The diaries of G.K. van Hogendorp 1806-1813

Edited by J. Haak; with an introduction by W.G. van der Moer

During the Batavian-French period, the Orangist, Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, (1762-1834) did not hold any official position in the political or public sphere. Rather, from 1806 onwards he led a sheltered life of leisure on his country estate ‘Adrichem’ close to Beverwijk, and later, from 1809, resided in his townhouse on the Kneuterdijk in The Hague. It was during these years that Van Hogendorp kept regular notes about his thoughts and opinions concerning the political and military events that were taking place on the home front and abroad. Despite the fact that he was also prone to keeping detailed notes about his own commercial and financial ups and downs, including private concerns about his personal health and that of his family, these chronological remarks should be viewed more as a ‘document intellectuel’ than as a ‘document humain’.

The Journal d’Adrichem and the Journal de La Haye are kept with the rest of the Van Hogendorp collection in the National Archive in The Hague. Following the inclusion of fragments in the publication entitled Brieven en gedenkschriften van Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, 7 volumes (The Hague 1866-1903), the full text has been published in this edition. In addition to this, two reports on the East Indies and the West Indies, respectively, written by Van Hogendorp dating from 1808 were added as appendixes. The text is in French and has been reproduced without a translation. Extensive annotations have been made, particularly as far as details about individuals are concerned; for this reason, the edition will be relevant for a much broader audience than solely historians.