Bicker
Bicker van Swieten
noble and patrician family
Cooat of arms
Parent houseHelmer (paternal) / Van den Anxter (maternal)
Country Netherlands
Founded16th century
FounderDirk Helmer (named 1383/90)
TitlesJonkheer, ridder
Style(s)heer van Swieten, Engelenburg
Cadet branchesBicker van Swieten, Bicker Caarten

Bicker (also: Bicker van Swieten) is a very old Dutch patrician family (since 1390). The family has played an important role during the Dutch Golden Age. They led the Dutch States Party and were at the centre of Amsterdam oligarchy from the beginning of the 17th century until the early 1650s,[1] influencing the government of Holland and the Republic of the United Netherlands.[2] Their wealth was based on commercial transactions, and in their political commitment they mostly opposed the House of Orange.

The family, also known as the Bickerse league, was one of the leading republican forces striving to end the Eighty Years' War between the United Netherlands and the Kingdom of Spain. This took place in 1648 with the Peace of Münster.[3][4][5] In 1650, at the height of their power, the leading protagonists Andries and Cornelis Bicker were briefly expelled from the Amsterdam city government due to internal political problems. After that, the Bicker family could no longer achieve such socio-political influence. Since 1815 the family belongs to the new Dutch nobility with the honorific of jonkheer or jonkvrouw.[6]

History

Early times

Ancestors
Dirk Jansz Helmer († 1468) acted as the direct ancestor of the 2nd line, the later female line of the Bicker family
Pieter Meeus Doosz Bicker (1430–1476), father of Machteld Pietersdr Bicker (1455–1526) acting as male progenitor of the upfollowing Bicker family

The Bicker family is the oldest Amsterdam patrician family still in existence today. Their lineage begins with Dirk Helmer, who was recorded in Amsterdam in 1383 and 1390.[7] His son Jan Dirksz Helmer was Burgomaster (mayor) in 1433 and Schepen (alderman) of the city and was married to Lijsbeth Eggert († around 1468) from the family of stadtholder Willem Eggert. Their son Dirk Jansz Helmer († 1468), priest and milliner, married with Geertruid Gerritsdr van den Anxter.[8] The couple had Gerrit Dirksz Helmer (around 1450–1521/26), who took his maternal name Van den Anxter and was married to Machteld Pietersdr Bicker (around 1455–1516),[9] daughter of Pieter Meeus Doosz Bicker (1430–1476) and Aeltgen Eggert († around 1455; herself a sister of Lijsbeth Eggert). Their son Pieter Gerritsz van den Anxter, named Bicker (1497–1567), Schepen of Amsterdam in 1534, took the maternal family name Bicker and thus acted as the male progenitor of the upfollowing Bicker family.[10] He was a cousin of Boel Jacobszn Bicker († 1505), Burgomaster in 1495 and 1497.[11] Both the Helmer-Bicker and Bicker families belonged to the urban elite as early as the 15th century.

Dutch Golden Age

Gerrit Bicker (1554-1604) in 1583 by a anonym painter

During the Dutch Golden Age, the Bicker family was very critical against the influence of the House of Orange. They belonged to the republican political movement of the Regenten, also referred to as the ‘state oriented’, as opposed to the Royalists. The Bickers were the most powerful family in Amsterdam and decisively determined the fortunes of the city.[12][13] They were a major trading family involved in the pelt trade with Muscovy and supplying ships and silver to Spain. The Bicker-De Graeff family-faction became the strongest competitor in the years after the Dutch uprising. Through their work on the Amsterdam City Council and the Dutch East India Company, the Bickers gained enormous influence on politico-economic self-determination in the young Dutch Republic due to the city's position of economic power within the Republic.[14]

