Johan Kievit

Kievit was a partisan of the young Prince of Orange, William III, who had been excluded from high office by the States-Party regent faction of Johan de Witt during the First Stadtholderless Period.

[1] Even before the conspiracy was discovered, Kievit was fired from his position in the gecommitteerde raden, because he published a libelous pamphlet, entitled Brief van den heer van Sommelsdijk ("Letter of Lord Sommelsdijk"), in which he defended his brother-in-law lieutenant-admiral Cornelis Tromp's conduct during the St. James's Day Battle, disparaging lieutenant-admiral Michiel de Ruyter at the same time.

Because of the military disaster the De Witt regime was forced to retract the Perpetual Edict (1667) and to appoint Prince William first Captain general (in January), and later (in early July) Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland.

Kievit was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement in 1686 and after a lengthy trial in which his main defense was "that everybody did it," convicted and sentenced to banishment in 1689.

[7] However, his daughter Debora, who was married to a son of the governor-general of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Batavia, Cornelis Speelman,[8] ransomed him for 20,000 guilders, which enabled him to live out his years in Rotterdam till his death in 1692.