Hendrik Laurenszoon Spiegel

Hendrik Laurenszoon Spiegel (11 March 1549 – 4 January 1612) was one of the most important writers and thinkers from Amsterdam in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Spiegel was born in Amsterdam and is seen as a forerunner to the Golden Age of Vondel, Hooft and Huygens.

He was a rederijker and founding member of the rhetorician's chamber called the Egelantier.

His sister Geertrui married the Alkmaar regent Pieter Adriaansz Pauw, his sister Mary was one of the founders of the Amsterdam Maagdenhuis, a Catholic girl's orphanage, and his brother Jan became one of the first regents of Amsterdam after the Alteratie.

[1] His daughter Geertrui married the Amsterdam lawyer Ysbrand van der Hem, and his sons were later the founders of the Amsterdam regency families Backer and Lestevenon.