Hendrik van Brederode, 12e heer van Brederode

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrick_van_Brederode

Henry (Hendrik), Lord of Bréderode (December 1531 – February 15, 1568) was born at Brussels. He was a member of the Dutch noble family Van Brederode and an important member during the Eighty years war. He was named the "Grote Geus" or the "big beggar".

Biographie

Hendrik van Brederode became a convert to the Reformed faith and placed himself at the side of the prince of Orange and Count of Egmont in resisting the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition and Spanish despotism into the Netherlands. In 1566 he was one of the founders of the confederacy of nobles who bound themselves to maintain the rights and liberties of the country by signing a document known as the Compromise of Nobles.

On April 5 of that year Brederode accompanied to the palace a body of 300 Knights, for whom he acted as the spokesman, to present to the regent, Margaret of Parma, a petition setting forth their grievances. It was at a banquet at the Hotel Culemburg on April 8, presided over by Bréderode, that the sobriquet of les Gueux, or "the Beggars," was first given to the opponents of Spanish rule. Bréderode, the "Grote Geus" or big beggar, was banished from the Netherlands by Alva, and died in exile shortly afterwards at the early age of thirty-six.

In March of the year 1567, backed by his friend Lenaert Jansz de Graeff and a large part of the bourgeoisie Brederode became the Generalcaptain of the city of Amsterdam. But in the next month Brederode and De Graeff departure and the Spanish General Philippe de Noircarmes became the military leader of Amsterdam.

Hendrik was the descendant of an ancient family active in the affairs of war and peace, which had for some centuries been settled in Holland Northwest of the village of Santpoort at Brederode Castle and after 1418 at Batenstein Castle in Vianen. In 1557 he married Amalia of Neuenahr, daughter of Gumprecht of Neuenahr.

Excerpt from Ruïne van Brederode FB post of 20/12/2024:

December 20th 1531, Henry II, Lord of Brederode, Vianen, Schoorl, Bergen and Burgcount of Utrecht, was born in Brussels. Son of Reinoud III of Brederode and Philippote van der Marck. He married Amelia van Nieuwenaar-Alpen in 1557 and had the amaliastein near Vianen built for her in 1560. They didn't have any children. He also had the skate track built on the outskirts of Huis ter Kleef in Haarlem, one of the properties of the Brederodes.
In 1565, he became a member of the Oath of the Nobles and on April 5, 1566 offered the first Petition of the Nobles to Margaretha van Parma, in which the Inquisition was condemned and asked to stop the persecution of the Protestants. During the offering, the nobles are supposed to be made for beggars, gueux in French, for which Hendrik got his nickname Grote Geus.
Hendrik was a good friend of Willem van Oranje, until he refused to support him during the Battle of Oosterweel. Even later, Willem again refused his support for the uprising. Things would never work out between those two and Hendrik wrote Willem from his will.
After several defeats against the Spaniards, Hendrik had to flee. On May 28, 1568 he was sentenced to death by the Council of Beroerten, but he had already died as an exile on February 15 of that year at Horneburg Castle near Recklinghausen. He was succeeded by his cousin Reinoud IV.