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PDF Van Tekst Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 à 1634. Tome 1: 1604-1619 Isaac Beeckman editie Cornelis de Waard bron Isaac Beeckman, Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 à 1634. Tome 1: 1604-1619 (ed. Cornelis de Waard). Martinus Nijhoff, Den Haag 1939 Zie voor verantwoording: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/beec002jour01_01/colofon.htm © 2007 dbnl / erven Cornelis de Waard I Vie de l'auteur Comme beaucoup d'autres familles néerlandaises, celle de Beeckman était originaire des régions qui formèrent plus tard la Belgique. Le nom1) est porté au quatorzième siècle par des magistrats de Gand2); au siècle suivant on le rencontre dans le pays d'Alost et de Termonde3). Encore cent ans plus tard, on trouve à Liège un Guillaume Beeckman, dont le petit fils et homonyme, né en 1571, fut ambassadeur et plusieurs fois bourgmestre de Liège, où il mourut en 16314). A Cologne habitait Cornelis Beeckman, peut-être déjà protestant; ses fils Gérard (1558-1625) et Engelbert (né en 1559) eurent des descendants qui se fixèrent à Hasselt, à La Haye et à Nimègue5). Les armoiries de toutes ces familles6) sont à peu près identiques à celles de la famille de notre auteur7). Des notes de Beeckman, redigées d'après des renseignements fournis par des parents8), permettent de remonter jusqu'à son trisaïeul Hendrick Beeckman, qui demeura au pays de Hees ou Heze en Brabant et laissa au moins deux fils, Gérard et Jean, et une fille Aelken (Adélaïde). De cette dernière naquirent les Veerman et les Daelman, tandis que sa fille épousa un Van den Broecke, également à Anvers. Jean Beeckman mourut à Cologne9), mais Gérard, l'ainé, s'établit à Tournout, ‘où il tenait boutique de toutes choses et fabriquait aussi des chandelles’10). C'est du premier mariage de ce Gérard que naquirent à Tournout: Hendrick (vers 1520), puis Tielman et Gérard, et deux filles: Lynken et Grietken, qui fut la mère des Vernyen. Hendrick Beeckman, le fils aîné, grand-père d'Isaac, ayant quitté sa ville natale de bonne heure, devint, dans la République de Gênes, majordome (‘hofmeester’) à la cour du prince de Melfi, le fameux Andrea Doria (1466-1560). Il y eut pour ami intime Chiapin Vitelli, marquis de Cetone11) et fit la connaissance d'une jeune fille, Mariette, née dans l'île de Cos (patrie d'Hippocrate), mais élevée à la cour de Gênes’12). De leur mariage naquirent dans cette ville trois enfants; cependant ce fut à Tournout, où Hendrick Beeckman, étant retourné vers 1555, avait pris la suite des affaires de son père, que virent le jour 1) Il s'écrit aussi BEKEMAN, BEEKEMAN, BEECMAN, BEEKMAN, BEECQMAN et même DEL BECQ. 2) L'ESPINOY, Recherche des antiquitez et noblesse de Flandres (Douai, 1632), pp. 394, 490, 496, 506 et 526. 3) DE VLAMINCK, Filiations de familles de la Flandre, t. I (Gand, 1875), pp. 32-35 et 248. 4) (J.G. LOYENS) Recueil herald. des bourgmestres de la noble cité de Liège (Liège, 1720). 5) Pour cette famille, cf. Nederland's Patriciaat, t. IX (1918), pp. 11-14. 6) ‘D'azur à la bande ondée d'argent, accompagné de deux roses d'or. Cimier: une rose d'or haussée entre un vol coupé d'or et d'azur’. 7) Cf. ci-dessous p. VII, n. 2. 8) Elles se trouvent dans notre manuscrit au fol. 48recto-50recto, 47verso, 234verso-238verso et 314verso-315verso. 9) C'est à lui que se rapporte un document copié par le père de BEECKMAN, qui, décrivant un partage de terres et de biens en 1611, peut compléter les renseignements (Flessingue, Archives municipales, no. 413). 10) ‘Wynkel hielt van alle dynghen ende maeckte oock keersen’ (Journal, fol. 48recto). 11) ‘Familiaer vriendt met Vitellus, daer Meter van schryft’ (ibid., fol. 48recto). Au baptême D'ISAAC BEECKMAN assistèrent deux parentes (cf. ci-dessous p. III, n.7). Mais sans doute est-il question de l'historiographe VAN METEREN qui parle assez longuement du fameux guerrier espagnol (cf. ci-dessous p. 238). 12) Journal, fol. 48recto et 314verso. Isaac Beeckman, Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 à 1634. Tome 1: 1604-1619 II neuf autres enfants, dont Abraham, né le 10 août 1563. Sans doute (notez le prénom donné à leur fils), Hendrick et sa femme avaient-ils embrassé la religion calviniste. En 1566, probablement après l'iconoclastie de Tournout (24 août 1566)1) et au plus fort des persécutions espagnoles, abandonnant leurs biens, ils se refugièrent, avec Tielman et Gérard, en Angleterre. Tandis que Tielman semble s'être fixé à Maidstone, Hendrick et Gérard figurent, en 1566, sur la liste des membres de l'église italienne à Londres2), où la famille du premier est signalée par cette note: ‘Henry Bickman, denizen, a chandler, and his wife and VI children and a maid; they go to the italian church’3). A Londres