Suffen recevant une epee d or de la Hollande

Mattheus Lestevenon, heer van Berckenrode (1715–1797,

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 ...

) 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échevin (French, , ) or Schöffe (German, ) is a municipal officer in Belgium and formerly the Netherlands, where it has been replaced by the (a municipal executive). In modern Belgium, the ''schepen'' or ''échevin'' ...

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.

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 a ...

dedicated six violin sonatas to him.

Life

Family

Lestevenon was born into a powerful

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

family. His father Mattheus Lestevenon (1674-1743) was an administrator of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

, 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 Janu ...

and five-times

mayor of Amsterdam Below is a list of Burgomaster, mayors of Amsterdam (Dutch language, Dutch: ''burgemeesters''), 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 ...

(between 1722 and 1736). Gerrit de Graeff (I.) van Zuid-Polsbroek, vrijheer van Zuid-Polsbroek, was his cousin by marriage. In 1743 Lestevenon had married Maria Wilhelmina, baroness van der Duyn. His two children Maria Jacqueline and

Willem Anne Lestevenon Willem Anne Lestevenon van Berkenrode (born in Paris on 14 October 1750 and died at La Ferté-Gaucher on 4 October 1830) was a Dutch politician and art collector. Biography Willem Anne Lestevenon was born in Paris, where his father, Mattheus ...

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, Heerlijkheid, ''Vrijheer'' of Marquette (19 January 1728 in Amsterdam – 21 September 1792 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch people, Dutch politician of the Patriottentijd in the Dutch Republic. Personal life Rendorp was the son of Amst ...

. 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 t ...

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

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 ''p ...

(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 m ...

invited prince William IV and requested to remove the inter-related

regenten The ''regenten'' ( Dutch plural for ''regent'') were the rulers of the Dutch Republic from the 16th through the 18th century, the leaders of the Dutch cities or the heads of organisations (e.g. "regent of an orphanage"). Though not formally a her ...

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 ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

. 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 (; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on t ...

(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 Provinc ...

; 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(s) or The Patriot(s) may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American R ...

References

Bibliography

J.E. Elias Johan Engelbert Elias (18 August 1875 – 1 August 1959) was a Dutch historian known mostly for his important work on the history of Amsterdam's regency ("Vroedschap van Amsterdam"). He is considered the father of genealogical research in the ...

(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 Diplomats for the Dutch Republic Ambassadors to France Diplomats from Amsterdam 18th-century Dutch politicians