Previously, the States General only were in session for a few weeks at most. To facilitate its governance in permanent session, they appointed a rotating presidency. The president, selected from one of the provincial delegations, assisted by one or two of the pensionaries, would preside over the meetings for a week at a time. This system continued during the later Dutch Republic and the pensionaries began acting as an executive committee of the States General.
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Suvée was born in Bruges. Initially a pupil of Matthias de Visch, he came to France aged 19 and became a pupil of Jean-Jacques Bachelier. In 1771, he won the Prix de Rome. In Rome from 1772 to 1778, he prolonged the usual duration allowed to pensionaries of the French Academy in Rome.
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The office originated in Flanders. Initially, the role was referred to as clerk or advocate. The earliest pensionaries in the county of Holland were those of Dordrecht (1468) and of Haarlem (1478). The pensionary conducted the town's legal business and was the secretary of the town council and its representative and spokesman at the meetings of the Provincial States.
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There are 60 medical and medical-health establishments in a city — hospitals, polyclinics, the station of blood transfusion, station of urgent medicare, sanatoriums, sanatoriums-preventive clinics, regional centre of social maintenance of pensionaries and invalids, city centres: gastroenterology, thoracic surgery, bleedings, pancreatic, microsurgery of the eye. Central pool-hospital on a water-carriage. The largest hospital is the Mariupol regional intensive care hospital.
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235, 256 On 15 September 1787 the Patriot troops in the city of Utrecht retreated to Amsterdam. The three pensionaries proposed that the States of Holland would also move to Amsterdam from The Hague, as that city was without defense. But they did not stay around to defend that proposal in the States, as they had already fled to Amsterdam themselves.
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Letters to the Estates could be read by all the members. Therefore messages of a more secretive nature were sent to the grand pensionary personally. Large parts of the correspondence of the various grand pensionaries have been preserved, forming an important source of information for later historians. The diplomatic contacts of the Republic were in principle managed by the States General.
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Colenbrander, deel 1, ch. 5, p.252, note 1 When in 1783 the "aristocratic" Patriots formed a Council of Patriot Regenten to coordinate policy with the "democratic" wing of the Patriot faction (with a. o. Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol), van Zeebergh was made part of its "Bureau of Correspondence" of the Holland pensionaries that corresponded with like-minded regenten in other provinces.
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The office originated in Flanders, and was originally known by the name of clerk or advocate. The earliest pensionaries in Holland were those of Dordrecht (1468) and of Haarlem (1478). The pensionary conducted the legal business of the town, and was the secretary of the city council. He was also one of the city's representatives and spokesman at the meetings of the provincial States.
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He was, however, more a civil servant, than a politician by temperament. This militated against his taking a role as a forceful political leader, as other Grand Pensionaries, like Johan de Witt, and to a lesser extent, Gaspar Fagel and Heinsius had been. This is probably just the way his backers liked it. Neutralist sentiment was still strong in the years following the Barrier Treaty with Austria of 1715.
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Pensionaries were well paid. His task was to advise the city council on legal affairs and serve as the representative of Leiden at the estates of Holland. Paulus Buys was appointed as land's advocate of Holland in 1572 before Calvinists took the county. As representative of Holland, he vetoed the decision of the duke of Alva to raise taxes at the estates general of the Netherlands in Brussels.
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The following is a list of Grand pensionaries of Holland, Zeeland and the Batavian Republic. During the time of the Dutch Republic, the Grand Pensionary was the most prominent member of the government. Though officially only a civil servant of the Estates, the Grand Pensionary was the de facto leader of the entire republic, second only to the stadtholder, and often served in a capacity similar to that of today's prime ministers.
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Then on 3 April van Goudoever returned with 102 officers to demand that henceforth only the two pensionaries of the city van Berckel and Visscher, would be allowed to represent the city in the States of Holland. Again Dedel expressed his indignation.Van Loon, pp. 344-345 Departure of a deputation to burgemeester Hooft, led by Isaac van Goudoever, in the night of 20-21 April 1787, by Noach van der Meer (II) But van Goudoever was not impressed.
