Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck

Who was Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck?

Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, Lord of Nyenhuis, Peckedam and Gellicum, was a Dutch politician of the Batavian Republic and an investor in the Holland Land Company.

He studied law at Leiden University between 1781 and 1784. He became a lawyer in Amsterdam in 1784. He was one of the leaders of the revolution against William V, Prince of Orange, when the French army defeated the Dutch in January 1795.

He was a member of the National Assembly and belonged to the moderate unitarians, who were advocates of a central government. He was president of the National Assembly and acting head of state of the Batavian Republic between 17 May 1796 and 30 May 1796 and between 15 May 1797 and 29 May 1797.

He was the Batavian ambassador to France between 1798 and 1801 and from 1803 to 1805 and the Batavian ambassador to Britain in 1802 and 1803. Napoleon made him chief executive of the Batavian Republic with the title of Raadspensionaris and he ruled for one year from 1805 to 1806, when the republic was converted into the Kingdom of Holland. He had no employment between 1806 and 1811. The Netherlands became a part of France in 1810 and Schimmelpenninck was a member of the French senate between 1811 and 1813. He was a member of the senate of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1815 and 1820.