Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

Chapelain, who was close not just to Christiaan, but to his father also, wrote to
Nikolaas Heinsius in 1659 (nine years after the death of Willem II) “[j]e plains Monsieur
Huygens le père et Messieurs ses enfans de cette revolution de fortune qui les a affoiblis de
credit et de consideration dans leurs païs.” 287 Christiaan’s second trip to Paris must have meant
more than training his conversation-skills; Constantijn Sr.’s name in Paris was considerable –
his influence at the French court perhaps extending that in Holland – Christiaan’s own name
was on the rise, and a combination of the two could navigate Christiaan in a favorable position.
Whether or not Christiaan’s main occupation would be mathematical or in public service, he
had to use all resources at court – showing himself as a “man of the world,” creating a useful
network of courtiers and men of letters, and obtaining increasingly powerful patrons.
The position of his father and the family Huygens enabled Christiaan Jr. to accompany
an ambassadorial mission to Louis XIV, bearing words of praise of the Dutch state for the
King’s success in negotiating his politically strategic negotiations with Maria Theresa of
Austria and Spain. 288 Christiaan’s growing fame had already reached Paris before and received
support from his father’s, making a way into the partly overlapping social groups of aristocracy
and the mathematically and astronomically interested and knowledgeable. The courtier
Chapelain had done Christiaan important favors by spreading and showing Christiaan’s letters
in aristocratic houses and gentlemanly gatherings, and the “permanent secretary of the
Montmor Academy,” 289 Samuel Sorbière, had integrated a rather extensive description of
Christiaan’s work on Saturn in his new Relations, lettres, et discours de Mr de Sorbiere, sur diuerses
matieres curieuses (1660). In this publication of several letters, dedicated to the effective ruler of
French policy, the powerful patron of the arts Cardinal Mazarin 290 (1602 – 1661), and
including several short assurances of allegiance to high-ranking courtiers and a central letter
(De l’Estat des sciences en Hollande) to the Knight and Baron Segré, “Conseiller ordinaire du Roy en
ses Conseils,” 291 the author used Constantijn Sr.’s name and status to build that of Christiaan. A
287 HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. I, No. 596 – Chapelain to N. Heinsius (7 Mar 1659)
288 BROWN, H. (1934) Scientific Organizations in Seventeenth century France (1620 - 1680), Baltimore, The
Williams & Wilkins Company., p108-9; BRUGMANS, H. L. & HUYGENS, C. (1935) Le séjour de
Christian Huygens à Paris et ses relations avec les milieux scientifiques français; suivi de son Journal de voyage à
Paris et à Londres, Paris,, E. Droz., p45
289 The Académie presumably found its start at the end of 1657. BROWN, H. (1934) Scientific
Organizations in Seventeenth century France (1620 - 1680), Baltimore, The Williams & Wilkins Company.,
p74
290 More on Mazarin’s role as a patron of arts, architecture and the sciences: STURDY, D. J. (1995)
Science and social status : the members of the Academie des sciences 1666-1750, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ;
Rochester, NY, USA, Boydell Press., 49-53
291 SORBIÈRE, S., MAURY, J., MORE, A. & HUYGENS, C. (1660) Relations, lettres, et discours de Mr
de Sorbiere, sur diuerses matieres curieuses, A Paris, Chez Robert de Ninuille rué de la Bouclerie au bout du
Pont S. Michel à l'Escu de France & de Nauarre., p103
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