Bicker family

Ancestors

Dirk Jansz Helmer († 1468) acted as the direct ancestor of the 2nd line, the later female line of the Bicker family

Pieter Meeus Doosz Bicker (1430–1476), father of Machteld Pietersdr Bicker (1455–1526) acting as male progenitor of the upfollowing Bicker family

The Bicker family is the oldest Amsterdam patrician family still in existence today. Their lineage begins with Dirk Helmer, who was recorded in Amsterdam in 1383 and 1390.[7] His son Jan Dirksz Helmer was Burgomaster (mayor) in 1433 and Schepen (alderman) of the city and was married to Lijsbeth Eggert († around 1468) from the family of stadtholder Willem Eggert. Their son Dirk Jansz Helmer († 1468), priest and milliner, married with Geertruid Gerritsdr van den Anxter.[8] The couple had Gerrit Dirksz Helmer (around 1450–1521/26), who took his maternal name Van den Anxter and was married to Machteld Pietersdr Bicker (around 1455–1516),[9] daughter of Pieter Meeus Doosz Bicker (1430–1476) and Aeltgen Eggert († around 1455; herself a sister of Lijsbeth Eggert). Their son Pieter Gerritsz van den Anxter, named Bicker (1497–1567), Schepen of Amsterdam in 1534, took the maternal family name Bicker and thus acted as the male progenitor of the upfollowing Bicker family.[10] He was a cousin of Boel Jacobszn Bicker († 1505), Burgomaster in 1495 and 1497.[11] Both the Helmer-Bicker and Bicker families belonged to the urban elite as early as the 15th century.

Gerrit Bicker (1554-1604) in 1583 by a anonym painter

During the Dutch Golden Age, the Bicker family was very critical against the influence of the House of Orange. They belonged to the republican political movement of the Regenten, also referred to as the ‘state oriented’, as opposed to the Royalists. The Bickers were the most powerful family in Amsterdam and decisively determined the fortunes of the city.[12][13] They were a major trading family involved in the pelt trade with Muscovy and supplying ships and silver to Spain. The Bicker-De Graeff family-faction became the strongest competitor in the years after the Dutch uprising. Through their work on the Amsterdam City Council and the Dutch East India Company, the Bickers gained enormous influence on politico-economic self-determination in the young Dutch Republic due to the city's position of economic power within the Republic.[14]

Gerrit Bicker (1554-1604), great-grandchildren of the familyfounder Pieter Meeuws Soossensz (Doossensz) Bicker (1430–1476), was a wealthy patrician, politician, international grain merchant and beer brewer.[15] and threw his work in the Amsterdam Vroedschap and as one of the founders of the East India Company, he was able to launch the careers of his sons, grandchildren and nephews. He had four sons, the oldest Andries Bicker ruled the city administration for a long time and was mainly supported and carried by his three brothers Jacob, Jan and Cornelis Bicker, his uncle Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and his cousin Cornelis de Graeff.[14] The Bicker brothers had a firm grip on world trade, trading on the East, the West, the North and the Mediterranean. Andries' uncle Laurens Bicker was one of the first to trade on Guinea and seized four Portuguese ships in 1604. This also gave new impetus to the republican States Party, which had been weakened since the assassination of Land's Advocate Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, and was able to determine Amsterdam politics for a long period of time.[16]

leaders of the Bickerse league

Andries Bicker (1586-1652), Heer van Engelenburg, painted by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1642), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Cornelis Bicker van Swieten (1592-1654), Heer van Swieten, painted by Cornelis van der Voort in 1618

Together with politicians like the republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, former Grand pensionary Adriaan Pauw and Jacob de Witt, the Bickers, also called the Bickerse league, strived for the abolition of stadtholdership. They desired the full sovereignty of the individual regions in a form in which the Republic of the United Seven Netherlands was not ruled by a single person. Instead of a sovereign (or stadtholder) the political and military power was lodged with the States General and with the regents of the cities in Holland. At the time of the politically weak Grand Pensionaries Anthonie Duyck and Jacob Cats from the 1620s to the 1640s, Andries Bicker was regarded as the head of the republican regents in Holland and as a politician who resolutely opposed the striving for power of the stadtholders Frederick Henry and William II of Orange. He was considered one of the greatest political opponents of the Frederik Henry.[12] During the two decades from the later 1620s to the early 1650s the Bicker family had a leading role in the Amsterdam administration, the city was at the peak of its political power.[1]