Gerrit Bicker (1554-1604), great-grandchildren of the familyfounder Pieter Meeuws Soossensz (Doossensz) Bicker (1430–1476), was a wealthy patrician, politician, international grain merchant and beer brewer.[15] and threw his work in the Amsterdam Vroedschap and as one of the founders of the East India Company, he was able to launch the careers of his sons, grandchildren and nephews. He had four sons, the oldest Andries Bicker ruled the city administration for a long time and was mainly supported and carried by his three brothers Jacob, Jan and Cornelis Bicker, his uncle Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and his cousin Cornelis de Graeff.[14] The Bicker brothers had a firm grip on world trade, trading on the East, the West, the North and the Mediterranean. Andries' uncle Laurens Bicker was one of the first to trade on Guinea and seized four Portuguese ships in 1604. This also gave new impetus to the republican States Party, which had been weakened since the assassination of Land's Advocate Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, and was able to determine Amsterdam politics for a long period of time.[16]

Bickerse league

leaders of the Bickerse league
Andries Bicker (1586-1652), Heer van Engelenburg, painted by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1642), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Cornelis Bicker van Swieten (1592-1654), Heer van Swieten, painted by Cornelis van der Voort in 1618

Together with politicians like the republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, former Grand pensionary Adriaan Pauw and Jacob de Witt, the Bickers, also called the Bickerse league, strived for the abolition of stadtholdership. They desired the full sovereignty of the individual regions in a form in which the Republic of the United Seven Netherlands was not ruled by a single person. Instead of a sovereign (or stadtholder) the political and military power was lodged with the States General and with the regents of the cities in Holland. At the time of the politically weak Grand Pensionaries Anthonie Duyck and Jacob Cats from the 1620s to the 1640s, Andries Bicker was regarded as the head of the republican regents in Holland and as a politician who resolutely opposed the striving for power of the stadtholders Frederick Henry and William II of Orange. He was considered one of the greatest political opponents of the Frederik Henry.[12] During the two decades from the later 1620s to the early 1650s the Bicker family had a leading role in the Amsterdam administration, the city was at the peak of its political power.[1]

In 1646, seven members of the Bicker family simultaneously held some political position or other. Members of that league where the brothers Andries, Jacob, Jan and Cornelis Bicker, Andries' son Gerard Bicker and their distant cousins, the brothers Jacob Jacobsz Bicker (1612-1676; he was also the husband of Andries' daughter Alida Bicker) and Hendrick Jacobsz Bicker (1615-1651). The Bickers provided silver and ships to Spain, and were very much interested in ending the Eighty Years War. This brought them in conflict with the stadtholder, some provinces, like Zeeland and Utrecht, and the Reformed preachers.[17] After the Peace of Münster (1648) was signed, the Bickers were of the opinion that it was no longer necessary to maintain a standing army, bringing them into vehement conflict with prince Willem II.[18] To regain power William went on the march towards Dordrecht and Amsterdam with an army. His troops got lost in a dense fog and were discovered by the postal courier on Hamburg.

In 1647 Gerard Andriesz. Bicker became High Bailiff of Muiden and Gooiland.[19] In 1650, during the Attack on Amsterdam (1650), a postman from Hamburg heading for Amsterdam ran into the forces, and warned Gerard Bicker, who immediately left by boat for Amsterdam to inform his uncle, burgemeester Cornelis Bicker. His father Andries Bicker rallied the civic guard, hired 2,000 mercenaries, lifted the bridges, closed the gates and positioned the artillery. In April 1656 Gerard secretly married Alida Conincx, his housekeeper. In 1660 she was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam.

After that, the leader of the family and the Bickerse league, Andries Bicker, was purged from the vroedschap, as was his brother Cornelis Bicker, as one of the conditions of the treaty that followed, led by Cornelis de Graeff and Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen.[20] Henceforth, it was the equally republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff and their following who dominated Amsterdam.[21] His niece Wendela Bicker married the Grand pensionary Johan de Witt.[22]

The Dutch historian and archivist Bas Dudok van Heel about the inppact of the Bicker and the linked De Graeff family and their missed (high) noble rank: In Florence families like Bicker and De Graeff would have been uncrowned princes. Here, in 1815, they should at least have been raised to the rank of count, but the southern Dutch nobility would not have put up with that. What you got here remained nothing half and nothing whole.[23]

