![Suffen recevant une epee d or de la Hollande](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Suffen_recevant_une_epee_d_or_de_la_Hollande.jpg)
Mattheus Lestevenon, heer van Berckenrode (1715–1797,
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 of ...
) was a city-secretary and
schepen A schepen (Dutch; . ') or échevin (French) or Schöffe (German) is a municipal officer in Belgium and formerly the Netherlands. It has been replaced by the ' in the Netherlands (a municipal executive).
In modern Belgium, the ''schepen'' or ''éch ...
in Amsterdam, then Dutch ambassador to France. Lestevenon played an important role in the year 1748 and in the negotiations for the
Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France:
Treaties
1200s and 1300s
* Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade
* Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France
* Trea ...
.
Pietro Locatelli
Pietro Antonio Locatelli (3 September 1695 in Bergamo – 30 March 1764 in Amsterdam) was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist.
Biography Bergamo
Little is known about Locatelli's childhood. In his early youth he was the third violinist ...
dedicated six violin sonatas to him.
Life
Family
Lestevenon was born into a powerful
regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
family. His father Mattheus Lestevenon (1674-1743) was an administrator of 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 ...
,
heer of
Strijen
Strijen () is a town and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality, covering an area of of which is water, is located on the Hoeksche Waard island along the Hollands Diep estuary. On 1 Ja ...
and five-times
mayor of Amsterdam
Below is a list of mayors (Dutch: ''burgemeesters'') of Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands. The city had four burgomasters, serving four years. Since 1389 the mayors were elected on 1 February. In the 17th and 18th century, a new mayor was ele ...
(between 1722 and 1736).
Gerrit de Graeff (I.) van Zuid-Polsbroek
Gerrit de Graeff (I.) van Zuid-Polsbroek (27 February 1711 in Amsterdam – 10 November 1752) was a member of the De Graeff – Family from the Dutch Golden Age. De Graeff was "known for his wealth and notorious for his stinginess." House at Heren ...
, vrijheer van Zuid-Polsbroek, was his brother in Law. In 1743 Lestevenon had married Maria Wilhelmina, baroness van der Duyn. His two children Maria Jacqueline and
Willem Anne Lestevenon were born in 1749 in Brussels and Paris respectively. On 8 June 1755 he divorced the baroness, probably while she conceived a child from an officer by the name M. De Villegagnon. Lestevenon next married Susanna Faulquier in an unknown year. He sold his house on Keizersgracht to
Thomas Hope. It's the building at Singel 292, that he had inherited from his grandfather
Dirk Trip, he sold to
Joachim Rendorp
Joachim Rendorp, ''Vrijheer'' of Marquette (19 January 1728 in Amsterdam – 21 September 1792 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch politician of the Patriottentijd in the Dutch Republic.
Personal life
Rendorp was the son of Amsterdam brewer and ''burgemees ...
. After an inheritance from a late aunt, Lestevenon bought a palace at
Lange Voorhout
The Lange Voorhout () is a street in the The Hague Center#Oude Centrum, old city centre of The Hague, Netherlands. It is L-shaped and runs from Kneuterdijk in the west to Toernooiveld in the east, reaching approximately in length.
History
In th ...
on the Hague, with 16 servants. Mattheus Lestevenon married Lady Catharina Windsor, a sister of
Herbert Windsor, 2nd Viscount Windsor
Herbert Windsor, 2nd Viscount Windsor (1 May 1707 – 25 January 1758), styled The Honourable Herbert Windsor until 1738, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1734 until 1738 when he succeeded to the p ...
, in London in 1742 and went on honeymoon to Italy. His wife died of smallpox on the return trip. She was buried in
Bockenheim on 26 May. Mattheus again inherited "considerable wealth and goods" ("considerabel veel gelt en goet") on the death of his father in 1743. He moved to the attractive building at Keizersgracht 444–446. Because he was not appointed as a successor to his father, it is supposed he was frustrated.
Career
In 1729, he got a job as city secretary. In all probability, someone else did the work and Lestevenon's earnings funded his Studie. Lestevenon was appointed schepen of Amsterdam in 1745.
![Hope-keizersgracht](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Hope-keizersgracht.jpg)
After the
Pachtersoproer
The pachtersoproer was a Dutch rebellion in the 18th century. The origin of the uprising was to be found in the economic malaise of the 1740s as a result of the Austrian War of Succession. It was the system of commercial tax-collection called ''pac ...
(1748), the
Doelisten
The Doelisten were an orangist civic movement in Amsterdam, named after its primary meeting location the Kloveniersdoelen (or 'de Doelen' in short), which opposed the power of the Amsterdam mayors in the summer of 1748.
The emergence of the mo ...
invited
prince William IV and requested to remove the inter-related
regenten
In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the regenten (the Dutch plural for ''regent'') were the rulers of the Dutch Republic, the leaders of the Dutch cities or the heads of organisations (e.g. "regent of an orphanage"). Though not formally a heredi ...
clique and to change the appointment of mayors. Of the forty mayors chosen between 1696–1748, only two (or, as some maintain, even just one) were not related to earlier mayors. Finally Lestevenon left the council of his own accord. The stadholder changed his opinion and more than half the men on the council got their seats back. Not long after that Mattheus Lestevenon was appointed ambassador to the court to
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
.
Little is known about his activities as ambassador. Mostly it involved meetings with
La Vauguyon on finishing the
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Vierde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the War of American Independence (1775-1783), broke out over ...
(1780–1784) and the
Treaty of Fontainebleau (1785)
The Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed on November 8, 1785 in Fontainebleau between Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, ruler of the Habsburg monarchy, and the States-General of the United Provinces. Based on the terms of the accord, the United Provi ...
; his correspondence with
Comte de Montmorin ends in 1788?
Nota van den Hollandschen ambassadeur Van Berkenrode
/ref> Mattheus Lestevenon died in 1797 in the Hague. His son meanwhile played an important role as a Patriot
A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism.
Patriot may also refer to:
Political and military groups United States
* Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution
* Patriot m ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Elias, J. E. (1903–1905, reprinted 1963) ''De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795'', 2 vols.
* ''Het dagboek van J. Bicker Raye''; bewerkt door F. M. Bijerinck & M. G. de Boer, (1935).
* Ligtelijn, M. (2006) "Regentencoterieën 1650–1750". In: ''De Gouden Bocht van Amsterdam'', p. 187. Edited and composed by Milko den Leeuw en Martin Pruijs.
External links
Parlement & Politiek site, on Willem Anne and his father Mattheus Lestevenon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lestevenon, Mattheus
1715 births
1797 deaths
Ambassadors of the Netherlands to France
Diplomats from Amsterdam
18th-century Dutch politicians