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.

[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.

The protagonists of the patriciate were closely related, and the couple Pieter and Jacoba were also cousins of the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt.

[2] Pieter's brothers-in-law also included high official Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten, arms dealer Jacob Trip and banker and financier Jean Deutz, all important and loyal political allies of Grand pensionary De Witt.

[2] The poets Gerard Brandt,[6] Jan Vos[7] and Joost van den Vondel,[8] who were present "sang about" this wedding.

In 1664, after the death of his father Cornelis, he succeeded him as free lord of Zuid-Polsbroek and became a chief administrator of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC).

[12][4] When De Graeff's sister-in-law and cousin Wendela Bicker died in 1668, he and his brother-in-law Jean Deutz were appointed guardians of their nephews and nieces and were responsible for handling the estate.

[13] In the early 1670s, under the influence of the orangist burgomasters Gillis Valckenier and Coenraad van Beuningen, an anti-De Witt faction crystallized in the Amsterdam city government.

During the course of 1671, the Republican State Party, led by Pieter de Graeff, regained the upper hand in the Amsterdam city government.

In order to protect the province of Holland, the States General had the dikes pierced and the sluices opened, flooding parts of the country.

Although this stopped the advance of France, large areas of the country were devastated, which the population generally blamed on Johan de Witt.

After the unsuccessful assassination attempt on De Witt on June 21 by Jacob van der Graeff, he was convalescent for a long time.

[18] On August 20, the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt were murdered in the most horrible manner in The Hague by a crowd of Orange-minded people.

[20] Between the years 1671 and 1678 De Graeff, who increasingly emerged as one of the leaders of the VOC, worked closely with Joan Maetsuycker, the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies.

[21] In 1674, De Graeff had active cash assets of 130,000 guilders, making him one of the 250 richest people of the Dutch Golden Age.

[22][9] In 1678 he inherited his aunt Maria Overlander van Purmerland, widow of Amsterdam burgomaster Frans Banning Cocq, who had a fortune of 200,000 guilders in 1674.

The historian Kees Zandvliet estimates De Graeff's fortune based on this and other inheritances at the end of the 17th century at at least 1 million guilders.

He was painted by Gerard ter Borch,[24] Jan Lievens[24] Caspar Netscher[25] and Wallerant Vaillant, Govert Flinck and like his brother Jacob by Karel Dujardin[26] There are also three group portraits with his parents and close relatives.

[31] He stand also in close correspondence to his brother-in-law Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, ambassador Jacob Boreel,[2] poet Joost van den Vondel, painter Jan Lievens, mathematician, astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens as well as to polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz[32] Pieter de Graeff lived in the cityhouse at Amsterdam's Herengracht No.

Pieter de Graeff's library in his Amsterdam town house at 573 Herengracht, later the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje, comprised more than 2,300 books in various languages and on a wide variety of subjects, forming a microcosm of 17th-century knowledge.

A two-part family album created by Banninck Cocq contains numerous colored drawings and watercolors in addition to a copy of The Night Watch.

In fact, the forgeries were made in the handwriting of De Graeff, who had lost all municipal offices after the Rampjaar in 1672 and therefore also had reason and opportunity to improve his family history.