Mauritshuis Collection

 

This is an undated painting by the Dutch inventor and painter Jan van der Heyden of the city of Veere, probably 17th century, from the Mauritshuis Collection. This Collection is not accessible through the website of the Mauritshuis but through euopeana.eu  (just search with "mauritshuis" and "painting").

Maurits is the dutch equivalent of Maurice, and in this case it's Maurice "The Brazilian", who made his fortune in Brazil, at a certain time a dutch colony. Maurice also had a carreer in the Dutch Army.

Guard of the Witt

 

 

Yesterday we talked about William III's guard but it is not quite known that from early 1672 Cornelis de Witt, also had a guard of 50 men, dressed in red coats with yellow lining.

They are depicted here on a "schoolplate". There are other sources like papers who describe them as well, but my source is HSL V, p.314 esp. note 24.

William III's Guard

 

 

 

From the Hollandsche Mercurius, 1672 nr 5, a description of the Guard of William III. I presume this is his Horse Guard, as the troops are equipped with "casacken" in blue with the Prince's cypher and initials.

Latest developments

As most of the 1672 related activity is posted in Facebook or twitter, this blog is not as often updated as we like to do. Some important updates are:

- Helion and company have published a series on the Franco Dutch wars, with information on regiments, uniforms and wars and batlles and the like. Check them out here

- Several organisations in the Netherlands plan big events around 1672 in the year 2022.  Coordination is done here.

- Our own research is a "still going on" project. We are not full-time historians and we are also dependant on input from our readers of course.