Jacob van Heeckeren tot Enghuizen

[2] Van Heeckeren’s first post was as an officer in the Dutch Navy, stationed in Toulon.

For the Dutch government, Van Heeckeren was successively secretary of the legation at Lisbon (1814), Stockholm (1815–1817) and Berlin (1817 - 1822).

In St. Petersburg he came to know Georges d'Anthès, an officer in the Russian army and the son of a noble landowner in the French Alsace.

[5] After Georges d'Anthès’s duel with the poet Alexander Pushkin (who died from injuries), Jacob was recalled from St. Petersburg.

[4] From 14 July 1872 until his death he was Minister of State for the Netherlands, an honorary title given to the country's most prominent retired politicians or civil servants.