Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

VIII. Patronage and its Privileges – courting a King
With my Father having notified me how it has pleased the King to accord to him generously the
Privilege he had demanded to His Majesty in my name, for the usage of Pendulum clocks on
sea, and how subsequently you had the goodness to make him receive the certificate almost at
the same time as he had it asked from you, and in the most obliging manner that we had been
able to wish, I would believe it a sin against my obligation, if I would not try to testify to you
through these words the sentiment I have about such important favors. You have acted both in
my favor and your authority Monsieur, and your good concern for me, of which I have already
experienced the effects more than once before this one;
Christiaan Huygens Jr. to Colbert – Oeuvres Complètes, Vol. V, No 1359 – Mar. 26, 1665 392
Constantijn Sr., at the age of eighty-eight (!), wrote to H. de Beringhen, son and
successor of the already mentioned First Knight of Louis XIV, that “I spend a part of the little
bit of life that I have left to arrange the interests of my precious Archimedes.” 393 Christiaan had
just fallen from grace with Colbert’s successor le Tellier after he had returned to France from
more than a year of rest in Holland due to sickness. This time, however, Constantijn Sr. did
not manage to secure high patronage and courtly favor for “his Archimedes” (Christiaan was
fifty-five at that point), despite his own offensive via different courtly channels. 394
Huygens’s privileged membership of the Académie Royale des Sciences tends to be seen as
the direct consequence and well-deserved reward of his exceptional talent and work.
392 “Mon Pere m’ayant fait scavoir comme il avoit pleu au Roy de luy accorder liberalement le Privilege
qu’il avoit demandè a Sa Majestè en mon nom, pour l’usage des montres a Pendule sur mer, et comme
en suite vous aviez eu la bontè de luy en faire avoir la depesche presqu’en mesme temps qu’il vous en
avoit fait prier, et de la maniere la plus obligeante qu’on eust pu souhaiter, je croirois pescher contre
mon devoir, si je ne taschois de vous tesmoigner par ces mots le ressentiment que j’ay de faveurs si
signalees. Vous avez fait agir ensemble en ma faveur et vostre authoritè Monseigneur, et vostre bonne
volontè pour moy, dont desia par cy devant j’ay plus d’vne fois esprouvè [ondervinden, ervaren] les
effects;” my translation.
393 HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. VIII, No 2375 – “i’emplije une partie du peu de vie qui me rest à
regler les interests de mon precieux Archimède.” Quoted in: MATTHEY, I. (1973) De Betekenis van de
Natuur en de Natuurwetenschappen voor Constantijn Huygens. IN BOTS, H. (Ed.) Constantijn
Huygens. Zijn plaats in geleerd Europa. Amsterdam, University Press Amsterdam., p385
394 Constantijn Sr. also wrote letters to the courtiers d’Avaux and Louvois, but it did not make a
difference: MATTHEY, I. (1973) De Betekenis van de Natuur en de Natuurwetenschappen voor
Constantijn Huygens. IN BOTS, H. (Ed.) Constantijn Huygens. Zijn plaats in geleerd Europa. Amsterdam,
University Press Amsterdam., p385
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