biography
pronunciation:
[hiynsius]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1641–1720)
|
| biography:
| Dutch statesman, born in Delft, W Netherlands. He became Pensionary of Delft (1679) and from 1689 until his death was Grand Pensionary of Holland. He was a close associate of William III of Orange and his envoy in France in 1682. After William's death he continued his policies and opposed the English expansion of the War of the Spanish Succession. He did not foresee the fall of Marlborough and England's approchement to France at the expense of the Dutch in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which put a brake on Louis XIV's ambitions, but marked the end of the Republic's role as a great power. His interest in foreign policy also led him to ignore finance, so that he left the exchequer in a bad state. |
|
|
