Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
Land’s Advocate of Holland
"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor. I have acted uprightly and piously as a good patriot, and as such I shall die."
Biography
If William the Silent founded the Republic and Maurice defended it, Oldenbarnevelt actually built it. As Land's Advocate of Holland — the province that paid most of the bills — he was the Republic's de facto prime minister for over thirty years, and he ran the war, the diplomacy, and the money. He engineered the union that survived William's assassination, secured the English and French alliances, and merged the competing spice traders into the Dutch East India Company in 1602, inventing the joint-stock corporation and the Amsterdam exchange along the way. He also negotiated the Twelve Years' Truce of 1609 over Maurice's furious objection, judging correctly that Spain was bankrupt and that twelve years of peace would make the Republic rich beyond argument. It did. And it freed both men to destroy each other over a quarrel about predestination: Oldenbarnevelt backed the tolerant Remonstrants and provincial autonomy, Maurice the strict Counter-Remonstrants and central authority. Maurice won, arrested him, and had him tried by a packed court. At seventy-one, deaf and leaning on his stick, he was beheaded on the Binnenhof in 1619. He told the executioner to make it quick. The Republic's greatest statesman was killed by the Republic he made, in peacetime, by his own side.
Did you know?
He merged the rival spice companies into the VOC in 1602 — the first joint-stock company with permanent capital and freely traded shares, and the reason Amsterdam has the world’s oldest stock exchange. He was beheaded by his own Republic seventeen years later.
Key Battles
The Twelve Years' Truce
April 9, 1609 · 0 total casualties
The de facto victory, twelve years of it, and it nearly destroyed the Republic from within. The peace faction and the war faction turned on each other in a religious quarrel between Remonstrants and Counter-Remonstrants; in 1619 Maurice had Oldenbarnevelt — the man who had built the Dutch state — beheaded on the Binnenhof. The Republic survived Spain more easily than it survived itself.
Life Journey
Timeline
September 14, 1547
🌅 Birth
Born at Amersfoort
1570
📚 Education
Studies law at Padua and Heidelberg
October 3, 1574
⚔️ Battle
Volunteers in the relief of Leiden
1586
📍 Posting
Becomes Land’s Advocate of Holland
March 20, 1602
📍 Posting
Founds the VOC and the first stock exchange
April 9, 1609
📍 Posting
Negotiates the Twelve Years’ Truce against Maurice’s wishes
May 13, 1619
✝️ Death
Beheaded on the Binnenhof at seventy-one