Andries de Graeff (19 February 1611 – 30 November 1678) was a regent and burgomaster (mayor) of Amsterdam and leading Dutch statesman during the Golden Age.
He came from the De Graeff family, which, together with the Bicker family by marriage, held political power in Amsterdam, Holland, and ultimately in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. He was a member of a family of regents who belonged to the republican political movement also referred to as the ‘state oriented’, the Dutch States Party, as opposed to the Orangisten and opponent of the political ambitions of the House of Orange.
At the height of the Dutch Golden Age, during the First Stadtholderless Period from 1650 to the Rampjaar 1672, political power within Holland rested primarily with two republican and state-minded families. In Amsterdam this lay with the brothers Andries and Cornelis de Graeff, and in The Hague with the brothers Cornelis and Johan de Witt, the leaders of Holland's pro-state faction, which was reinforced by their close collaboration and mutual kinship. Andries de Graeff was one of the leading figures seeking to end the Eighty Years' War between the United Netherlands and the Kingdom of Spain. This took place in 1648 with the Peace of Münster. After his brother's death in 1664, he took over the leadership of the De Graeff faction and continued his politics. Andries was called the last mayor from the dynasty of the "Graven", who was powerful and able enough to rule the city of Amsterdam. His political stance was characteristic of his family: on the one hand libertine and state-minded, on the other hand, if only to a limited extent, loyal to the House of Orange. The proponents of the De Graeff family has shown they had an eye for national politics and tried to find some balance between the House of Orange and the Republicans. They were against too much influence of the church on political issues.
Together with his brother Cornelis de Graeff he became an illustrious Patron and Art collector of various artists and poets of the Dutch Golden Age. His patronage consisted of commissions to artists such as Rembrandt, Artus Quellinus, Gerard ter Borch and Govert Flinck for the portraits of himself and his family. He was also sung about by poets such as Joost van den Vondel and Jan Vos.
Andries de Graeff was born in Amsterdam, the third son of Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and Aaltje Boelens Loen, great-great-granddaughter of the important late medieval Amsterdam city regent and burgomaster Andries Boelens. His father was of free-thinking, republican sentiment, but also known for his obsession with fame. He was one of the leading Remonstrant and state-loving patricians, who was nevertheless not a principled anti-Orangist (supporters if the House of Orange-Nassau). He honored the inheritance of his father, Dirck Jansz Graeff, who was on friendly terms with William the Silent of Orange. The young De Graeffs were influenced by their father's antagonistic attitude towards political issues.
The relationship between the leading patriciat was very close. Three of Andries' siblings married members of the Bicker family, and so did Andries as the fourth. His older sister Agneta de Graeff van Polsbroek married Jan Bicker. The couple had Wendela Bicker and Jacoba Bicker among others; Wendela married to Grand pensionary Johan de Witt and Jacoba to De Graeffs nephew Pieter de Graeff. His close relatives included also Hollands writer and poet Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft as one of his uncles, the influential Amsterdam burgomasters and statesmen Andries, Cornelis, Jan Bicker who were his cousins, and burgomaster Frans Banning Cocq (captain of Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch), who was his brother-in-law. A more distant relative für example was his second cousin burgomaster Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen
Genealogical and political Legacy
The De Graeff family therefore never boasted about the age of their own family in Amsterdam. But Andries and his brother Cornelis de Graeff together with their cousins Andries and Cornelis Bicker, saw themselves as the political heirs of the old regent family Boelens, whose main lineage, which had remained catholic, had died out in the male line in 1647. They had received the very significant first names Andries and Cornelis from their Boelens ancestors. As in a real dynasty, members of the two families frequently intermarried in the 17th century in order to keep their political and commercial capital together. Its great historical ancestor was Andries Boelens (1455-1519), the city's most influential medieval mayor. Both families, Bicker and De Graeff, descend in the female line from Boelens. He was allowed to hold the highest office in Amsterdam fifteen times.
Shortly before Andries, the "Edle Herr von Graef(f)", died in end of 1678, he and his only adult son, Cornelis de Graeff, were raised to the German Imperial Knighthood by Emperor Leopold I and their coat of arms improved. The reason was a relationship claimed by De Graeff to the noble family Von Graben, but this was doubted by his political opponents during De Graeff's lifetime. With Wolfgang von Graben and his son Peter von Graben (* around 1450/1460), family members from Laibach (Ljubljana) came to Holland around 1476 [reported also in 1483] in the entourage of Archduke Maximilian of Austria [the later Emperor]. The latter had just acquired Holland by marrying Mary of Burgundy. Margarethe von Croppenstein is reported as Peter's mother, but this cannot be correct, since she is mentioned as the wife of a Wolfgang von Graben, but only in the 16th century, which therefore applies to a later Wolfgang von Graben. Wolfgang entered the military service and was assigned to the archduke. Peter took the name Pieter (de) Graeff (or De Graaff), and also appears as the progenitor of the De Graeff family. De Graeff was the Dutch spelling of Von Graben during the 14th and 15th century. In the Diploma of Nobility loaned to Andries de Graeff, it was affirmed that the family de Graeff was formerly called von Graben, which is the same as de Graeff. He also appears as the first known bearer of the Graeffsche/Grabenschen (family) coat of arms with the silver spade on a red background and the silver bird [swan] on a blue background. This family today shows the same coat of arms as the De Graeff family. However, the Dutch Nieuw Nederlandsch Biographical Woordenboek doubts this family constellation: A certain Wolfgang von Graben, who came to Holland around 1483, is said to have married there and had a son Pieter, who is said to be the progenitor of the Dutch family... That diplome dadet from 19 July 1677. Diplom loaned to Andries de Graeff:
"Fide digis itegur genealogistarum Amsteldamensium edocti testimoniis te Andream de Graeff [Andries de Graeff] non paternum solum ex pervetusta in Comitatu nostro Tyrolensi von Graben dicta familia originem ducere, qua olim per quendam ex ascendentibus tuis ejus nominis in Belgium traducta et in Petrum de Graeff [Pieter Graeff], abavum, Johannem [Jan Pietersz Graeff], proavum, Theodorum [Dirck Jansz Graeff], avum, ac tandem Jacobum [Jacob Dircksz de Graeff], patrem tuum, viros in civitate, Amstelodamensi continua serie consulatum scabinatus senatorii ordinis dignitabitus conspicuos et in publicum bene semper meritos propagata nobiliter et cum splendore inter suos se semper gessaerit interque alios honores praerogativasque nobilibus eo locorum proprias liberum venandi jus in Hollandia, Frisiaque occidentale ac Ultrajectina provinciis habuerit semper et exercuerit."
In 1627/1636 Andries de Graeff inherited the manor Vredenhof (Voorschoten) from both his uncle Jan Dircksz Graeff (?–1627) and his father Jacob Dircksz de Graeff. There he had the manorial right to breed swans.
He also bought large plots of land in the Oud-Naarden (Naarden) area and thus built his country estate Graeffenveld. He had a hill built there, the Venusberg, on the top of which a lion statue was erected, and which was then called Leeuwenberg.