Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

VI. Zulekoms at Court
Three galas in one week is much in The Hague but here no single night passes on which there
are not 8 or 10. I went to see one in good company, and the divertissement there is good fun but
accompanied by much superfluity. Last Sunday I saw the small Ballet at the Louvre that was
performed in the salon of the Queen Mother.
Christiaan Huygens to Lodewijk Huygens – Oeuvres Complètes, Vol. IV, No 1211 – Feb. 8, 1664 264
Studying Christiaan Huygens for a while may cause one to ask why he, though
commonly seen as a talented and promising young man, never sought a position at a university,
neither in the Dutch Republic – where he probably would have been welcomed with open
arms – nor in Paris or London? Why would not he begin his career in the way people like
Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, his teacher Frans van Schooten (a professor of mathematics
in Leiden) or later Isaac Newton had done – i.e. at the university? Why did he stay
“unemployed” – as many historians have put it – and did not “get a job?” The answer to the
question makes more sense once one places Huygens in his social framework and tries to
recognize the expectations and values he was brought up with. A gentlemanly social
surrounding with a fair part of his socio-professional life playing at several international courts
– that was the direction in which Constantijn Huygens Sr. moved his son. A great deal of
preparation needed to be done before Christiaan could fashion himself a position at court. He
needed to go on a “Grand Tour” in order to finish his upbringing as a young nobleman.
Furthermore he needed to create name and status and learn how to make sure that the people
who needed to know about him did so. At twenty-six Christiaan promised to his father that
I shall do my best to perceive the world as you understand it, and I think it will be possible to
do that if you are kind enough to let me have the time. 265
264 “Trois bals en une sepmaine c’est beaucoup a la Haye mais icy il ne passe point de nuict qu’il n’y en
ait 8 ou 10. J’estè les veoir une fois en bonne compagnie, et le divertissement en est assez joi mais
accompagnè de beaucoup d’embaras. Dimanche passè je vis au Louvre le petit Balet qui fut dansè dans
le salon de la Reine Mere. (…)”
265 HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. I, p344, quoted in: ANDRIESSE, C. D. (2005) Huygens : the man
behind the principle, Cambridge ; New York, Cambridge University Press., xix
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