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Inventaris van het Archief stadhouder Willem V The French ambassador Marquis de Vérac, and Thulemeyer conocted a compromise whereby the Stadholder's military functions were replaced by a Council including the Princess, the Pensionaries and leading councillors of both the Patriot and Orangist factions.Simon Schama (2005) Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands, 1780-1813, p. 122. In October 1786 Johann Eustach of Görtz was sent to The Hague, but temptations in democratic sense, even demanded by both diplomats failed.
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Born in Middelburg to Wilhem van Citters and Maria Kien, his uncle Caspar and nephew Willem Aarnoud were both also grand pensionaries of Zeeland. Wilhem II began his career in 1750 as pensionary of Middelburg, a role in which he also acted from 1752 to 1755 as one of the Republic's three plenipotentiary commissioners to the Barrier Treaty talks in Brussels. In 1757 he was appointed secretary of Zeeland and from 1753 to 1792 he was a 'principal participant' (i.e. commissioner) of the Dutch East India Company.
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Together with Adriaan van Zeebergh and Engelbert François van Berckel, pensionaries of Haarlem and Amsterdam, he supported the Dutch Patriots faction, which sought greater autonomy for citizens and less power for the House of Orange during the time of the Dutch Republic. In the 1780s, he was considered one of the leaders of the faction, and the patriots were nicknamed Kezen after his first name. Kees had a little dog that followed him everywhere, and with the time became the symbol of this faction, and was known as Keeshond (Kees' dog).
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As the salaried official of the States-General Musch was soon able to build an informal position of power. The presidency of the States- General rotated weekly, so that presidents hardly had time to get acquainted with affairs before they were already replaced. They tended to lean heavily on the Griffier. Also, in this period the Grand Pensionaries of Holland (who would normally perform a leading role in the affairs of the States-General) were selected for their incompetence and weakness, to protect the power position of the Stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange.
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A formal decision was therefore never taken, but a number of delegations of Holland cities in the States indeed moved to Amsterdam where they joined the three pensionaries on 17 September. But the rump-States in The Hague then took the decision to declare for the stadtholder, and the Patriot Revolt was over. On 8 October the purged States of Holland asked the Princess meekly what kind of satisfaction she desired for the insult she had suffered. She gave them a list of names of people she held responsible for the arrest at Goejanverwellesluis.
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Its pensionary, Engelbert François van Berckel, together with the pensionaries of Dordrecht (Cornelis de Gijselaar) and of Haarlem (Adriaan van Zeebergh) formed an anti- stadtholderian triumvirate in the States of Holland during the days of the war with Great Britain. But this was all based on the interests of Amsterdam as a mercantile city. The Amsterdam regenten were in no mood for "democratic" experiments that would undermine their privileges. The more the democrats gained influence in other cities, the more the Amsterdam regenten drew closer to their Orangist enemies, and the stadtholder's regime.
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The pamphlet was polarising. Van der Capellen pitched two groups against each other: the corrupt Orangist regenten, called "fortune-seekers" by Van der Capellen on the one hand, against the Patriots on the other. The Patriots were dissident regenten who opposed the stadtholder's policies. Besides Van der Capellen himself, he mentioned the burgomasters of Amsterdam Temminck, Hooft and Rendorp, the pensionaries Van Berckel and De Gijselaar, his Guelderian cousin Robert Jasper van der Capellen tot de Marsch and the Frisian regenten Van Aylva, Van Eysinga, Humalda, Van Beijma, Wielinga and Van Haren.
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If the "triumvirate" of "aristocratic" Patriot pensionaries (Zeebergh, de Gijselaar, and van Berckel) and the Grand Pensionary Pieter van Bleiswijk would accede to the Prussian demand, that would cause a popular insurrection against them.Colenbrander, p. 237 The lack of a positive reaction of the Holland government caused a shift in the stance of the Prussian government, promoted by Hertzberg, who was assisted by a "leak" of the British government to the Prussians of its correspondence with the French government about its demand to be allowed to join the mediation.
