The New Amsterdam History Center

The Lawyer and the Fox: A Tale of Tricks and Treachery in New Amsterdam

A Talk By Jaap Jacobs, Author and Honorary Reader in History, University of St Andrews

Followed by a Q & A

Thursday, October 3, 2019
6:30 to 8:00 PM

The Netherland Club of New York
Warwick Hotel
65 West 54th Street, New York, NY

The fierce struggle between Adriaen van der Donck, and Petrus Stuyvesant, was set in motion when both men clashed in New Netherland. But the roots of their enmity lay in the distant Netherlands.

Each year on October 3rd, the Dutch city of Leiden celebrates the lifting of the siege by the Spaniards in 1574.  To reward its courage, the Prince of Orange offered the city a choice between tax freedoms or a university. The city opted for the latter and in 1575 Leiden University was founded.  One product of its faculty of law was Adriaen van der Donck.  Int 1585 the Frisian University of Franeker was founded, of which Petrus Stuyvesant was a proud alumus.  Jacobs' talk will focus on the background and motives of the two protagonists in New Netherland.

Jaap Jacobs (PHD Leiden, 1999) is currently working on a biography of Petrus Stuyvesant