![Nicolaes_Maes_-_Portrait_of_Francisco_Lopes_Suasso](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Nicolaes_Maes_-_Portrait_of_Francisco_Lopes_Suasso.png)
Francisco Lopes Suasso, second Baron d'Avernas le Gras (''c.'' 1657 – 22 April 1710) was a banker and financier 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 ...
. He was also known within the
Sephardic Jewish community as Abraham Israel Suasso.
Background and early life
After being expelled from the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
, most of the Sephardic Jews settled in trading cities such as
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
Antwerp. By the late sixteenth century they were arriving in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
. The Lopes Suassos were a rich old Sephardic family of
Marranos, or Jews who had been forced to convert to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
under pressure from the
Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese Inquisition ( Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...
, but once in Amsterdam they openly returned to their true religion,
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
.
[
]
Suasso was born in Amsterdam, the eldest son[Daniël Swetschinski, Loeki Schönduve, ''De familie Lopes Suasso, financiers van Willem III'' (Waanders, 1988), p. 47: "Francisco Lopes Suasso ''alias'' Abraham Israël Suasso was de eerste zoon en trouwde in 1682 in Hamburg met Jeudit Teixeira, de dochter van Manuel Teixeira alias Isaac Senior Teixeira en Beatrix Nunes Henriques."] of the banker Antonio Lopes Suasso (1614–1685), also known as Isaac Israel Suasso, by his marriage to Violenta de Pinto, a member of another rich old Sephardic family.[ His father, who had himself been born in ]Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
, was one of the richest and most famous Portuguese-Jewish merchants in the Amsterdam of his day.[ The date of Francisco's birth, probably between 1657 and 1660, is uncertain. He had four sisters, Ribca (1655–1695), Rachel (1659–1685), Elisheba (1663–1746) and Esther (1669–1679), as well as a younger brother, Jacob, who died young.][Francisco Lopes Suasso]
at jhm.nl, accessed 3 March 2012 (in Dutch)
The family retained a sense of belonging to Spain, and on 3 January 1676 Suasso's father received from Charles II of Spain
Charles II of Spain (''Spanish: Carlos II,'' 6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700), known as the Bewitched (''Spanish: El Hechizado''), was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire. Best remembered for his physical disabilities and the War ...
the title of ''Baron d'Avernas le Gras'' in recognition of his diplomatic services. The title was drawn from a ''seigneurie'' owned by Suasso in the Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Neth ...
named Avernas le Gras. He also had a good relationship with the Stadtholders
In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an Steward (office), office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the ...
, and the banking house of Suasso often supported them financially.[Antonio Lopes Suasso]
at jhm.nl, accessed 3 March 2012 (in Dutch)
Life
Suasso joined his father's banking business.[ He continued a successful banking career after the death of his father in 1685, when he inherited half of his father's considerable fortune, much of which was in the form of shares 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 ...
.
In 1682, Suasso married firstly Judith Francisco Teixeira, at Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. She was the daughter of the banker Manuel (otherwise Isaac) Teixeira, who after Suasso's father and De Pinto was the third most important Portuguese-Jewish merchant-banker in Northern Europe, by his marriage to Beatrix Nunes Henriques.[ In an age of strategic marriages, the union can be seen as intended to raise capital within a narrow circle, but this design was thwarted when Judith died childless in 1689.][
]
A notable instance of the support of the house of Suasso to the Dutch stadtholders is the loan of two million guilders
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Emp ...
which Suasso made to William of Orange in 1688 in support of his invasion of England to claim the thrones of King James II
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
.[ The story is told that William asked Suasso what he wanted as collateral for the millions, to which Suasso replied: "If thou art felicitous, I know thou wilt return them to me; art thou infelicitous, I agree to having lost them." However, this may be apocryphal.][ Suasso was responsible for a number of elements of the invasion, and through his father-in-law in Hamburg he was able to make speedy arrangements for the transport of Swedish and Pomeranian troops provided in November 1688 by ]Charles XI of Sweden
Charles XI or Carl ( sv, Karl XI; ) was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721).
He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein- ...
to assist William.[Jonathan I. Israel, ''The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003]
p. 440
/ref> The coffer in which William repaid the loan to Suasso is today on display in the Willet-Holthuisen Museum in Amsterdam.[
Following the death of his first wife in 1689, on 23 February 1694 Suasso married secondly, at The Hague, Leonora (otherwise Rachel) da Costa (1669–1749), and with her had ten children, who became part of a large family network.][ Their seven sons were Antonio (1695–1775), Alvaro (1696–1751), Manuel (1698–1773), Pedro (1700–1742), Jeronimo (1702–1740), David (1703–1705), and Francisco (1710–1770), while their three daughters were Leonora (1701–1754), Sara (1706–1767) and Hanna (1708–1721).][
Suasso died at The Hague on 22 April 1710, in his early fifties. He was buried in the Portuguese-Jewish cemetery called ''Ets Haim'' at ]Ouderkerk aan de Amstel
Ouderkerk aan de Amstel () is a town in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is largely a part of the municipality of Ouder-Amstel; it lies about 9 km south of Amsterdam. A small part of the town lies in the municipality of Amstelve ...
.[ He was succeeded in his business and as Baron d'Avernas le Gras by his eldest son, Antonio Lopes Suasso the Younger, ''alias'' Isaac Lopes Suasso (1695–1775).][
]
Further reading
*Daniël Swetschinski & Loeki Schönduve, ''De familie Lopes Suasso, financiers van Willem III'' (1988)
*Loeki Schönduve, 'Antonio en Francisco Lopes Suasso: joodse baronnen in Holland', in ''Holland: regionaal-historisch tijdschrift'' 20 (1988)
Notes
External links
Stamboom familie Suasso de Lima de Prado
at stamboomsijbrands.nl (in Dutch)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suasso, Francisco Lopes
1650s births
1710 deaths
17th-century Sephardi Jews
Dutch people of Portuguese-Jewish descent
Dutch bankers
Dutch Sephardi Jews
Businesspeople from Amsterdam