Genealogical and political Legacy

Descendants of Andries Boelens. Overview of the personal family relationships of the Amsterdam regent-dynasties Boelens Loen, De Graeff, Bicker (van Swieten), Witsen and Johan de Witt in the Dutch Golden Age

While the Dutch Golden Age, Andries and Cornelis Bicker, together with their cousins Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, saw themselves as the political heirs of the old regent family Boelens, whose main lineage, which had remained catholic, had died out in the male line in 1647. They had received the very significant first names Andries and Cornelis from their Boelens ancestors. As in a real dynasty, members of the two families frequently intermarried in the 17th century in order to keep their political and commercial capital together. Its great historical ancestor was Andries Boelens (1455-1519), the city's most influential medieval mayor. Both families, Bicker and De Graeff, descend in the female line from Boelens, He was allowed to hold the highest office in Amsterdam fifteen times.[24]

After the Golden Age

family members after the Golden Age
Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten (1632-1716), Heer van Swieten, painted Caspar Netscher in 1673, Landesmuseum Hannover
Jan Bernd Bicker (1592-1654), painted by Louis Bernard Coclers in 1796, Amsterdam Museum

After the political end of the Bickerse league in 1650, resp. the end of the Dutch Golden Age due the Rampjaar 1672, the family could no longer gain comprehensive political power.

Branch Bicker van Swieten

This branch of the family descended from Cornelis Bicker van Swieten (1592–1654). His descendants continued to use the nickname, which was borrowed from the possessions of the manor and the castle of Swieten, in their name. Some people, such as Cornelis' son Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten (1632-1716) who was Rekenmeester of Holland, achieved some political importance in the government of Holland. In 1755 this branch died out with his younger son Cornelis Bicker (II) van Swieten.

Later noble branch

In the period that followed, however, the Bicker family branch, who descended from Jacob P. Bicker (1581–1626), a younger brother of Gerrit Bicker provided two more Amsterdam burgomasters, Hendrik Bicker (1649–1718) and his son Hendrick Bicker (1682–1738), Hendrick's brother Jan Berend Bicker (1695–1750) owned a plantation in Suriname and was Drost von Muiden, and his grandson Jan Bernd Bicker (1746–1812) was a short time during 1796 and 1797 chairman of the Batavian Republic. His son Henrie Bicker (1777-1834) was introduced to the New Dutch Nobility in 1815 with the predicate Jonkheer. His third son Jhr. Pierre Herbert Bicker (1805-1861) was a fabrikant, hobby artist and acted as a member of the Provincial Council of North Holland.[25] The family is still flourishing today.

Family members (selection)