In 1646, seven members of the Bicker family simultaneously held some political position or other. Members of that league where the brothers Andries, Jacob, Jan and Cornelis Bicker, Andries' son Gerard Bicker and their distant cousins, the brothers Jacob Jacobsz Bicker (1612-1676; he was also the husband of Andries' daughter Alida Bicker) and Hendrick Jacobsz Bicker (1615-1651). The Bickers provided silver and ships to Spain, and were very much interested in ending the Eighty Years War. This brought them in conflict with the stadtholder, some provinces, like Zeeland and Utrecht, and the Reformed preachers.[17] After the Peace of Münster (1648) was signed, the Bickers were of the opinion that it was no longer necessary to maintain a standing army, bringing them into vehement conflict with prince Willem II.[18] To regain power William went on the march towards Dordrecht and Amsterdam with an army. His troops got lost in a dense fog and were discovered by the postal courier on Hamburg. The mayors of Amsterdam had the civic guard called out, the bridges raised, the gates closed and the artillery dragged into position.

After that, the leader of the family and the Bickerse league, Andries Bicker, was purged from the vroedschap, as was his brother Cornelis Bicker, as one of the conditions of the treaty that followed, led by Cornelis de Graeff and Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen.[19] Henceforth, it was the equally republican-minded brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff and their following who dominated Amsterdam.[20] His niece Wendela Bicker married the Grand pensionary Johan de Witt.[21]

The Dutch historian and archivist Bas Dudok van Heel about the inppact of the Bicker and the linked De Graeff family and their missed (high) noble rank: In Florence families like Bicker and De Graeff would have been uncrowned princes. Here, in 1815, they should at least have been raised to the rank of count, but the southern Dutch nobility would not have put up with that. What you got here remained nothing half and nothing whole.[22]

• 
  Gerard Bicker (1622-1666), Drost of Muiden, painted by Bartholomeus van der Helst, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
• 
  Wendela Bicker (1635-1668), wife of Johan de Witt, painted by Adriaen Hanneman in 1659

Descendants of Andries Boelens. Overview of the personal family relationships of the Amsterdam regent-dynasties Boelens Loen, De Graeff, Bicker (van Swieten), Witsen and Johan de Witt in the Dutch Golden Age

While the Dutch Golden Age, Andries and Cornelis Bicker, together with their cousins Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, saw themselves as the political heirs of the old regent family Boelens, whose main lineage, which had remained catholic, had died out in the male line in 1647. They had received the very significant first names Andries and Cornelis from their Boelens ancestors. As in a real dynasty, members of the two families frequently intermarried in the 17th century in order to keep their political and commercial capital together. Its great historical ancestor was Andries Boelens (1455-1519), the city's most influential medieval mayor. Both families, Bicker and De Graeff, descend in the female line from Boelens, He was allowed to hold the highest office in Amsterdam fifteen times.[23]

family members after the Golden Age

Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten (1632-1716), Heer van Swieten, painted Caspar Netscher in 1673, Landesmuseum Hannover

Jan Bernd Bicker (1592-1654), painted by Louis Bernard Coclers in 1796, Amsterdam Museum

After the political end of the Bickerse league in 1650, resp. the end of the Dutch Golden Age due the Rampjaar 1672, the family could no longer gain comprehensive political power.

This branch of the family descended from Cornelis Bicker van Swieten (1592–1654). His descendants continued to use the nickname, which was borrowed from the possessions of the manor and the castle of Swieten, in their name. Some people, such as Cornelis' son Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten (1632-1716) who was Rekenmeester of Holland, achieved some political importance in the government of Holland. In 1755 this branch died out with his younger son Cornelis Bicker (II) van Swieten.

In the period that followed, however, the Bicker family branch, who descended from Jacob P. Bicker (1581–1626), a younger brother of Gerrit Bicker provided two more Amsterdam burgomasters, Hendrik Bicker (1649–1718) and his son Hendrick Bicker (1682–1738), Hendrick's brother Jan Berend Bicker (1695–1750) owned a plantation in Suriname and was Drost von Muiden, and his grandson Jan Bernd Bicker (1746–1812) was a short time during 1796 and 1797 chairman of the Batavian Republic. His son Henrie Bicker (1777-1834) was introduced to the New Dutch Nobility in 1815 with the predicate Jonkheer. His third son Jhr. Pierre Herbert Bicker (1805-1861) was a fabrikant, hobby artist and acted as a member of the Provincial Council of North Holland.[24] The family is still flourishing today.