Dirk van Hogendorp (1761–1822)
Dirk van Hogendorp (13 October 1761: Heenvliet – 29 October 1822: Rio de Janeiro), comte de l'Empire, was a Dutch officer; colonial administrator; diplomat and Minister of War, for the Kingdom of Holland; and confidant of Napoleon. In 1812 he was governor of Vilnius, in 1813 he was appointed as the governor of Hamburg. He was an early critic of the Dutch colonial system as implemented under the VOC. His ideas about reforms in the Dutch East Indies were to a large extent realized by the Commissioners-General of the Dutch East Indies, through the behind the scenes influence of his friend Herman Warner Muntinghe, first as adviser of Stamford Raffles, and later as adviser of the Commissioners-General. Life Personal life Van Hogendorp was the eldest son of Willem van Hogendorp and Carolina Wilhelmina van Haren. He was a brother of Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp. He married Margaretha Elisabeth Bartlo in 1785 in Batavia. They had a son, Carel Sirardus Willem van Hogendorp. After his first wife's death he married Augusta Eleonora Carolina, princess von Hohenlohe Langenburg in 1803. The children from this marriage all died before 1813. Youth Around the time of Hogendorp's birth his maternal grandfather, the statesman Onno Zwier van Haren was accused by Hogendorp's mother and her sister Betty of crimen tenfati incestus when they were children. Though Onno signed a confession, and fled the Dutch Republic, he was somehow cleared, and his daughters were disavowed by the family. Hogendorp's mother was divorced by Hogendorp's father because of the scandal. This cast a shadow over the early life of the Hogendorp brothers. The early life of Hogendorp had been that of a wealthy child, but when he was 12 years old, his father lost his wealth and was forced to take the family to the Dutch East Indies where he got a position with the VOC, thanks to a recommendation from stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange. The two boys were thanks to the stadtholder's wife princess Wilhelmina placed at the Prussian Cadet Corps in Berlin, where they got a military education. Hogendorp received a commission as an ensign with an East Prussian regiment in 1777. He fought in the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778. He left Prussian service in 1782 (he had reached the rank of captain by then) to enter Dutch service, as the Dutch Republic by then was at war with Great Britain. Princess Wilhelmina for that reason withdrew her protection, but that may have been a reason for her husband to ask admiral Van Kinsbergen to take him into the Dutch Navy. He was placed in 1783 with the Dutch marine corps as a captain, and sent with the expedition of admiral Van Braam to the Dutch Cape Colony in 1784. Meanwhile the hostilities with Great Britain had ceased, so the expedition sailed on to the Dutch East Indies, where Hogendorp met his father for the last time. In the Dutch East Indies Hogendorp in 1786 joined the VOC as an