Jan van der Burch (died 1595) was an office-holder in the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last House of Valois-Burgundy, Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary of Burgu ...

Life

Van der Burch was the son of

Adrien van der Burch Adrien van der Burch (1501–1557) was an office-holder in the Habsburg Netherlands. Life Van der Burch was born in 1501 to a noble family in Flanders. From 1533 to 1540 he served as pensionary to the rural Liberty of Bruges. General Guillaume, " ...

, president of the

Council of Flanders The Council of Flanders ( nl, Raad van Vlaanderen, french: Conseil de Flandres), primarily sitting in the Gravensteen in Ghent from 1407, was a court of law operating under the authority of the Count of Flanders and exercising jurisdiction thr ...

. He himself became a member of the Council of Flanders, and on 10 November 1569 was appointed

master of requests Master of Requests, from the Latin Requestarum Magister, is an office that developed in several European systems of law and government in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Holders of the title had the responsibility of presenting pe ...

to the

Great Council of Mechelen From the 15th century onwards, the Great Council of the Netherlands at Mechelen (Dutch: ''De Grote Raad der Nederlanden te Mechelen''; French: ''le grand conseil des Pays-Bas à Malines''; German: ''der Grosse Rat der Niederlände zu Mecheln'') w ...

. General Guillaume, "Burch (Jean Vander)", ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' ( French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

''
vol. 3
(Brussels, 1872), 160-161. The

Duke of Alva Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranke ...

also appointed him a commissioner of the

Council of Troubles The Council of Troubles (usual English translation of nl, Raad van Beroerten, or es, Tribunal de los Tumultos, or french: Conseil des Troubles) was the special tribunal instituted on 9 September 1567 by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of ...

, responsible for identifying fugitives who had participated in the early stages of the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...

and sequestering their property. When the city of

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

fell to the rebels in 1572, van der Burch was imprisoned, his house plundered and his servants killed. He was released and restored to his position when Alva retook the city. During the

English Fury at Mechelen The English Fury at Mechelen or the Capture of Mechelen was an event in the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War (1585), Anglo–Spanish War on April 9, 1580. The city of Mechelen was conquered by Calvinist forces from Brussels which incl ...

, in 1580, he was able to escape the city. On 12 December 1584 he was appointed president of the Great Council, then Councillor of State, and finally, on 16 June 1592, president of the

Privy Council of the Habsburg Netherlands The Privy Council or Secret Council ( nl, Geheime Raad, french: Conseil Privé) was one of the three "collateral councils" (along with the Council of Finance and Council of State) that together formed the highest government institutions of the Habs ...

. He died in Brussels on 5 July 1595.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:van der Burch, Jan Year of birth unknown 1595 deaths Presidents of the Privy Council of the Habsburg Netherlands Presidents of the Great Council