biography
| name: |
Hogendorp, Gijsbert Karel van
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pronunciation:
[van hohkhendaw(r)p]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1762–1834)
|
| biography:
| Dutch lawyer and politician, born in Rotterdam, W Netherlands, the brother of Dirk Hogendorp. He was educated at the Berlin cadet school and commissioned in the Hollandse Gardes. In 1783 he visited the USA, met Washington and Jefferson, and studied the US constitution. He supported the stadtholder and Prussian intervention in the Patriot period and was made Pensionary of Rotterdam, but resigned in 1795 when the French invaded, and then had several unsuccessful business ventures. In 1813, after Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig, he was influential in making preparations for the return of the House of Orange. In 1813–14 he was foreign minister. In 1815 he chaired the constitutional commission made necessary by the Union with Belgium, was made a count and a member of the Council of State, but did not see eye to eye with the king, who thought him too ambitious. In parliament (1816–25) Hogendorp's repeated criticism of government policy offended the king, who stripped him of his titles. He gradually became more liberal in his views, suggesting after the Belgian Revolution that the north too was ready for reform. |
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