Johan & Maurits

Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Maurits van Oranje

During the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), he served as Advocate of the province of Holland and was for a long time the most powerful politician in the still-young republic. He was also one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the VOC (1602), the Dutch East India Company, which would bring great prosperity during the Golden Age. For a long time, Oldenbarnevelt and stadtholder Maurits van Oranje formed a political dream team — one a born administrator, the other a great military talent. Together they held the reins and gave direction to the new state. It was, however, the same Maurits with whom Johan van Oldenbarnevelt later came into conflict — first over political and military matters, and then over religion.

A royal drama

Through the royal drama that unfolded between Van Oldenbarnevelt and Prince Maurits, visitors gain an insight into the origins of the Dutch constitutional state as it still exists today. But also into a human drama: how was it that the golden duo Johan and Maurits — one a born administrator, the other a great military talent — ended up in complete opposition to each other after years of success? It ultimately led to his arrest and, after an unjust show trial, his beheading on the Binnenhof in The Hague in 1619.

A diary about Van Oldenbarnevelt

The presentation includes, among other things, the authentic diary of Oldenbarnevelt's servant Jan Francken, who recorded the final months of his master's imprisonment.

Author: Annebeth Felet