Nikolaes Heinsius the Younger

Who was Nikolaes Heinsius the Younger?

Nikolaes Heinsius the Younger was a Dutch physician and writer.

Heinsius was an illegitimate son of Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder and his long term Swedish-born partner, Margaretha Wullen. With little help of his father, he became a medical doctor at the age of 20, but had to flee the country in 1677 after he and several drunk friends had committed manslaughter in the streets of The Hague. Traveling as a physician through France, Italy and Germany, he arrived in Rome in 1679, where he became personal physician of Christina of Sweden until about 1687. Later he became personal physician of the elector of Brandenburg in Kleve.

In 1695 he returned to the Netherlands, settling in Culemborg, at the time a free city and exempt from the Dutch ban imposed on him. That same year he published The Delightful Adventures and Wonderful Life of Mirandor, which contained much autobiographical material and was one of the first romance novels in Dutch literature. It was reprinted 10 times until 1756 alone, and was translated in German, English, French and Italian. He further wrote five works on medicine, which were published in Cleves, and one other novel, Don Clarazel de Contarnos. An official request in 1707 to the States-General of the Netherlands to lift his ban apparently was refused.