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Israel, pp. 441-443 Though many expected an immediate military coup, Maurice moved with deliberation, and embarked on a policy of intimidation of the magistracies of cities supporting Oldenbarnevelt in Holland and in other provinces, causing them to change their vote in the States and in the States General. He also started to support the policy of the Counter-Remonstrants to convoke a National Synod by the States General. This more and more isolated Oldenbarnevelt and his allies like Grotius and the pensionaries of Leiden (Hogerbeets) and Haarlem (Johan de Haen) in the States of Holland and in the States General.
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Tuchman, B.W., The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution. New York: Knopf/Random House, 1988. The Amsterdam regenten were particularly interested in opening formal trade negotiations with the Continental Congress; secret diplomacy was soon embarked upon by the pensionaries of a number of mercantile cities, like Engelbert François van Berckel (Amsterdam) and Cornelis de Gijselaar (Dordrecht), behind the back of the stadtholder and the States-General. The French ambassador to the Republic, Vauguyon, arranged contacts with the American ambassador to the French court, Benjamin Franklin, in 1778, which in time led to the sending out of John Adams as American emissary to the Republic.
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During the rule of Charles V, the States of Zeeland was made up of prelates from the area (e.g. the abbot of the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Abdij in Middelburg), the main nobles of Zeeland (the Ridderschap) and representatives of the area's six largest cities (known as pensionaries). These cities were Middelburg, Zierikzee, Goes, Reimerswaal and Tholen (with Vlissingen and Veere added after the Dutch Revolt). Decisions were taken by majority vote and the body and area were represented at the States General of the Netherlands by the Grand Pensionary of Zeeland, with this regional states (like the others) also nominating Zeeland's members of the States-General.
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The composition of the commission was two members for Holland, and one for each of the other provinces. de Jonge, pp. 620-628 The members appointed were the pensionaries of Haarlem, Adriaan van Zeebergh, and Amsterdam, Engelbert François van Berckel for Holland (both leaders of the Patriot faction); W.A. van Beveren for Zeeland; E. van Haften tot Ophemert for Gelderland; W.E. de Perponcher de Sedlnitsky for Utrecht; R.L. van Andringa de Kempenaer for Friesland; L.G. Rouse for Overijssel; and J.H. Siccama for Groningen.de Jonge, p. 628, note 2 The commission started its work on 30 March 1784. Its inquest lasted no less than 15 months, and when it reported on 24 June 1785 its report comprised three volumes.
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It should therefore cause no surprise that at first nothing happened with the report, also because the commission had made no recommendations the States General could directly act upon. So only in November 1785 there was movement in the sense that the two Holland members of the commission, the pensionaries Zeebergh and van Berckel moved in the States of Holland that the officers whose conduct had been criticized by the commission should be brought before the proper Admiralty courts to be tried. However, as this would mean that three courts would be competent for three different groups of defendants this would possibly lead to different treatments in like cases, which was to be avoided in the cause of justice.
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In sum, the political forces were more evenly balanced than in other cities. And this paralyzed the Amsterdam vroedschap in the Spring of 1787. Things came to a head in February 1787 when a group of Free-Corps officers, led by a Colonel Isaac van Goudoever forced entry to the council chamber in protest against an anti-Patriot move Dedel had engineered. Only the intervention of Hendrik Daniëlsz Hooft, a venerable burgemeester prevented a fracas. On 3 April Goudoever returned at the head of 102 officers to demand that henceforth Amsterdam would only be represented by its pensionaries Van Berckel and Visscher (who were both trusted by the Patriots) in the States of Holland.
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For instance, in 1785 they proposed that the stadtholder would cede his military powers to a council, with the Princess, the pensionaries, and the leaders of both the Orangist and "aristocratic" Patriot factions as members (only the democrats would be excluded). But William refused to budge on his "due rights" and without that the Patriots would not budge either.Schama, p. 122 In 1786 a Prussian minister, Johann von Goertz, came to The Hague with a proposal that might even be acceptable to the democrats, but Harris easily convinced William, already in great spirits after the events of Hattem and Elburg, that this would amount to a "capitulation" and the stadtholder appended conditions that were unacceptable to the Patriots.
