Wendela Bicker

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Wendela Bicker (Amsterdam, baptized 30 December 1635 – 1 July 1668) was the wife of Johan de Witt. She was one of the richest young female commoners of her time and she married one of the most influential republican politicians in the Netherlands. She was in the public eye during her lifetime and entered history books thereafter. This is facilitated by the letters and the housekeeping books she left behind. The narrative about her life reflects how the role of women in the Netherlands in the 17th century was and is understood. As the daughter of Amsterdam merchant and Mayor Jan Bicker (1591-1653) and Agneta de Graeff van Polsbroek (1603-1656), she was a descendant of the Bicker-De Graeff clan, the two most influential Amsterdam families of the Dutch Golden Age, and also relative of the families Hooft and of Volkert Overlander and Frans Banninck Cocq. Wendela grew up in a city house on Keizersgracht. Her sisters married influential people: Elisabeth Bicker (1630-1660) married the arms dealer Jacob Trip, Geertruid Bicker (1634-1702) married the wealthy banker and investor Jean Deutz, Cornelia Bicker (1638-1665) married her cousin Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten and Jacoba Bicker (1640–1695) married her cousin Pieter de Graeff. Wendela Bicker met her future husband Johan de Witt when her uncle Cornelis de Graeff met the young statesman. De Witt had been the first man in the republic as Grand pensionary since 1653, but kept a “miserable bachelor household” in The Hague.