Gillis Valckenier

Gillis Valckenier (1623-1680) was nine years burgomaster of Amsterdam: in 1665, 1666, 1668, 1670, 1673, 1674, 1676, 1678, 1679. He was a strong personality, but changing allies as a real opportunist.

Valckenier was the son of a skipper on Leiden. He studied at the University of Leiden. In 1649 he was appointed as schepen and in 1657 as administrator of the Dutch East India Company. From 1666 onwards he was involved in the education of William III of Orange, just like Johan de Witt, but in the year after he signed the "Perpetual Edict (1667) ... for Preserving of Freedom", as the law was entitled, was duly passed and promogated. Its three chief points were abolition of the stadholderate, permanent separation of the captaincy-general from the stadholderate of all provinces, and the transfer of the political functions of the Stadholder of Holland to the provincial States. [Israel, J. (1995) The Dutch Republic. Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477-1806, p. 791-792.]

After 1672 Nicolaes Witsen and Johannes Hudde were his oppononents in the vroedschap. When Coenraad van Beuningen was send to England as a diplomat, Valckenier was more powerful than ever. William Temple wrote in as "": "The Turkish sultan was not as powerful in his country, than Valckenier in Amsterdam, (dressing and behaving like a shopkeeper)".

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