Cornelis Bicker

Cornelis Bicker van Swieten (25 October 1592 – 15 September 1654), heer (lord) van Swieten, was an Amsterdam regent of the Dutch Republic during the Golden Age and a governor of the Dutch West India Company. He was also a sugar merchant, hoogheemraad of the Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland and a counsellor of the States of Holland and West Friesland for Amsterdam at The Hague. He belonged to the Dutch States Party and was in opposition to the House of Orange. Cornelis Bicker, together with his brother Andries Bicker and his cousin Cornelis de Graeff, was one of the main initiators for a peace with Spain in the Eighty Years' War and for the participation of the Dutch provinces in the Peace of Münster. Life Bicker Family The Bicker family was one of the oldest patrician families of Amsterdam and belonged to the leading regent-oligarchy. The Bickers were the most powerful family in Amsterdam and decisively determined the fortunes of the city. They were a major trading family involved in the pelt trade with Muscovy and supplying ships and silver to Spain. The Bicker-De Graeff family-faction became the strongest competitor in the years after the Dutch uprising. They controlled Amsterdam's city government and the province of Holland for half a century. Both families were powerful and influential between the earlier 17th century and the Rampjaar 1672 during the height of the Republic's power. Through their work on the Amsterdam City Council and the Dutch East India Company, the Bickers gained enormous influence on politico-economic self-determination in the young Dutch Republic due to the city's position of economic power within the Republic. Cornelis Bicker was the youngest son of Gerrit Bicker and Aleyd Andriesdr Boelens Loen. Gerrit was a wealthy patrician, politician (burgomaster in 1603), international grain merchant and beer brewer. and threw his work in the Amsterdam Vroedschap and as one of the founders of the East India Company, he was able to launch the careers of his sons, grandchildren and nephews. Cornelis' oldest brother Andries Bicker ruled the city administration for a long time and was mainly supported and carried by him and their other two brothers Jacob and Jan Bicker, his uncle Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and his cousin Cornelis de Graeff. The Bicker brothers had a firm grip on world trade, trading on the East, the West, the North and the Mediterranean.