John Maurice of Nassau ( ; ; ; ; 17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679), called "the Brazilian" for his fruitful period as governor of

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil (; ), also known as New Holland (), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the c ...

, was

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

and (from 1664) Prince of Nassau-Siegen. He served as ''Herrenmeister'' (equivalent to Grand Master) of the

Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg) The Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Chivalric Order of Saint John of the Hospital at Jerusalem (), commonly known as the Order of Saint John or the Johanniter Order (German: ''Johanniterorden''), is the Germans, German Protestantism, Protestant b ...

from 1652 until his death in 1679. The former residence of John Maurice in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, Netherlands, is now the home of the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, named

Mauritshuis The Mauritshuis (, ; ) is an art museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van ...

, which means "Maurice House" in Dutch.

Early years in Europe

He was born in

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German- Dutch holiday roa ...

, and his father was John VII of Nassau-Siegen. His grandfather John VI of Nassau was the younger brother of Dutch ''

stadtholder In the Low Countries, a stadtholder ( ) was a steward, first appointed as a medieval official and ultimately functioning as a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and ...

'' William the Silent of Orange, making him a grandnephew of William the Silent. He joined the Dutch army in 1621, at a very early age. He distinguished himself in the campaigns of his cousin, the ''stadtholder''

Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange Frederick Henry (; 29 January 1584 – 14 March 1647) was the sovereign prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from his older half-brother's death on 23 April 1625 until his ...

. In 1626, he became a captain. In 1629, he was involved in the capture of

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

. In 1636, he conquered a fortress at Schenkenschans.

Dutch governor in Brazil

He was appointed as the governor of the Dutch possessions in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in 1636 by the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

on recommendation of Frederick Henry. He landed at

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

, the port of

Pernambuco Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...

and the chief stronghold of the Dutch, in January 1637. Immediately after his arrival, he began a campaign against the Spanish-Portuguese forces, which he defeated in repeated encounters. Believing himself strong enough to hold his own, he dispatched part of his forces to attack the Portuguese possessions on the coast of Africa, and continued to extend his conquests with the aid of the natives who were opposed to Spanish rule, but he received a serious check in the attack on São Salvador, being obliged to raise the siege with the loss of many of his best officers. On receiving reinforcements in 1638, and with the co-operation of the Dutch fleet, which defeated the Spanish-Portuguese squadrons in sight of

Bay of All Saints The Bay of All Saints (), also known as All Saints' Bay and Todos os Santos Bay, is the principal bay of the Brazilian state of Bahia, to which it gave its name. It sits on the Brazilian coast, eastern coast of Brazil, surrounding part of Bahia' ...

, he captured the latter city. When in 1640, Portugal recovered its independence from Spain under John II, 8th Duke of Bragança, the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, anticipating an alliance with the latter, and believing that a treaty of peace with Portugal would leave Holland in possession of the conquered territory, hastened his operations; to give occupation to the host of adventurers that had assembled under his colors, he dispatched an expedition against the Spanish possessions on Plate River, while in 1643, Johan Maurits equipped the expedition of

Hendrik Brouwer Hendrik Brouwer (; 1581 – 7 August 1643) was a Dutch explorer and governor of the Dutch East Indies. East Indies Brouwer is thought to first have sailed to the Dutch East Indies for the Dutch East India Company in 1606. In 1610, he lef ...

that attempted to establish an outpost in southern Chile.Robbert Koc
The Dutch in Chili
at coloniavoyage.comKris E. Lan
Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750
1998, pages 88-92 Later, he visited the conquered provinces and arranged their administration.

Life in the settlements

By this series of successful expeditions, he gradually extended the Dutch possessions from

Sergipe Sergipe (), officially State of Sergipe, is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region along the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geogra ...

in the south to São Luís de Maranhão in the north. With the assistance of the famous architect,

Pieter Post Pieter Post in 1651. Portrait by Pieter Nolpe, detail of a larger work Pieter Jansz Post (1 May 1608 – buried 8 May 1669) was a Dutch Golden Age architect, painter and printmaker. Biography Post was baptised in Haarlem, the son of a s ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

,Johan Maurits (III)
Digibron.nl he transformed Recife by building a new town adorned with public buildings, bridges, channels, and gardens in the then Dutch style, later naming the newly reformed town Mauritsstad, after himself. He was able to pay the high construction costs from the loot of his expeditions, and from the proceeds of his estates in Germany. By his statesmanlike policy, he brought the colony into a most flourishing condition. His leadership in Brazil inspired two Latin epics from 1647: Caspar Barlaeus' ''Rerum per octennium in Brasilia et alibi nuper gestarum sub praefectura'' and Franciscus Plante's ''Mauritias''. The painters Albert Eckhout, Frans Post, and

