Constantijn Huygens

Sir
Constantijn Huygens
Sir Constantijn Huygens
	Huygens, painted byMichiel Jansz van Miereveltin 1641
Born	September 4, 1596; The Hague,Dutch Republic
Died	March 28, 1687(aged 90); The Hague,Dutch Republic
Resting place	Grote Kerk,The Hague
Nationality	Dutch
Education	University of Leiden
Occupation(s)	Stadtholder,poet,composer,architect
Spouse	Suzanna van Baerle
Children	Christiaan Huygens,Constantijn Huygens Jr.,Lodewijk Huygens,Philips Huygens,Susanna Huygens

Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem(/ˈhaɪɡənz/HY-gənz,^[1]USalso/ˈhɔɪɡənz/HOY-gənz,^[2]^[3]Dutch:[ˈkɔnstɑntɛinˈɦœyɣə(n)s];4 September 1596 – 28 March 1687), was aDutch Golden Agepoet andcomposer.He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange:Frederick HenryandWilliam II,and the father of the scientistChristiaan Huygens.

Biography[edit]

Constantijn Huygens was born inThe Hague,the second son of Christiaan Huygens (senior), secretary ofthe Council of State,^[4]and Susanna Hoefnagel, niece of theAntwerppainterJoris Hoefnagel.

Education[edit]

Constantijn was a gifted child. His brotherMauritsand he were educated partly by their father and partly by carefully instructed governors. When he was five years old, Constantijn and his brother received their first musical education.

Music education[edit]

They started with singing lessons, and they learned their notes using gold-coloured buttons on their jackets. It is striking that Christiaan senior imparted the "modern" system of 7 note names to the boys, instead of the traditional, but much more complicatedhexachordsystem. Two years later the first lessons on the viol started, followed by the lute and the harpsichord. Constantijn showed a particular acumen for the lute. At the age of eleven he was already asked to play for ensembles, and later—during his diplomatic travels—his lute playing was in demand; he was asked to play at the Danish Court and forJames I of England,although they were not known for their musical patronage. In later years he also learnt the more modern guitar. In 1647 he published in Paris hisPathodia sacra et profanawith his compositions ofairs de courin French,madrigalsin Italian and Psalms in Latin.

Art instruction[edit]

They were also schooled in art through their parents' art collection, but also their connection to the magnificent collection of paintings in the Antwerp house of diamond and jewellery dealer, Gaspar Duarte (1584–1653), who was a Portuguese Jewish exile.

Language lessons[edit]

Constantijn also had a talent for languages. He learnedFrench,LatinandGreek,and at a later ageItalian,GermanandEnglish.He learned by practice, the modern way of learning techniques. Constantijn received education inmaths,lawandlogicand he learned how to handle apikeand amusket.

In 1614 Constantijn wrote his first Dutch poem, inspired by the French poetGuillaume de Salluste Du Bartas,in which he praises rural life. In his early 20s, he fell in love with Dorothea; however, their relationship did not last and Dorothea met someone else.

In 1616, Maurits and Constantijn started studies atLeiden University.^[4]Studying in Leiden was primarily seen as a way to build a social network. Shortly after, Maurits was called home to assist his father. Constantijn finished his studies in 1617 and returned home.^[4]This was followed by six weeks of training with Antonis de Hubert, a lawyer inZierikzee.De Hubert was committed to the study of language and writing, having held consultations withPieter Corneliszoon Hooft,Laurens ReaelandJoost van den Vondelconcerning language and orthography in 1623.

Early career[edit]

In the Spring of 1618 Constantijn found employment withSir Dudley Carleton,the English envoy at the Court in The Hague.^[4]In the summer, he stayed inLondonin the house of the Dutch ambassador,Noël de Caron.During his time in London his social circle widened and he also learned to speak English. In 1620, towards the end of theTwelve Years' Truce,he travelled as a secretary of ambassadorFrançois van AerssentoVenice,to gain support against the threat of renewed war. He was the only member of the legation who could speak Italian.