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Together with the pensionaries of Dordrecht (Cornelis de Gijselaar) and Haarlem (Adriaan van Zeebergh) Van Berckel became the leader of the Patriot opposition to the stadtholder in the States of Holland. He was active in the exploitation of the scandal, known as the Brest Affair. After the occupation of the Patriot towns of Hattem and Elburg by the Dutch States Army in September 1786 he was appointed in the special commission of the States of Holland that in reprisal deprived the stadtholder of his position as Captain-General of the Holland regiments in that army. After the Prussian invasion of Holland Van Berckel was mentioned as one of the culprits in the affair of the arrest of Princess Wilhelmina at Goejanverwellesluis by the Princess herself.
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In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte moved it to the Villa Medici, with the intention of perpetuating an institution once threatened by the French Revolution and, thus, of retaining for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of the Antiquity or the Renaissance and send back to Paris their "envois de Rome", the results of the inspiration they had gained in Rome. These "envois" were annual works, sent to Paris to be judged, and were a compulsory requirement for all the pensionaries. Portrait of Prix de Rome winner and fellow student Merry-Joseph Blondel in front of the Villa Medici in 1809, by Ingres At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state and had to be renovated to house the winners of the Prix de Rome.
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In that city a revolution had meanwhile taken place. On 15 September the "triumvirate" of the pensionaries Zeebergh, de Gijselaar, and van Berckel had proposed to the States of Holland that they also should move to Amsterdam, as The Hague was no longer safe. However, a few Holland cities that still were in Orangist hands, and the Holland ridderschap (College of Nobles) opposed the move, so that only the delegations of the Patriot cities actually moved to Amsterdam the next day. The rump-States of Holland that remained in The Hague then assumed power and started on 19 September to repeal all Patriot-tinged legislation of the previous years, starting with the reinstatement of the stadtholder in his offices of Captain-General of the States Army and Admiral-General of the Navy.
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On 3 April van Goudoever again approached the Council, this time at the head of a deputation of 102 schutterij officers, to demand that henceforth the city would only be represented in the States of Holland by the two pensionaries of the city Engelbert François van Berckel and Carel Visscher, who were trusted by the Patriot rank-and-file. Dedel recognised that he had to act quickly if he did not want to lose control of the Council. He secretly contacted the stadtholder at his Het Loo Palace, to try and achieve a political compromise that would enable Amsterdam to go over to the Orangist side, and to ask for the stadtholder's support in mobilizing the so-called BijltjesThe Bijltjes ("Little Axes") were laborers employed in the Amsterdam ship-building industry, who were strongly Orangist, and had been used in the past to foment mob violence to intimidate middle-class opponents of the stadtholderian regime. to organize counter demonstrations and street riots.
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His colleagues were Willem Gerrit Dedel Salomonsz and Marten Adriaan Beels, also States Party regenten, though more conservative than he. The States party in Amsterdam was riding high, as in 1786 many of their objectives had been reached, especially the weakening of the power of the stadtholder William V.Hooft, p. 124 He had been deprived of his office of Captain-General of the Dutch States Army in October 1786 by the States of Holland. In 1785 he had already lost the command of the garrison of The Hague (where the States of Holland and the States General of the Netherlands both resided), but the loyalty of the mercenary troops in The Hague was questionable. Therefore, the leaders of the Patriot faction in the States of Holland, the pensionaries Adriaan van Zeebergh and Cornelis de Gijselaar, had proposed that the so- called "Legion of Salm"A "private army" of the States of Holland that had been founded in 1784 for its account during the Kettle War, and was commanded by the Rhinegrave of Salm.
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De Witt realised that he would not persuade most of the provinces to accept the exclusion of members of the House of Orange from public office as part of a peace treaty, so the public terms of the Treaty of Westminster made no mention of this. However, the two members of the negotiating team from Holland, unknown to their colleagues, agreed to a secret annexe providing, although the Netherlands would ratify the treaty without delay, England would only do so once the States of Holland had passed an Act of Seclusion, excluding the House of Orange from holding public office in the province of Holland. The States General of the United Provinces approved and ratified the Treaty of Westminster, unaware of the secret annexe attached to version of the treaty that the English would ratify. De Witt had to use his influence to persuade delegates from the towns of Holland, many initially unfavourable, to support Exclusion, and some of their pensionaries resisted to the end, although they did not try to involve other provinces.
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