Willem Joseph van Brienen van de Groote Lindt

Willem Joseph van Brienen van de Groote Lindt was born in Amsterdam in December 1760 into a wealthy Catholic merchant family. He became a merchant and banker in the family firm Van Brienen en Zoon and was considered immensely rich. His country estate was Clingendael near The Hague.

From councillor to maire

He rose quickly during the years of French influence. From 1803 to 1807 he sat on the Amsterdam city council, from 1806 to 1808 he was deputy mayor and then an alderman. King Louis Napoleon made him a chamberlain in 1807. In 1810 the Kingdom of Holland was absorbed into the French Empire, and Van Brienen sat in Paris on the council that advised Napoleon on Dutch affairs.

In January 1811 he became maire of Amsterdam, the French title for mayor. He now answered to a French prefect, and he clashed regularly with Prefect De Celles.

Napoleon comes to town

The high point of his term came in October 1811. Emperor Napoleon toured the Netherlands and stayed in Amsterdam from 6 to 24 October. He entered the city via Oetewalerweg, today's Linnaeusstraat, and was greeted by Van Brienen and a large delegation. The city commissioned the painter Mattheus Ignatius van Bree to record the moment. The huge canvas was unveiled in the city hall on 15 August 1813. A few months later the French had gone, and the painting was quickly and quietly put away. It now belongs to the Amsterdam Museum.

In 1811 Van Brienen was made a baron of the French Empire and an officer of the Legion of Honour.

After the French

After 1813 he remained a man of influence. King William I appointed him to the Senate in 1815, where he sat until his death as the only Catholic from the northern Netherlands, speaking up several times for Catholic rights. In 1825 he became a baron in the Dutch nobility. He died in Wassenaar on 10 October 1839.