London[edit]

In January 1621, he traveled to England as the secretary of six envoys of theUnited Provinceswith the object of persuading James I to support theGerman Protestant Union.They lodged inLombard Streetand were taken by coach toWhitehall Palaceto King James and then toPrince CharlesatSt James's Palacewhere they realised they had delivered the letters for the prince to the king, and Huygens made an excuse of the poor light. On Shrove-Tuesday they saw a masque at Whitehall presented by the gentlemen of theMiddle Temple.They returned in April of that year, Huygens with the king's gift of a gold chain worth £45.^[5]In December 1621 he left with another delegation, this time with the aim of requesting support for the United Provinces, returning after a year and two months in February 1623. There was yet another trip to England in 1624.^{[citation needed]}

Muiderkring[edit]

He is often considered a member of what is known as theMuiderkring,a group of leading intellectuals gathered around the poetPieter Corneliszoon Hooft,who met regularly at the castle ofMuidennearAmsterdam.In 1619 Constantijn came into contact withAnna Roemers Visscherand with Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. Huygens exchanged many poems with Anna. In 1621 a poetic exchange with Hooft also starts. Both would always try to exceed the other. In October of that year Huygens sentJacob Catsa large poem in Dutch, entitled't Voorhout,about a woodland near the Hague. In December he started writing't Kostelick Mal,a satirical treatment of the nonsense of the current vogue.

In 1623, Huygens wrote hisPrinten,a description of several characteristics of people. This satirical, moralising work was one of the most difficult of Huygens' poems. In the same yearMaria Tesselschadeand Allard Crombalch were married. For this occasion verses were written by Huygens, Hooft and Vondel. During the festival, Constantijn flirted with Machteld of Camps. As a result of this he wrote the poemVier en Vlam.In 1625 the workOtia,orLedige Uren,was published. This work showcased his collected poems.

English knighthood and marriage[edit]

In 1622, when Constantijn stayed as adiplomatfor more than one year in England, he wasknightedbyKing James I.^[4]This marked the end of Constantijn's formative years, and of his youth. During his time in England, in December 1622, he was robbed of his papers and £200 in gold from his coach as he set out on the way toNewmarket.^[6]

Huygens was employed as asecretarytoFrederick Henry, Prince of Orange,who—after the death of Maurits of Orange—was appointed asstadtholder.In 1626 Constantijn fell in love withSuzanna van Baerleafter earliercourtshipby the Huygens family to win her for his brother Maurits had failed. Constantijn wrote severalsonnetsfor her, in which he calls herSterre(Star). They wed on 6 April 1627.

Huygens describes their marriage inDagh-werck,a description of one day. He worked on this piece, which contains almost 2000 lines, during the entire time they were married. In one of the preserved manuscripts of this work it appears Suzanna transcribed (or wrote herself) a substantial portion of the work, suggesting a close collaboration between husband and wife.^[7]

The couple had five children: in 1628 their first son,Constantijn Jr.,in 1629Christiaan,in 1631Lodewijkand in 1633 Philips. In 1637 their daughter Suzanna was born; shortly after her birth their mother died.

Education of his sons and the new royal Prince[edit]

In 1645, his sons Constantijn Jr. and Christiaan began their studies in Leiden. In these years PrinceFrederick Henry of Orange,Huygens' confidante and protector, became increasingly ill, and died in 1647. The newstadtholder,William II of Orange,greatly appreciated Huygens and gave him the estate ofZeelhem,but he died too in 1650.

The emphasis of Huygens' activities moved more and more to his presidency of the Council of the house of Orange, which was in the hands of the young Prince inheritor, a small baby. He traveled frequently during that time, in connection with his work. There were however strong disagreements between the baby's widowed grandmotherAmalia van Solms,and its widowed mother (her daughter in law)Mary, Princess Royal,(4 November 1631 – 24 December 1660, aged 29) on even the name for christening the Dutch-English Royal newborn.

In 1657, his son Philips died after a short sickness during hisGrand Tourwhile inPrussia.In that same year Huygens became seriously ill, but healed in a miraculous manner.

In 1680, Constantijn Jr. moved with his family out of the house of his father. To stop the gossiping which started shortly afterwards, Huygens wrote the poemCluijs-werck,in which he shows a glimpse of the latter stages of his life.

Later career and French knighthood[edit]

Huygens started a successful career despite his grief over the death of his wife (1638). In 1630 he was appointed to the Council and Exchequer, managing the estate of theOrange family.This job provided him with an income of about 1000florinsa year. In that same year he bought theheerlijkheid Zuilichemand became known asLord of Zuilichem(in Dutch: Heer van Zuilichem).^[8]^[9]In 1632,Louis XIII of France- the protector of the famous exiled juristHugo Grotius- appointed him as Knight of theOrder of Saint-Michel.In 1643 Huygens was granted the honor of displaying a golden lily on a blue field in his coat of arms.

In 1634 Huygens received from Prince Frederick Henry a piece of property in The Hague on the north side of theBinnenhof.The land was near the property of a good friend of Huygens,Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen,who built his house, theMauritshuis,around the same time and using the same architect, Huygens' friendJacob van Campen.

