Piet Pieterszoon Hein
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Piet Hein | |
---|---|
Birth name | Piet Pietersen Heyn |
Born | Delfshaven, County of Holland | 25 November 1577
Died | 18 June 1629 | (aged 51)
Allegiance | Dutch Republic |
Battles/wars |
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Piet Pieterszoon Hein (25 November 1577 – 18 June 1629) was a Dutch admiral and privateer for the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War. Hein was the first and the last to capture a large part of a Spanish treasure fleet which transported huge amounts of gold and silver from Spanish America to Spain.[citation needed] The amount of silver taken was so large that it resulted in the rise of the price of silver worldwide and the near bankruptcy of Spain.[1]
Early life
Hein was born in
Dutch East India Company
In 1607, he joined the Dutch East India Company and left for Asia, returning with the rank of captain (of the Hollandia) five years later. He married Anneke Claesdochter de Reus and settled in Rotterdam. In 1618, when he was captain of the Neptunus, both he and his ship were pressed into service by the Republic of Venice. In 1621, he left his vessel behind and traveled overland to the Netherlands.
For a year in 1622, he was a member of the local government of Rotterdam, although he did not have citizenship of this city: the cousin of his wife, one of the three burgomasters, made this possible.
Dutch West India Company
After capital had been raised for the Dutch West India Company, the company's directors, the Heeren XIX, devised the Groot Desseyn in October 1623.[3] The plan was to first seize the capital of Brazil, São Salvador da Bahia (Salvador), and then the main Portuguese fort on the coast of Angola, São Paulo de Loanda (Luanda). In this way, the company would control both the lucrative sugar plantations in Brazil and the Atlantic slave trade.[4] Control of the trade itself was necessary because of the high mortality rate from the plantations' harsh conditions and tropical diseases such as malaria.
In the same year Piet Hein became vice-admiral of the new
Privateering activity
He then crossed the Atlantic Ocean again to try and capture merchant ships at the city of
Spanish treasure fleet
In 1628, during the eighty years-long Dutch war of liberation from Spain, Admiral Hein, with
After some musket volleys from Dutch sloops, the crews of the galleons also surrendered and Hein captured 11,509,524
The capture of the treasure fleet was the Dutch West India Company's greatest victory in the
Lieutenant-Admiral
He became, after a conflict with the Dutch West India Company about policy and payment, Lieutenant-Admiral of Holland and West Frisia on 26 March 1629, and thus factual supreme commander of the confederate Dutch fleet, taking as flag captain Maarten Tromp.
He died the same year, in a campaign against the
Commemoration
The
Rejection of slavery
Piet Hein rejected the
There is an ongoing debate on the meaning of slavery within Dutch history, in which Piet Hein is an anachronistic figure head. On the one hand, some modern critiques attribute the evils of the Dutch Atlantic slave trade to him. On the other hand, he is still used as a hero figure, within a 19th-century expression of romantic idealism.[8] In June 2020 his statue in Delfshaven was defaced.[9]
References
Footnotes
- ^ "Piet Hein en de verovering van de Zilvervloot". Historisch Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 13 February 2007. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ Ratelband, K. (2006) De Westafrikaanse reis van Piet Heyn
- ^ Den Heijer 1994, pp. 35, 36
- ^ Tim Wachelder (17 December 2008). "De eerste WIC expeditie". Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ Reine 2003, p. 69.
- ^ Reine 2003, p. 85.
- ^ Siebe Thissen 2018
- ^ Siebe Thissen 2018
- ^ "Standbeelden en instituten in Rotterdam en Amsterdam beklad door activisten", de Volkskrant, 12 June 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
Bibliography
- Warnsinck, Johan Carel Marinus (1938). Drie zeventiende-eeuwsche admiraals. Piet Heyn, Witte de With, Jan Evertsen. van Kampen.
- Reine, Ronald Boudewijn Prud'homme van (2003). Admiraal Zilvervloot: biografie van Piet Hein (in Dutch). De Arbeiderspers. ISBN 978-90-295-3663-9.
- Vere, Frances (1955). Salt in their blood: the lives of famous Dutch admirals. London: Cassell & Company, LTD.
External links
- Media related to Piet Pieterszoon Hein at Wikimedia Commons
- Works about Piet Pieterszoon Hein at Open Library
- Works by or about Piet Pieterszoon Hein at Internet Archive