Cornelis Janszoon Speelman (2 March 1628 – 11 January 1684) was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1681 to 1684. Cornelis Janszoon Speelman was the son of a

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 ''"Ne ...

merchant. He was born on 2 March 1628. In his 16th year, he left aboard the ''

Hillegersberg Hillegersberg is a neighbourhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Primarily a green residential area with lakes, canals and parks, it was incorporated into the city of Rotterdam in 1941. History Hillegersberg was named after Hildegard van Vlaandere ...

'' for the

Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

. He was employed as an assistant (') in the service 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 ...

(VOC).

Biography

In 1645 he arrived in

Batavia, Dutch East Indies Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much-larger area of the Residen ...

. He became bookkeeper (''boekhouder'') in 1648 and underbuyer (''onderkoopman'') in 1649. He became secretary (''secretaris'') to the Dutch

Council of the Indies The Council of the Indies ( es, Consejo de las Indias), officially the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies ( es, Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias, link=no, ), was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire for the Amer ...

(''Raad van Indië''). He travelled with ambassador Joan Cunaeus to

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

that year, and wrote an account of the voyage. They were received by the

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

Abbas II with great festivity. Even before his voyage came to an end, in 1652 he was promoted to buyer (''koopman''). On his return to

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

, he took up a post in the office of the bookkeeper-general (''boekhouder-generaal''), for whom he deputed for a long time, and whom he succeeded in 1657. Meanwhile, he had married the fifteen-year-old Petronella Maria Wonderaer, daughter to the receiver-general (''ontvanger-generaal''). In 1659 he was placed in charge of the company's clerical and administrative staff (''kapitein over de compagnie pennisten'') in Batavia. In 1661, he became ''schepen van Batavia'' (a sort of

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

post connected with local government there).

Career

On 12 June 1663, Cornelis Speelman was appointed governor and director of

Dutch Coromandel Coromandel was a governorate of the Dutch East India Company on the coasts of the Coromandel region from 1610, until the company's liquidation in 1798. Dutch presence in the region began with the capture of Pulicat from the Portuguese in Goa and ...

, but was suspended by the Lords Seventeen (

Heren XVII 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 ...

), being accused of having illegally engaged in private trading. He had bought a diamond for his wife and later re-sold it because she had not liked it. Despite his strenuous protests, the court in Batavia wanted to make an example of him and he was sentenced to a 15 months suspension and a fine of 3,000

guilder 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 ...

s. In 1666, he was named admiral and superintendent of an expedition to Makassar. AMH-5644-KB The conquest of Macassar by Speelman from 1666 to 1669

On 18 November 1667, he concluded the so-called ''Bongaais Treaty'' ( Treaty of Bongaya

. In the same year, he was named commissioner (''commissaris'') of

Amboina Amboyna or amboina may refer to: * ''Amboyna'' (play), a play by John Dryden *Amboyna massacre, in 1623 in Indonesia * Amboina box turtle (''Cuora amboinensis''), of Asia * Amboina king parrot (''Alisterus amboinensis''), of Indonesia * ''Amboyn ...

, Banda and

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the ...

. Consequently, he became counsellor-extraordinary (''raad extra-ordinaris'') to the Dutch Council of the Indies. He travelled once again, in 1669, as admiral of another expedition to Makassar where he completely subjugated the kingdom, receiving a gold chain and medallion in recognition of this the following year. He became a full Counsellor of the Indies on 23 March 1671. The following year he was admiral of a fleet sent against the French. In December 1676, he led an expedition to Central Java, supporting the ruler of Mataram who was facing the

Trunajaya rebellion The Trunajaya rebellion (also spelled Trunojoyo; id, Pemberontakan Trunajaya) or Trunajaya War was the ultimately unsuccessful rebellion waged by the Madurese prince Trunajaya and fighters from Makassar against the Mataram Sultanate and its ...

. On Java's East Coast, he went to war against the rebel leader

Trunajaya Trunajaya (Madurese) or Tronajâyâ, also known as Panembahan Maduretno (1649 – 2 January 1680), was a prince and warlord from Arosbaya, Bangkalan, Madura, known for leading the Trunajaya rebellion (1674–1681) against the rulers of the Ma ...

. It took some time before peace was re-established. He was called back to Batavia at the end of 1677 and on 18 January 1678 named First Counsellor and Director-General of the Indies (''Eerste Raad en Directeur-Generaal van Indië''). Also in that year he was appointed president of the ''College van Schepenen'' (to do with local government) in Batavia. On 29 October 1680 he was named governor-general, a post he took up on 25 November 1681, succeeding

Rijckloff van Goens Rijcklof Volckertsz. van Goens (24 June 1619 – 14 November 1682) was the Governor of Zeylan and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He was the Governor of Zeylan from 12 May 1660 to 1661, then in 1663 and finally from 19 November 16 ...

. During the term of office of Cornelis Speelman as governor-general, the sultan of

was defeated. He ceded all his lands of his kingdom to the company. Speelman also subdued the city of Bantam. Cornelis Speelman died on 11 January 1684 in the Castle at

. His funeral was accompanied with great clamour and splendour, for which no pains or monies were spared. He was buried in the ''Kruiskerk'' to the salute of 229 cannon shots. He was followed as governor-general by

Johannes Camphuys Johannes Camphuys (registered as Kamphuis in the ''Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie'') (18 July 1634 – 18 July 1695) was the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1684 to 1691. Camphuys was born in Haarlem, in the Republic of the United ...

Sources

* Site in Dutch dedicated to the VO

* Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië, part Soek-Zij. * Putten, L.P. van, 2002. - ''Ambitie en onvermogen : gouverneurs-generaal van Nederlands-Indië 1610-1796.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Speelman, Cornelis 1628 births 1684 deaths Dutch East India Company people from Rotterdam Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies Governors of Dutch Coromandel 17th-century Dutch colonial governors