Abraham Willaerts Abraham Willaerts (c. 1603 - 18 October 1669) was a Dutch Baroque painter, mostly of marine and harbor scenes. He also painted a number of single and family portraits. Life Abraham Willaerts was born in Utrecht (city), Utrecht, the son of the p ...

served as members of John Maurice's entourage. He also established representative councils in the colony for local government, and developed Recife's transportation infrastructure. His large schemes and lavish expenditures alarmed the parsimonious directors of the West India Company, and John Maurice, refusing to retain his post unless he were given a free hand, returned to Europe in July 1644. As governor-general of a Brazilian colony setup by the Dutch West India Company from 1636 until 1644, Johan Maurice was both personally involved in keeping Africans slaves, and personally profited from the trade and transport of Africans to Brazil. In 1643, Nassau received an

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

from the

Manikongo Manikongo (also called Awenekongo or Mwenekongo) was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, a kingdom that existed from the 14th to the 19th centuries and consisted of land in present-day Angola, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and th ...

to strengthen the economic relations between the Kingdom of the Kongo and

through the sale of slaves.https://www.historia.uff.br/academico/media/aluno/1662/projeto/Dissert-stephanie-caroline-boechat-correia.pdf

Return to Europe

Shortly after returning to Europe, John Maurice was appointed by Frederick Henry to the command of the cavalry in the Dutch army, and he took part in the campaigns of 1645 and 1646. When the war was ended by the

Peace of Münster The Peace of Münster, signed on 30 January 1648, was a treaty between Philip IV of Spain and the States-General of the Netherlands, Lords States General of the Dutch Republic. Negotiated in parallel to, but not part of, the Peace of Westphalia, ...

in January 1648, he accepted from

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick William (; 16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as "th ...

(who had just married John Maurice's niece Louise) the post of governor of Cleves,

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

and Ravensberg, and later also of

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...

. His success in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

was as great as it had been in Brazil, and he proved himself a most able and wise ruler. Also, he created large baroque gardens in and around Kleve, as well as a new residence, the Prinzenhof palace. At the end of 1652, John Maurice was appointed head of the

and made a prince of the Empire with the style of

Serene Highness His/Her Serene Highness (abbreviation: HSH, second person address: Your Serene Highness) is a style (manner of address), style used today by the reigning families of Liechtenstein, Monaco and Thailand. Until 1918, it was also associated with the p ...

. In 1664, he came back to

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

; when war broke out with an England supported by the invading bishop of Münster, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the

Dutch States Army The Dutch States Army () was the army of the Dutch Republic. It was usually called this, because it was formally the army of the States-General of the Netherlands, the sovereign power of that federal republic. This army was brought to such a size ...

. Though hampered in his command by the restrictions of the states-general, he repelled the invasion, and the bishop, Christoph Bernhard von Galen, nicknamed "Bommen Berend", was forced to conclude peace. His campaigning was not yet at an end, for in 1668, he was appointed first field-marshal of the States Army, and in 1673, he was charged by ''stadtholder'' William III to command the forces in

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

and

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

, and to defend the eastern frontier of the provinces, again against Van Galen. This he did with success and the troops of Von Galen were forced to withdraw. The next year John Maurice commanded troops against the French during the Battle of Seneffe. Nason Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen

In 1675, his health compelled him to give up active military service, and he spent his last years in his beloved Cleves, where he died in December 1679.

Legacy

The residence he built in

is now called the

, and houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings. It is now a major museum of old Dutch paintings. In the

National Library of Paris National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

are two folio volumes containing a fine collection of colored prints of Brazilian animals and plants, which were executed by order of the prince, and accompanied with a short explanation by him. He is said to have had an affair with Anna Gonsalves Paes de Azevedo. Brazilian author

Paulo Setúbal Paulo de Oliveira Leite Setúbal (January 1, 1893 – May 4, 1937) was a Brazilian writer, lawyer, journalist, essayist and poet. He occupied the 31st chair of the Academia Brasileira de Letras, Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1934 until his dea ...

wrote a historic novel about John Maurice and the Dutch settlement in Brazil, ''O Príncipe de Nassau'' ("''The Prince of Nassau''", translated into Dutch by R. Schreuder and J. Slauerhoff in 1933 as ''Johan Maurits van Nassau''). Two ships of the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

have been named after him.

References