Catharina Hooft

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Catharina as a child, by Frans Hals. In her hand she holds a silver rattle with bells, a precious status symbol.

Catharina Pietersdr. Hooft (Dec 28, 1618, Amsterdam - Sep 30, 1691, Ilpendam) was a woman of the Dutch Golden Age. She became famous at a very early age, when she was painted by Frans Hals. At the age of sixteen she married Cornelis de Graeff, nineteen years her senior and many times mayor of Amsterdam, and thus became 'first lady' of Soestdijk, then one of their country houses.

[edit] Life

Her father Jan Pietersz. Hooft – related to the Amsterdam mayor C.P. Hooft and to the renowned P.C. Hooft of the Muiderslot - was a wealthy citizen. Her mother, Geertruid Overlander, was forty-one and she and her husband had given up hope of having children when Catharina was born. On August 14, 1635 she married Cornelis de Graeff, an older widower, whose first wife had been Catharina's cousin (her father's sister's child).[1] The couple had themselves painted in princely fashion, in proper black with golden chains. Catharina bore two sons: Pieter and Jacob de Graeff. When stadholder William II died, in 1660 followed by his wife, her husband became one of the guardians of the 10-year old William, the "Child of the State", who played with Catharina's sons. By the Act of Seclusion William was not allowed to accede and power remained in the regents hands.

Opposite the De Graeffs' house lived the powerful anti-Orangist Bicker family, made up of Catharina’s brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their four daughters, one of whom married Catharina’s nephew, raadspensionaris Jan de Witt.

Catharina was widowed in 1664 and when, in 1672, William stepped out of the shadows to become general and stadholder, she changed political tack and - with her sons - became a supporter of the House of Orange. William bought the de Graeff hofstede and its surrounding fields, now the Soestdijk Palace, for only 18,755 guilder, for a hunting lodge. Catharina outlived her husband for thirty years. She was buried in Amsterdam on October 6, 1691.