Reinier van Oldenbarnevelt, lord of Groeneveld, (also known as ''Reinier van Groeneveld'') (c. 1588 – 29 March 1623) was a Dutch political figure. He was born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, the son of

Johan van Oldenbarnevelt Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (), Heer van Berkel en Rodenrijs (1600), Gunterstein (1611) and Bakkum (1613) (14 September 1547 – 13 May 1619) was a Dutch statesman and revolutionary who played an important role in the Dutch struggle for indepen ...

. In 1607, he visited

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

with his brother Willem van Oldenbarnevelt as part of their

Grand tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

, and they were received at the court of king

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

. He married Anna Weytsen, lady of

Brandwijk Brandwijk is a small village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Molenlanden, and lies about 13 km west of Gorinchem Gorinchem ( or ), also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Ne ...

and

Gijbeland Gijbeland is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Molenlanden Molenlanden () is a municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. The municipality was created on 1 January 2019 by ...

, in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

in 1608. They had three children; Jacoba Francina (1610), Johan (1612) and Jacob van Oldenbarnevelt (1614). Reinier became forester of Holland and lived in the

Slot Teylingen Teylingen Castle (Dutch: ''Slot Teylingen'') is a Dutch castle in the municipality of Teylingen, in the town of Voorhout, near the border with Sassenheim. It is presumably the family keep of the noble family , from which the Van Brederode family d ...

Voorhout Voorhout () is a village and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The former municipality covered an area of 12.59 km2 (4.86 mile²) of which 0.33 km2 (0.13 mile²) is covered by water, an ...

.National Archive
/ref> After the execution of his father in 1619, Reinier conspired with his brother Willem van Oldenbarnevelt and amongst others the

Remonstrant The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that had split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his ...

preacher

Hendrick Danielsz Slatius Hendrick Danielsz Slatius ( Oosterland, 1585 – The Hague, 5 May 1623; also known as: Hendrik Slaet, Henricus Slatius) was a Netherlands remonstrant preacher and writer. He participated in a foiled plot to murder Maurice, Prince of Orange. Edu ...

to assassinate

stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an 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 Burgundian and H ...

Maurice of Orange Maurice of Orange ( nl, Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was ''stadtholder'' of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince o ...

. The assassination attempt failed however, and Reinier van Oldenbarnevelt was beheaded in 1623 in

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 ...

(as his father had been) for financial complicity in the conspiracy to assassinate prince Maurice. His wife Anna remarried in 1625, to

Jacob Westerbaen Ridder Jacob Westerbaen (7 September 1599 – 31 March 1670), ''heer'' (squire) of Brantwyck-en-Ghybelant, was a Dutch poet. Life Westerbaen was born in The Hague, the son of a rope maker, and was initially schooled in the Staten-College, then ...

Sources

*Molhuysen, P.C. en P.J. Blok, ''Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek: deel 5''
Oldenbarnevelt, Reinier van

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldenbarnevelt, Reinier van 1580s births 1623 deaths Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War Executed Dutch people People from Teylingen People executed by the Netherlands by decapitation 17th-century executions by the Netherlands