Jacob van Werden
[7] According to some sources he had a military career as an archer and member of the guard of the French King but this seems unlikely as his work and activities show a strong connection and loyalty to the Spanish rulers of the Habsburg Netherlands.
This is most likely a reference to van Werden being an archer and guard of "his majesty" the Spanish King, a role that he may have been appointed to by the governor-general of the Habsburg Netherlands.
He is quoted on 28 March 1648 in a report of the Finance Council which proposes to increase his wages to 300 pounds a year as he is one of the first engineers of the country for drawing plans and maps.
The following year he signs a map of the Sonian Forest, which was engraved and included in Antonius Sanderus' Regiae domus Belgicae, of which two handwritten copies are executed around 1750.
[1] On 5 July 1660 he co-signed a critique of Michael van Langren's defensive works for Ostend, and approved a counterproposal by the engineers Jan Heymans-Coeck, Hendrik Janssens and Pieter Mercx.
It comprises a plan of the city of Landrecies, with the Bois de Mourinal in the upper right, while it is under siege by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in 1647.
It shows a bird's-eye view of the Vrijdagsmarkt (Friday Square) in Ghent with stage erected for the proclamation of the new sovereign the king of Spain as the count of Flanders.
The king did not attend the event in person but was represented by Francisco de Moura Corte Real, 3rd Marquis of Castelo Rodrigo, the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.
A frame of 118 medallions showing the portraits and coats of arms of the dignitaries present at the event surrounds the scene of the Vrijdagsmarkt.
The map is quite detailed and offers historical information on the landscape and urbanisation in and round the Sonian Forest located near Brussels.
[14] He also provided the designs for the illustrations of a book by Jean Chifflet which contains the manuscript of Jean L'Heureux under the title Ioannis Macarii canonici ariensis Abraxas seu Apistopistus; quae est antiquaria de gemmis basilidianis disquistio accedit Abraxas proteus seu multiformis gemmae basilidianae portentosa varietas (Antwerp, Ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1657).
He also made the designs for the prints of various variations of lily and other illustrations for Jean-Jacques Chifflet's Lilium Francicum, veritate historica, botanica et heraldica illustratum (1658, Plantin Press), a book on the fleur-de-lys and its heraldic, emblematic, iconographical and historical aspects.
[17] It includes a print made after a design by van Werden which shows that Frankish king Clovis I used toads rather than the fleur-de-lys as his royal insignia.
