Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen (1599–1661)

Joan or Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen (1599-October 26, 1661), knighted lord of Maarsseveen, was an important merchant, financial expert, property developer active in Amsterdam and a director of the Dutch East India Company during the Dutch Golden Age.

The republican minded Huydecoper was an influential member of the Dutch States Party, diplomat and six times mayor of Amsterdam.

[2] Huydecoper is representative of the love of art, political influence and welfare in the Golden Age.

Joan Huydecoper started his important political career as a protégé of burgomaster Jacob Dircksz de Graeff when he was elected to the Vroedschap of Amsterdam in 1631.

He used the patronage he wielded in Amsterdam to put artists scholars, and publishers to work for him in Maarsseveen".

[11] In 1637 he get knighted by the swedish queen Christina[6] and in 1640 he bought the heerlijkheid Maarsseveen from the States of Utrecht.

[12] Huydecoper van Maarsseveen was also included in the Order of Saint Michael,[2] which means that he had made himself useful to the King or France.

In 1650 Huydecoper van Maarsseveen was involved in the dispute between the stadtholder William II of Orange and the Bicker family.

[2] The brothers Andries and Cornelis Bicker closed the gates, lifted the bridges, and protect the city, when William II of Orange tried to attack Amsterdam.

Portrait of Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen (copy after Bartholomeus van der Helst ; 1660)
SA 41181-Schets voor een schuttersstuk-Viering van de Vrede van Munster door de schutterij van Jan Huydecoper (voorstudie)
Portrait bust of Joan Huydecoper by Artus Quellinus the Elder
The mansion of Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen, at Singel 539
Huydecoper as an officer of the civic guard by Govert Flinck in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum
William I and the mayoral council of Amsterdam: William the Silent (prins van Oranje), Cornelis de Graeff , heer van Zuid-Polsbroek, Joan Huydecoper van Maarseveen Jan van de Poll (1597-1678) and Hendrick Dircksz. Spiegel . (silver penning by Wouter Muller , 1655)