  • Dirk Helmer, recorded 1483 and 1490 in Amsterdam
    • Jan Dirksz Helmer, in 1433 Burgemeester of Amsterdam, married Lijsbeth Eggert († around 1468)
      • Dirk Jansz Helmer († 1468), married Geertruid Gerritsdr van den Anxter
        • Gerrit Dirksz Helmer (around 1450–1521/26), named Van den Anxter, married Machteld Pietersdr Bicker (around 1455–1516)
          • Pieter Gerritsz van den Anxter, named Bicker (1497–1567), Schepen of Amsterdam in 1534
            • Pieter Pietersz Bicker (1522–1585), business man, politician, Diplomat, dutch delegate in Hamburg and Bremen
              • Gerrit Pietersz Bicker (1554–1604), Burgemeester and councillor of Amsterdam, member and one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)
                • Andries Bicker (1586–1652), was a wealthy merchant on Russia, Amsterdam regent, burgemeester and member of the vroedschap, the leader of the Arminians, an administrator of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), representative of the States-General of the Netherlands, lord of Engelenburg etc.
                  • Alida Bicker, married to her 3nd cousin Jacob Jacobsz Bicker (1612-1676)
                  • Gerard Bicker (1622–1666), lord of Engelenburg, Baljuw of Muiden
                  • Cornelia Bicker (1629–1708), married Joachim Irgens av Vestervig
                • Jacob Bicker (1588–1647), lord of Engelenburg and director of the Oostzeevaart
                • Jan Bicker (1591–1653), Amsterdam politician, shipbuilder and merchant
                • Cornelis Bicker (1592–1654), Burgemeester of Amsterdam, lord of Swieten, an administrator of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)
                  • Elisabeth Bicker van Swieten (1623-1656), married her uncle and 2nd cousin Andries de Graeff
                  • Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten (1632–1716), free lord of Oud-Haarlem and Kortenbosch, lord of Swieten, Rekenmeester of Holland
                    • Gerard Bicker (II) van Swieten (1687–1753), knight banneret of Baronnye and of high Lordship Kessel, Lord of Swieten, Heikoop and Boeikoop, advisor of Amsterdam
              • Jacob Pietersz Bicker (1555–1587)
                • Jacob Jacobsz Bicker (1581–1626)
                  • Eva Bicker (1609-1655), married to her 2nd cousin Dirk de Graeff and Frederick Alewijn
                  • Roelof Bicker (1611–1656), Schepen van Amsterdam, captain of the schutterij (Citizens Guard) and painted by Bartholomeus van der Helst
                  • Jacob Jacobsz Bicker (1612-1676), Knight of St Marcus, Captain Major of the garrison in Amsterdam and Schepen of 's Graveland; married to his 3nd cousin Alida Bicker, daughter of his 2nd cousin Andries Bicker (1586-1652)
                  • Hendrick Jacobsz Bicker (1615–1651), Captain of the schutterij
                    • Hendrik Bicker (1649–1718), Burgemeester of Amsterdam
                      • Hendrick Bicker (1682–1738), Ambachtsheer of Amstelveen and Nieuwer-Amstel, Burgemeester of Amsterdam
                      • Jan Berend Bicker (1695–1750)
                        • Henric Bicker (1722–1783)
                          • Jan Bernd Bicker (1746–1812), politician, member and president of the Batavian Republic's executive organ, the Staatsbewind
                            • Jhr. Henrie Bicker (1777–1834), admitted to the New Dutch Nobility as Jonkheer in 1815, member of the Nobility Assembly
                              • Jhr. Jean Bernd Andre Bicker (* 1803)
                              • Jhr. Pierre Théodore Bicker (1804-1854)
                                • Jhr. Frédéric Louis Bicker (1835-1903)
                                  • Jhr. Willem Bicker (1865-1942)
                                    • Jhr. Frédéric Louis Bicker(* 1900)
                                      • Jhr. Robert Elphinstone Bicker (* 1931)
                                  • Jhr. Pierre Herbert Bicker (1866-1945)
                              • Jhr. Pierre Herbert Bicker (1805-1861), member of the Provincial Council of North Holland
                              • Jhr. Daniel Bicker (1808-1880)
                                • Jhr. Daniel Bicker (1842-1877)
                                  • Jhr. Jean Jacques Oscar Bicker (1870-1944)
                                  • Jhr. Eduard William Estien Bicker (1876-1925)
                                    • Jhr. Daniël Bicker (1901-1970)
                                    • Jhr. Edward William Estien Bicker (1905-1979)
                                    • Jhr. August George Bicker (1914-1975)
                        • Andries Bicker (1724-1770)
                        • Johanna Sara Bicker (1731-1801) married Vice-Admiral Pieter Hendrik Reijnst
                        • Jan Bernd Bicker (1733-1774), married Catharina Boreel
              • Laurens Bicker (1563–1606), Dutch admiral, trader and merchant at Guinea

Coat of arms

Cooat of arms

Description: Quartered, I and IV in gold a red crossbar Van den Anxter [maternal ancestors], II and III in silver three black tillers Helmer(s) [paternal ancestors] placed one above the other, A half-sighted helmet, wrinkled silver and red, tarpaulins red and gold, helmet sign an emerging beard man of natural color on a silver pedestal, dressed in old red clothes, gold knotted and decorated and with an old-fashioned red cap, gold decorated, holding with the right hand at the back and with the left hand at the front a golden torch.

