Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp

Gijsbert Karel, Count van Hogendorp (1762 to 1834) was a Dutch statesman of the liberal conservative tradition, born in Rotterdam into a regent family. Educated in Prussia, he travelled to the United States in 1783, studied its constitution with admiration and corresponded with Thomas Jefferson. A moderate Orangist, he served as pensionary of Rotterdam from 1788 to 1795, refused to serve the Batavian Republic or the French Empire, and in 1812 drafted a paper that anticipated the Constitution of 1814. He helped lead the revolt of 1813 that restored Dutch independence as one of the Triumvirate who invited William Frederick to return, served as Foreign Minister, headed the commission that wrote the 1814 Constitution of the Netherlands, and became the first Vice-President of the Council of State. He quarrelled with King William I over protectionism and royal authority, left that post in 1816, sat in the Eerste Kamer and was dismissed from the Council of State in 1819. He was ennobled as a count in 1815 and died in The Hague.