Correspondence[edit]

Aside from hismembershipin the Muiderkring (which was not as formerly supposed, an official club), at the start of the 1630s he was also in touch withRené Descartes,^[10]withRembrandt,^[10]and the painterJan Lievens.He became friends withJohn Donne,^[4]and translated his poems into Dutch. He was unable to write poetry for months because of his anguish over his wife's death, but eventually he composed, inspired byPetrarch,the sonnetOp de dood van Sterre(On the death of Sterre), which was well received. He added the poem to hisDagh-werck,which he left unfinished: the day he has described has not ended yet, but his Sterre is already dead. After sending the unfinished work to different friends for approval, he eventually published it in 1658 as part of hisKoren-bloemen.

Huygens also corresponded withMargaret CroftandElizabeth Dudley, Countess of Löwenstein,ladies in waiting toElizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia,andMary Woodhouse,a friend made in London in 1622.^[11]

Hofwijck[edit]

After a couple of years as a widower, Huygens bought a piece of land inVoorburgand commissioned the building ofHofwijck.^[12]Hofwijck was inaugurated in 1642 in the company of friends and relatives. Here Huygens hoped to escape the stress at court in The Hague, forming his own "court", indicated by the name of the house which has a double meaning: Hof (=Court or courtyard) Wijck (=avoid or township). In that same year, his brother Maurits died. Due to his grief Huygens wrote little Dutch poetry, but he continued to writeepigramsin Latin. Shortly afterwards, he began writing Dutch pun poems, which are very playful by nature. In 1644 and 1645 Huygens began more serious work. As a new year's present for Leonore Hellemans, he composed theHeilige Daghen,a series of sonnets on the Christian holidays. In 1644, a garlanded portrait of Huygens was painted byDaniel SeghersandJan Cossiers:it is now in theMauritshuis.^[13]In 1647 he published another work, in which play and seriousness are united,Ooghentroost,addressed to Lucretia of Trello, who was losing her sight and who was already half-blind. The poem was offered as consolation.

From 1650 to 1652 Huygens wrote the poemHofwijckin which he described the joys of living outside the city. It is thought that Huygens wrote his poetry as a testament to himself, amemento mori,because Huygens lost so many dear friends and family during this time: Hooft (1647), Barlaeus (1648), Maria Tesschelschade (1649) and Descartes (1650).

Writing[edit]

He still tried to find time to publish more of his work. In 1647 a number of Huygens' musical creations,Pathodia sacra et profana,was published in Paris. It contained vocal compositions in Latin (Psalms), French, and Italian (secular texts). The work was dedicated to Utricia Ogle, a niece of an English diplomat.

In 1648 Huygens wroteTwee ongepaerde handenfor harpsichord. This work was dedicated to Marietje Casembroot, a twenty-five-year-old harpsichord player, with whom he shared his love of music.

In 1657 the collected work of his Dutch poems, theKoren-bloemenappears. Some of its contents contain:Heilighe Daghen(1645),Ooghen-troost(1647),Hofwijck(1653) andTrijntje Cornelis(1653). This last work,Trijntje Cornelis,is an explosion of Huygens' creativity. It testifies to the rare language - and expressive capacity - of the author. Considering that the piece was written in a rather short time, it can be considered work of an enormous performance. Since his mother Suzanna was fromAntwerp,he visited there often andTrijntje Cornelistakes place in Antwerp.

In 1660 his daughter Suzanna married her cousin, Philips Doublet, son of Huygens' sister Geertruijd. In 1661, a grandfather by now, Huygens was sent to France by the circle of tutors of William III, to recover possession of the county of Orange. The county was returned to the family of Orange-Nassau in 1665 and Huygens returned to the Netherlands.

On his return, Huygens designed the new sand road in The Hague, running through the dunes toScheveningen.He had already planned this road in 1653, and wrote about it in his work theZee-straet.The road was made according to Huygens' design.

In 1676 the second edition of theKoren-bloemenappeared, a collected work containing 27 books. New in this edition were theZee-straet,theMengelingh(a section of serious poems written after 1657) and seven books withsnel-dichten(quick poems). As he was older now, Huygens found refuge in music. He wrote around 769 compositions during his lifetime.

Legacy[edit]

Constantijn Huygens died inThe Hagueon Good Friday, 28 March 1687 at the age of 90. A week later he was buried in theGrote Kerkin the Hague. His son, the scientistChristiaan Huygenswas later buried with his father.

In 1947 a literary award was created, theConstantijn Huygens Prize,to honor his legacy.