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Triumph of Peace". Archived from the original on 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  2. ↑ Biography of Andries Bicker at the dutch DBNL
  3. ↑ Oliver Krause: Die Variabilität frühneuzeitlicher Staatlichkeit. Die niederländische „Staats“-Formierung der Statthaltosen Epoche (1650–1672) als interkontinentales Regiment (Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2018)
  4. ↑ Amsterdam: a brief life of the city. By Geert Mak, Harvill Press (1999), p 123
  5. ↑ Buitenplaatsen in de Gouden Eeuw: De rijkdom van het buitenleven in de Republik. By Y. Kuiper, Ben Olde Meierink, Elyze Storms-Smeets, p 71 (2015)
  6. ↑ Nederlands adelsboek, p. 24
  7. ↑ Nederland’s Adelsboek Band 79, p 565 (1988)
  8. ↑ Inventaris van het familie-archief Bicker, Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst Amsterdam, Isabella Henriette van Eeghen, Stadsdrukkerij, 1956, p 13
  9. ↑ "Opmerkingen over de geslachten behandeld in Nederland's Adelsboek" (1949), p 24 (PDF; 8,8 MB)
  10. ↑ Genealogische en heraldische bladen. Nederlandsch familie-archief, volume 13, p 34,35 (1900)
  11. ↑ De wapens van de magistraten der stad Amsterdam sedert 1306 tot 1672, volume 1, p 67, 68, by Pieter Anthony Johan van den Brandelerp (1890)
  12. 1 2 Seefahrer in schwedischen Diensten: Seeschifffahrt und Technologietransfer im 17. Jahrhundert, by Hielke van Nieuwenhuize, p 232 (2022)
  13. ↑ Geschichte der Niederlande: Von der Seemacht zum Trendland, by Christoph Driessen (2022)
  14. 1 2 Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern Europe, by Julia Adams, p 99 (2005)
  15. ↑ Abraham Jacob van der Aa, Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden (BWN), (1878), volume 1-2, p 517
  16. ↑ Jonathan I. Israel: The Dutch Republic – Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall - 1477-1806. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995, p 494. ISBN 978-0-19-820734-4
  17. ↑ Israel, J. (1995) The Dutch Republic, Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806. Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 545.
  18. ↑ Israel, J. (1995) The Dutch Republic, Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806. p. 602.
  19. ↑ http://www.fransmensonides.nl/muiden.htm
  20. ↑ Israel, J. (1995) The Dutch Republic, Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806, p. 607.
  21. ↑ Israel, J. (1995) The Dutch Republic, Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806, p. 704.
  22. ↑ Panhuysen, L. (2005) De Ware Vrijheid, De levens van Johan en Cornelis de Witt. p. 181-183.
  23. ↑ Geert Mak, Die vielen Leben des Jan Six: Geschichte einer Amsterdamer Dynastie: Geert Mak, Die vielen Leben des Jan Six: Geschichte einer Amsterdamer Dynastie
  24. ↑ DBNL, Amsterdamse burgemeesters zonder stamboom. De dichter Vondel en de schilder Colijns vervalsen geschiedenis, by S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, p 147 (1990)
  25. ↑ Pierre Herbert Bicker at "Biografisch portaal van Nederland"

Literature

  • Israel, Jonathan I. (1995) The Dutch Republic – Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall – 1477–1806, Clarendon Press, Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-820734-4
  • Rowen, Herbert H. (1986) John de Witt – Statesman of the "True Freedom", Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-52708-2
  • Zandvliet, Kees De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw – Kapitaal, macht, familie en levensstijl (2006 Amsterdam; Nieuw Amsterdam Uitgevers)
  • Burke, P. (1994) Venice and Amsterdam. A study of seventeenth-century élites.
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