Jhr. Christaan Diederik Emerens Johan Bangeman Huygens (31 October 1772 in

Sint-Oedenrode Sint-Oedenrode () is a town in the province of North Brabant. Sint-Oedenrode is a moderately urbanized town in the Meierij of 's-Hertogenbosch. Sint-Oedenrode had an unknown population as of and has an area of . On 1 January 2017 Sint-Oedenrode ...

– 24 March 1857 in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

diplomat and civil servant, from 1825 to 1832

Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under th ...

of the

Kingdom of the Netherlands , national_anthem = ) , image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg , map_width = 250px , image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png , map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale , capital = ...

in Washington, DC.

Career

Bangeman Huygens was the son of Willem Vincent Bangeman, a merchant in the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

, and Catharina Constantia Huygens (whose surname he in 1781 added to that of his father). He became a partisan of the Patriot faction, but was nevertheless sent out in 1793 with the last envoy of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

to Denmark, Jacob Fagel as his secretary. After Fagel's dismissal as a result of the

Batavian Revolution The Batavian Revolution ( nl, De Bataafse Revolutie) was a time of political, social and cultural turmoil at the end of the 18th century that marked the end of the Dutch Republic and saw the proclamation of the Batavian Republic. The period of ...

in 1795, he stayed on as

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

. He acted as Minister Plenipotentiary of the

Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bona ...

(after his formal appointment in 1796) and subsequently the

Kingdom of Holland The Kingdom of Holland ( nl, Holland (contemporary), (modern); french: Royaume de Hollande) was created by Napoleon Bonaparte, overthrowing the Batavian Republic in March 1806 in order to better control the Netherlands. Since becoming Emperor ...

, at the court of the

Kingdom of Denmark The Danish Realm ( da, Danmarks Rige; fo, Danmarkar Ríki; kl, Danmarkip Naalagaaffik), officially the Kingdom of Denmark (; ; ), is a sovereign state located in Northern Europe and Northern North America. It consists of Denmark, metropolitan ...

till 1807. (In 1795 he was involved in the diplomatic aftermath of the engagement between Royal Navy and Batavian frigates known as the

action of 22 August 1795 The action of 22 August 1795 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars between a squadron of four British Royal Navy frigates and two frigates and a cutter from the Batavian Navy. The engagement was fought off the No ...

). In 1807 he was appointed a member of the ''Staatsraad'' (Council of State) of the Kingdom of Holland, which he remained till 1809. In 1808 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Holland to the

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a kingdom in Germany, with a population of 2.6 million, that existed from 1807 to 1813. It included territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the ...

which he remained till 1809. At the same time he was the King's commissioner in Ost-Friesland, which at the time had been annexed by the Kingdom of Holland, and remained a ''Staatsraad''. After the annexation of the Kingdom of Holland by the French Empire in 1810 he was appointed ''requestmeester-generaal'' (a Napoleonic functionary in the government of the Dutch

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s), which he remained till the restoration of Dutch independence in 1813. In 1815 he was again appointed Minister Pleninpotentiary, now of the new

United Kingdom of the Netherlands The United Kingdom of the Netherlands ( nl, Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden; french: Royaume uni des Pays-Bas) is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed between 1815 and 1839. The United Netherlands was cr ...

, to the

Hanseatic Cities The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=German language, Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Norther ...

in Hamburg, which he remained till 1825. In 1825 he became Minister Plenipotentiary of the

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, which he remained till July, 1832 (i.e. during the Administration of

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...

and the first Administration of

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

). In 1831 he was instrumental in the retrieval of part of the jewelry collection of the

Princess of Orange Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by sovereigns in the Netherlands. The title ...

, future Queen Consort of the Netherlands, that had been stolen in 1829 in Brussels by a certain Constant Polari, and had been transported to the U.S.''Verslag der teregtzitting van het Hof van Assises, provincie Holland (Zuider-kwartier), gehouden den 7den Maart 1834, in zake van Constant Polari, beschuldigd van diefstal in het Paleis van HH. KK. HH. den Prins en de Prinses van Oranje te Brussel'' (Van Cleef 1834), pp. 17 ff. In 1832 he again went to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, where he had started his diplomatic career, as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Danish Court, and remained there till 1842. He was a Commander in the

Order of the Union The Order of the Union ( nl, Orde van de Unie) was a chivalric order established in 1806 by Louis Bonaparte, younger brother of Napoleon I, for the Kingdom of Holland. The order was abolished in 1811 when the French Empire absorbed the Kingdom ...

, the

Order of the Reunion The Order of the Reunion (french: link=no, Ordre de la Réunion) was an order of merit of the First French Empire, set up to be awarded to Frenchmen and foreigners to reward services in the civil service, magistracy and army, particularly those fro ...

, and the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

Family life

Bangeman Huygens first married Elise Marguerite Josèphe Sophie Constance Marie Lauri, countess of Danneskiold Löwendal, in Paris in 1802. After her death in 1812 he married Constantia Wilhelmina Vrijthoff in Maastricht in 1815. He had six children from these marriages. In 1818 he bought Henkenshage mansion in his birthplace

, where he lived for a while, until it went to his only son, Rutger Bangeman Huygens van Löwendal in 1843. In 1832 he was inducted into the Dutch nobility with the title of

Jonkheer (female equivalent: ; french: Écuyer; en, Squire) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used by the untitled nobility. In Belgium, this is the ...

References

*''Ch.D.E.J. Bangeman Huygens'', on the website Parlement en Politiek (Biography of the Dutch Parliamen
Nationaal Archief: Christiaan Diederik Emerens Johan Bangeman Huygens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bangeman Huygens, Christiaan 1772 births 1857 deaths 19th-century Dutch diplomats Dutch nobility Commanders of the Order of the Netherlands Lion