Jacob de Graeff
They desired the full sovereignty of the individual regions in a form in which the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was not ruled by a single person.
Instead of a sovereign (or stadtholder) the political and military power was lodged with the States General and with the regents of the cities in Holland.
[1] During the two decades the De Graeff family had a leading role in the Amsterdam administration, the city was at the peak of its political power.
[6] When Mary Henrietta Stuart and Willem III visited Amsterdam in 1660, De Graeff was dismissed as the prince's personal escort during their stay.
[7] He was also responsible for the procession of the troops as a cornet alongside Captain Jan van Waveren and Lieutenant Dirck Tulp.
By March Jacob had received competition from Count Georg Hermann Reinhard von Wied (1640–1690), a cavalry captain in the service of the Dutch Republic.
In April a third admirer of the "Juffrouw van Bennebroek" was added, Baron Nicolaas Sohier de Vermandois (1645–1690), Lord of Warmenhuijsen, Crabbendam, Oud-Poelgeest, Meresteijn.
[12] A lively exchange of letters followed between Catharina Hooft and her older son Pieter de Graeff, who tried to calm her down, and with her nephew Johan de Witt, whom she urgently asked as a family member for help in preventing the wedding:[14] She will never accept Anna Christina as a daughter and will no longer consider her son a child if he insists.
[12] The Nieuw Nederlandsch biographical woordenboek (Deel 2 from 1912) even describes the connection between Jacob and Anna Christina as an engagement.
[9] Another letter from Catharina Hooft to De Witt followed in June, urging him to use all his influence over Jacob to stop this courtship.
Anna Christina Pauw van Bennebroek finally decided on June 1 [1669] to marry Nicolaas Sohier de Vermandois.
After the events of the Rampjaar Jacob sought the favor of William III and Amsterdam's new powerful politician Gillis Valckenier.
Since the Orangeman valued nothing more than taking part in the fight against the country's enemies, this calculation seems to have been Jacob's main motive for signing up for voluntary service together with his nephew Gerard Reynst and thus winning the favor for himself and his brother Pieter to obtain the Oranger.
[18] But also Wilhelm III could not rely on Jacob's intervention to fill the rebellious Amsterdam city government with his confidants.
[9] In 1674 Jacob sold the hunting lodge and its surrounding fields, now the Soestdijk Palace, for a friendly Rice of 18,755 Guilder to William III.
However, the historian Kees Zandvliet estimates his fortune to be much higher, since his wife Maria van der Does, who died in 1666, also bequeathed him the sum of 400,000 guilders.
In his youth, furthermore he was portrayed in 1652 together with his parents and his brother by Jan Victors as archfather Isaac and Rebekah and his children Esau and Jacob.
