Wikipedia

De Graeff

Dutch noble and patrician family

De Graeff, also known as Graeff, De Graef, Gräff, De Graeff van Polsbroek and De Graaff[1]) is the name of a Dutch patrician and aristocratic family that still exists today. The family peaked in Amsterdam and Holland in the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age.[2] Due clever tactics they become one of the most influential families in the Dutch Republic.[3]

Cornelis de Graeff at Soestdijk, painted by Thomas de Keyser and Jacob van Ruisdael (1656-1660).

History

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The (De) Graeff family descends from the Austrian Lords Von Graben. Wolfgang von Graben and his son Peter von Graben came 1476 to Holland[4] [also named in 1483[5][6]]. Graeff-family founder Pieter Graeff (born Peter von Graben) lived at the Amsterdam area.[7][8] During that time Graeff was the dutch spelling word of the german Graben.[9] Both families shows the same coat of arms. That was also mentioned in the imperial Diploma of Nobility which was loaned to Andries de Graeff on 19 July 1677.[10] According to an unverfivied family tradition the dutch-german Op den Graeff family descended from Wolfgang and Peter von Graben as well.[11][12]

 
Historical-allegorical painting "De Gouden eeuw" about the De Graeff family of the Dutch Golden Age. The painting shows the protagonists around the Amsterdam regent Cornelis de Graeff (middle) and his relatives Johan de Witt (right), Cornelis de Witt (left) and Andries Bicker (second from left) as well as some events from this decade. (Painting by Matthias Laurenz Gräff, 2007)

During the Dutch Golden Age the wealth of the De Graeff family was based on commercial transactions and their marriage policy. In terms of their political commitment, they belonged to the Republican faction and were critica against the House of Orange.[13] Together with the Republican political leaders, the Bicker family and Johan de Witt, they 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.[13] The De Graeff and Bicker families, for example, tried to imitate the centralistic, autocratic style of government of the Florentine Medici.[14] The Dutch historian and archivist Bas Dudok van Heel said about the power of families like that of de Graeff and Bicker: In Florence, families like Bicker and De Graeff would have been uncrowned princes.[15] During the Dutch Golden Age, members of the De Graeff family were also important patrons of art like such as Rembrandt, Govaert Flinck, Gerard ter Borch, Jacob van Ruisdael, Caspar Netscher, Gerard de Lairesse, Artus Quellinus and Joost van den Vondel.[16]

 
Coat of arms De Graeff (1885 creation)

The family spreades into different lines in The Netherlands, South Africa and the German-speaking countries. In 1885, diplomat Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, of the Dutch main line was introduced in the new Dutch nobility with the predicate Jonkheer. In 2013 the worldwide Family Association Gräff-Graeff (Familienverband Gräff-Graeff e.V.) was founded for the Graeff lineage of Wolfgang von Graben. The chairmanship and administration of the Family Association must not be confused with the function of a head of the whole family and their different branches.

Lineage (section):

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to De Graeff (family).

References

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  1. ↑ Der deutsche Herold: Zeitschrift für Wappen-, Siegel- u. Familienkunde, volume 3, p 91 (Berlin, 1872)
  2. ↑ Biography of Andries Bicker in the dutch DBNL
  3. ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Triumph of Peace
  4. ↑ Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Ritter- u. Adels-Geschlechter, Band 3, p 229 (1870)
  5. ↑ Family De Graeff at the Nieuw Nederlandsch Biographisch Woordenboek, part II (dutch)
  6. ↑ Von Graben Forschung (german)
  7. ↑ Nederlands adelsboek 1914, p 14
  8. ↑ Familienverband Gräff-Graeff e. V. (german, english)
  9. ↑ Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in Beziehung auf Abstammung und Begriffsbildung, p 254, by Conrad Schwenck (1834)
  10. ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) `t Gezagh is heerelyk: doch vol bekommeringen. p 5
  11. ↑ "US family genealogy". Archived from the original on 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-12-07.
  12. ↑ "Van Bebber Pioneers Newsletter", Doc Store. January 1988" A copied text that is not documented by extern sources says: "Made up from genuine document by Pieter de Graeff, Baron van Zuid Polsbrook (Polsbroek) Purmerland in Ilpendam, living 1661, continued by Pieter Gerritsz de Graeff and after that by Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek (Holland). In the Diploma of Nobility loaned to Andries de Graeff it was affirmed that the family de Graeff was formerly called von Graben, which is the same as de Graeff. This family today shows the same Coat of Arms as the De Graeff family." Accessed 29 sept 2011
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Pieter C. Vies: Triumph of Peace
  14. ↑ The familial state: ruling families and merchant capitalism in early modern europe, p 101, by Julia Adams
  15. ↑ Geert Mak, Die vielen Leben des Jan Six: Geschichte einer Amsterdamer Dynastie
  16. ↑ Pieter C. Vies: Andries de Graeff (1611–1678) ’t Gezagh is heerelyk: doch vol bekommeringen. (PDF)
  17. ↑ Das Geschlecht De Graeff at the dutch DBNL
  18. ↑ Der deutsche Herold: Zeitschrift für Wappen-, Siegel- u. Familienkunde, Band 3, Nachrichten über die Familie de Graeff
  19. ↑ Nederland's adelsboek 1914 (14 – De Graeff)
  20. ↑ Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Ritter- u. Adels-Geschlechter, volume 3, p 229/230 (1870)
  21. ↑ Google Buchsuche: Nederland’s patriciaat (1911), volume 2
  22. ↑ De Neederlandse Leeuw, 1898, Genealogie van het geslacht "De Graeff", p 132
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