sound , is the strait that separates the Danish island Zealand from the southern Swedish province of Scania. Its width is just at the narrowest point between Helsingør, Denmark, and Helsingborg, Sweden...
. The north of Germany was occupied by the Swedes. The Danes tried to control the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
, the trade to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and occupied Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
. Van Beuningen pronounced that the keys of Oresund
Oresund
The Sound , is the strait that separates the Danish island Zealand from the southern Swedish province of Scania. Its width is just at the narrowest point between Helsingør, Denmark, and Helsingborg, Sweden...
lay in a dock in Amsterdam. Three years later as an envoy in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, he almost ended up the hands of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden
Charles X Gustav of Sweden
Charles X Gustav also Carl Gustav, was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catherine of Sweden. After his father's death he also succeeded him as Pfalzgraf. He was married to Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, who...
but succeeded in getting away in a small boat.
Ambassador
In 1660, he was sent on missions to France and England. Louis XIV of FranceLouis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
offered him a post in France that he refused. Van Beuningen warned against the imperialist and mercantilist French policy and wanted to move to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. He was impressed by Jan Swammerdam
Jan Swammerdam
Jan Swammerdam was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. His work on insects demonstrated that the various phases during the life of an insect—egg, larva, pupa, and adult—are different forms of the same animal. As part of his anatomical research, he carried out experiments on muscle contraction...
, who was traveling in France to study, and remained his firm supporter for the rest of his life. In the same year, 1664, a treaty with France was followed by the Second Anglo-Dutch War
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo–Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo–Dutch Wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes....
and the Triple Alliance
Triple Alliance
Triple Alliance may refer to:* Aztec Triple Alliance - Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan; better known as the Aztec Empire* Triple Alliance - England, France and the Dutch Republic...
. In 1669, he bought a plot in a backstreet and built a house (Blijenburg) in 's-Gravenhage
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
and embellished it with paintings and Turkish rugs. Van Beuningen agreed to the ban on French silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
and actions against French brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
and salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
. In that year he became mayor of Amsterdam. In 1672, he was nominated as the successor to Johan de Witt
Johan de Witt
Johan de Witt, heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp and IJsselveere was a key figure in Dutch politics in the mid 17th century, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of globalization made the United Provinces a leading European power during the Dutch Golden Age...
, not being a hard core republican. Losing the favor of stadholder William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
an attempt was made on his life; it is said he was shocked and burnt part of his furniture. In one of his letters he wrote of the fantastic expansion of trade and imperialism in India and America. He also noticed that the Dutch Republic had had for 150 years more soldiers than all the other Christian countries put together.
Later years
Van Beuningen became more interested in literature, philosophy, theology, history and the natural sciences. He wrote deeply on the consequences of the tropical winds and currentsOcean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun...
, discussing them with Isaac Vossius
Isaac Vossius
Isaak Vossius, sometimes anglicised Isaac Voss was a Dutch scholar and manuscript collector.-Life:...
. He was on friendly terms with Jan Six
Jan Six
Jan Six was an important cultural figure in the golden age of the Netherlands.-Biography:...
and Anna Maria van Schurman
Anna Maria van Schurman
Anna Maria van Schurman was a German-Dutch painter, engraver, poet and scholar. She was a highly educated woman by seventeenth century standards...
. Van Beuningen was interested in the ideas of Descartes and combined this with an interest for mysticism, astrology, Millennialism
Millennialism
Millennialism , or chiliasm in Greek, is a belief held by some Christian denominations that there will be a Golden Age or Paradise on Earth in which "Christ will reign" for 1000 years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state...
dream-interpretation and supernatural wonders. He sympathised with Jean de Labadie
Jean de Labadie
Jean de Labadie was a 17th century French pietist. Originally a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, he became a member of the Reformed Church in 1650, before founding the community which became known as the Labadists in 1669...
and the Quakers.
In 1672 the Rampjaar
Rampjaar
The rampjaar was the year 1672 in Dutch history. In that year,the Republic of the Seven United Provinces was after the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and the Third Anglo-Dutch War attacked by England, France, and the prince-electors Bernhard von Galen, bishop of Münster and Maximilian Henry of...
, the local theatre, called Schouwburg of Van Campen, was shut during the war with the French, the English and two German bishops, Bernhard von Galen
Bernhard von Galen
Christoph Bernhard Freiherr von Galen was prince-bishop of Münster. He was born into a noble Westphalian family....
from Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
and Maximilian Henry of Bavaria
Maximilian Henry of Bavaria
thumb|154 px|Maximilian Heinrich of BavariaMaximilian Henry of Bavaria was the third son and fourth child of Albert VI, landgrave of Leuchtenberg and his wife, Mechthilde von Leuchtenberg. In 1650, he was named Archbishop of Cologne, Bishop of Hildesheim and Bishop of Liège succeeding his uncle,...
from Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. In 1677 it reopened, after a determined campaign led by Van Beuningen and Joan Hudde, on condition nothing was staged which could be deemed harmful either to public morals or the public church. In 1682, he funded the publication of the work of the mystic Jacob Böhme. In 1686, Van Beuningen married his neighbour, the rich and lewd Jacoba Victoria Bartolotti, many years his junior, turning out in being a serpent.
Van Beuningen demanded economies by the VOC, proposing measures to introduce more efficient administration and demanding more supervision and sharper observance of the Company's rules in Asia. Conditions were peaceful and so convoys and the maintenance of the VOC's forts were now deemed less necessary. Attacked in his various roles for making these suggestions, he renounced them, but claimed the company's success was the work of its capable administrators in its first twenty years.
Van Beuningen lost half a million guilder in 1688 through speculation in VOC shares. The funding of the armed invasion of William III in England caused a financial crisis in the Dutch Republic. Following Van Beuningen's resultant madness the city of Amsterdam was appointed his legal guardian
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
. Quickly he was put under custodial care by his colleagues, one of whom was Johannes Hudde. His house in the Hague was taken over in 1690 by the VOC.
In his last years Van Beuningen wrote letters to the ecclesiastical authorities about the coming apocalypse, painting Hebrew or Kabbalistic
Kabbala
Kabbala may refer to:*Kabbalah, is a religious philosophical system claiming an insight into divine nature*Sefer ha-Qabbalah by Abraham ibn Daud*Kabbala Denudata , a book from Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, a Christian Hebraist...
signs on his house at the Amstel
Amstel
The Amstel is a river in the Netherlands which runs through the city of Amsterdam. The river's name is derived from Aeme stelle, old Dutch for "area abounding with water"....
. He was locked up nearby and died in poverty on 26 October 1693, leaving ‘a cape and two dressing gowns,’ a bed, some chairs, a desk, an oval shaped mirror, four old taborets and ‘a man’s portrait’ by Rembrandt valued at seven guilders (three dollars).
External links
- Biography Article Not Found at www.biography.com
- http://www.geertmak.nl/english/123.html
- Monuments and Archeologie in Amsterdam - Amstel 216: "House with the bloodstains" (1671)
- Amsterdam Municipal-archives - secret writing