This line played a role during the Dutch Golden Age and were part of the Amsterdam and Holland public life and oligarchy from 1578 until 1672.

[2] During that time, members of the De Graeff family were also patrons of art and artists such as Rembrandt, Govaert Flinck, Gerard ter Borch, Jacob van Ruisdael, Caspar Netscher, Gerard de Lairesse, Artus Quellinus and Joost van den Vondel.

[6][7] It is said that the family was founded by Wolfgang's son Pieter Graeff (born in Austria as Peter von Graben around 1450/1460) who may lived at the Amsterdam area.

[15] The Berents family belonged to the Amsterdam patriciate and low nobility and inherited the fief Randenbroek (Amersfoort) from the De Grebber.

[16] Cornelis de Graeff (1599-1664) said that the ancient Amsterdammers had no habit of keeping genealogical records of their families, and knew no more of their generation than what they have learned from their fathers and grandfathers.

As in a real dynasty,[editorializing] members of the two families frequently intermarried in the 17th century in order to keep their political and commercial capital together.

The second-born Lenaert Jansz de Graeff was a leading member of the Amsterdam Reformed Church, and involved in the religious liberation struggle of the Netherlands in the 1560s and 1570s;[25] on the one hand he was one of the military and religious leaders of Amsterdam under his friend Hendrick von Brederode and probably as "Monseigneur de Graeff" privateer and captain of the watergeus (Sea Beggars) who were involved in the Capture of Brielle in 1572.

the De Graeffs belonged to the republican political movement of the Regenten, also referred to as the ‘state oriented’, as opposed to the Royalists.

They desired the full sovereignty of the individual regions in a form in which the Republic of the United Seven Netherlands was not ruled by a single person.

[33] During the two decades from the 1650 to the 1670s the De Graeff family had a leading role in the Amsterdam administration, the city was at the peak of its political power.

[2] In early 1671, Andries de Graeff was once again put forward as chief-mayor (regent) and managed to gain control with his Republican faction.

It was an exceptionally opportune moment to commission a monumental ceiling painting on Amsterdam's independent position for the ‘Sael’ of his mayor's residence.

De Graeff had a clear message in mind for the ceiling painting: the ‘Ware Vrijheid’ of the Republic was only protected by the Republican regents of Amsterdam.

Andries de Graeff's other notable artistic associates included Gerard ter Borch, Flinck, and Jan Lievens.

Andries' brother Cornelis continued in the family tradition of patronizing artists, commissioning works from Jacob van Ruisdael, Nicolaes Eliaszoon Pickenoy, Quellinus, Flinck and Caspar Netscher.

The family were also patrons of the poets Joost van den Vondel, Jan Vos, Caspar Barlaeus und Gerard Brandt.

[6] In 1660 Andries and his brother Cornelis de Graeff organized the Dutch Gift,[34] a collection of 28 mostly Italian Renaissance paintings and 12 classical sculptures, which was presented to King Charles II of England by the States-General of the Netherlands in 1660.

He was an art collector and patron to the artists Ter Borch, Lievens, Karel Dujardin, Romeyn de Hooghe, Netscher and the poet Van den Vondel.

Fock of the University of Leiden describes his art collection and lifestyle in her work Het stempel van de bewoner.

When the Kingdom of the United Netherlands was established in 1815, the De Graeff family received no recognition or elevation to the new Dutch nobility, as Dutch historian and archivist Bas Dudok van Heel put it this way: In Florence families like Bicker and De Graeff would have been uncrowned princes.

[40] In 1885 Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek received the new Dutch nobility with the predicate Jonkheer for himself and his descendants.

[46] Their acquisition increased the reputation and contributed to the aristocratization of the family, in which De Graeff and his heirs could be addressed as Vrijheer(en) van Zuid-Polsbroek ever since.

Likewise, the De Graeff family held Ambachtsheerlijkheiden as fiefdoms of the city of Amsterdam during the 17th century; Amstelveen, Nieuwer-Amstel, Sloten, Sloterdijk and Osdorp, Urk and Emmeloord.

The family had lands and feudal rights in the southern part of Netelenburg, in Duinen in North Holland, in Cromwyk and Hoog Rietveld near Woerden, near Langerak and on the river Lek, the extensive country estates Vredenhof near Voorschoten and Valckeveen (Valkenburg), the later Graeffenveld near Oud-Naarden.

[19] Henri was promoted to Prussian lieutenant-general in World War I and Gérard Hendrik Reinardus ranked as major general.

In 1885 Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, originally from the Amsterdam branch, received the predicate Jonkheer for himself and his descendants.