Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen (1599–1661)
Joan or Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen, knighted lord of Maarsseveen, was an important merchant, financial expert, property developer active in Amsterdam and a director of the Dutch East India Company during the Dutch Golden Age. The republican minded Huydecoper was an influential member of the Dutch States Party, diplomat and six times mayor of Amsterdam. He was together with Cornelis de Graeff one of the initiators of the construction of the new town hall of Amsterdam and was a prominent patron of the arts and art collector. Beside Maarsseveen he held the feudal titles of Neerdijk, Thamen and Blockland. Huydecoper is representative of the love of art, political influence and welfare in the Golden Age.
Portrait of Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen (copy after Bartholomeus van der Helst; 1660)
SA 41181-Schets voor een schuttersstuk-Viering van de Vrede van Munster door de schutterij van Jan Huydecoper (voorstudie)
The mansion of Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen, at Singel 539
Huydecoper as an officer of the civic guard by Govert Flinck in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum
The Dutch States Party was a political faction of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. This republican faction is usually (negatively) defined as the opponents of the Orangist, or Prinsgezinde faction, who supported the monarchical aspirations of the stadtholders, who were usually members of the House of Orange-Nassau. The two factions existed during the entire history of the Republic since the Twelve Years' Truce, be it that the role of "usual opposition party" of the States Party was taken over by the Patriots after the Orangist revolution of 1747. The States Party was in the ascendancy during the First Stadtholderless Period and the Second Stadtholderless Period.
The wealthy regenten of the Republic were mostly aligned with the Dutch States Party