Hendrick refusa de voir son ami Vitelli-connu par son mépris de toute religion-lorsque celui-ci y fut envoyé en ambassade (octobre 1569); il se lia étroitement avec deux autres réfugiés: Jean Radermacher d'Aix-la-Chapelle et Maarten vanden Zande, de Bruges. Sa femme, Mariette, étant morte en 1570, il se remaria, en 1571, avec Grietken van der Elste, de Meessen, en Flandre. De ses enfants du premier lit seul Abraham survivait4), mais sa seconde femme lui donna encore trois filles (Sara, Tanneken (Anne) et Elisabeth), avant qu'il mourut à Londres le ler juin 15815). Ses affaires furent continuées pas sa veuve, assistée d' Abraham Beeckman. Cependant, dès 1583, celui-ci est qualifié de ‘propriétaire’. Avec sa mère il figure encore en juillet 1585 comme membre de l'église flamande à Londres6), mais il quitta cette ville bientôt après. Middelbourg, capitale de la Zélande, soumise en 1574 à l'autorité du prince d'Orange, fut, surtout après la reddition d'Anvers au duc de Parme (1585), un asile pour une foule de refugiés belges7). Le comte de Leicester, allant avec son armée au secours des Provinces-Unies, y passa, en décembre 1585. Ayant laissé de nombreux parents à Londres, Abraham Beeckman, alors âgé de 23 ans, vint habiter à Middelbourg la maison dite ‘de Kalcoensche Hane’, dans la ‘Giststraete’; il se fit recevoir à l'église réformée de cette ville le 20 avril 15868) et prêta le serment de bourgeoisie le 10 juin 15869). Une autre famille avait connu un sort analogue. A Deurloo en Flandre demeurait Simon de Weert10), homme très riche11). Parmi ses sept enfants nous retiendrons 1) Pour l'histoire de cette journée, cf. R. SNIEDERS, De geuzen in de Kempen (Turnhout, 1875), t. I, p. 77 et t. II, p. 144. Cf. aussi J.E. JANSEN, Turnhout (1905), 3 vol. 2) R.E.G. KIRK et ERNEST KIRK, Returns of Aliens dwelling in the city and suburbs of London (Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, vol. X, part 1 (Aberdeen, 1900), pp. 387-388). 3) KIRK, o.c., Part 3 (Aberdeen, 1909), p. 374. 4) Notre auteur le note: Journal, fol. 48recto, et son renseignement est confirmé par la description de la famille faite le 10 novembre 1571 (KIRK, o.c., Part 2, Aberdeen, 1902, p. 115. 5) Pour la situation des réfugiés en général, cf. DE SCHICKLER, Les églises du réfuge en Angleterre, 3 vol. (Paris, 1892) et VAN SCHELVEN, de Nederduitsche vluchtelingenkerken ('s-Gravenhage, 1908). 6) KIRK, o.c., Part 2 (Aberdeen, 1902). 7) A l'Eglise réformée de cette ville se présentaient en 1584 plus de 400, en 1585, 1155, et en 1586 encore 1150 réfugiés. 8) Lidmatenboek der Herv. Gemcente 1574-1589, en date. 9) Rekening der stadt Middelburg, 1er aout 1585-31 juillet 1586, fol. 22. 10) BEECKMAN, qui lui avait donné d'abord le prénom de MAURICE, l'appelle ainsi dans ses notes ultérieures. Surtout chez les femmes le nom de famille est souvent changé en SWEERTS. 11) Notre auteur note en flamand que ce fut lui ‘qui donna à chacun de ses sept enfants une ferme, aussi grande qu'ils pouvaient exploiter, et chaque semaine il allait les visiter successivement, chacun un jour, appuyé sur son bâton et vétu de sa pelisse fourrée’ (fol. 47verso). Ce fut lui aussi ‘qui fut trahi par son compère aux soldats d'Ipermonde, mais il avait porté à Gand peu auparavant tout son argent enterré. Donc ils l'emmenèrent, mais pendant que les fripons dormaient dans le bois, il se cacha dans un arbre creux et se sauva’ (fol. 49recto). Pour l'histoire de cette époque, cf. DE COUSSEMAKER, Troubles religieux au XVIe siècle dans la Flandre maritime, 1560-70, 4 vol. (Bruges, 1876). Isaac Beeckman, Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 à 1634. Tome 1: 1604-1619 un Lieven (Liévin), dont une fille Liévine, née en 1557 à Peteghem (Astene), se maria avec Simon Lambrechtsen. Une fille de Simon de Weert, Elisabeth, née en 1510, épousa Maurice van Rentergem, de Sottegem (au sud-est de Gand); frère peut-être de Gérard, inten- Isaac Beeckman, Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 à 1634. Tome 1: 1604-1619 III dant (‘rentmeester’) à Sottegem du comte d'Egmont, tous les deux membres d'une famille nombreuse1). Janneken (Jeannette), fille de ce Maurice van Rentergem et d'Elisabeth de Weert, entra au couvent de Deinse, mais s'enfuit, avec sa mère, à Sandwich en Angleterre, où elle s'unit à un autre réfugié, Pieter Janssen van Rhee, de Juliers, au pays de Clèves2). A Sandwich elle lui donna, le 21 novembre 1568, une fille, Suzanne, et puis encore une fille, Elisabeth et au moins deux fils; Jean et Pierre. Avec Elisabeth de Weert tous se rendirent à Middelbourg, où Pieter Janssen van Rhee, charron, ‘woonende int houckhuys op de Beestenmarckt, noets over de Zwarte Leeu’, devint membre de l'Eglise réformée en juillet 1578.
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