Cornelis de Graeff

Cornelis de Graeff (Oct 15 1599 - 4 May 1664) was a famous mayor of Amsterdam from the Dutch Golden Age and a powerful Amsterdam regent after the sudden death of stadholder William II of Orange. Like his father Jacob Dircksz de Graeff he opposed the house of Orange, and was the moderate successor to the republican Andries Bicker. In the mid 17th century he controlled the city's finances and politics, and in close cooperation with his brother Andr... more

Cornelis de Graeff (Oct 15 1599 - 4 May 1664) was a famous mayor of Amsterdam from the Dutch Golden Age and a powerful Amsterdam regent after the sudden death of stadholder William II of Orange. Like his father Jacob Dircksz de Graeff he opposed the house of Orange, and was the moderate successor to the republican Andries Bicker. In the mid 17th century he controlled the city's finances and politics, and in close cooperation with his brother Andries de Graeff and their nephew Johan de Witt the Netherlands political system. Cornelis de Graeff was a member of the Amsterdam branch of the Graeff-family, and he was also the founder of a regent dynastie that retained power and influence for centuries and produced a number of ministers. He was a Baron of the Hoge of vrije heerlijkheid or the semisouverain Lordship Zuidpolsbroek and an Ambachtsheer (Lord of the Manor) of Sloten, Nieuwer-Amstel, Osdorp (?) and Amstelveen, near Amsterdam, and castlelord of Ilpenstein. De Graeff was also... less