Belle van Zuylen and Amerongen Castle
The castle of Amerongen is special, for several reasons. To begin with, many of the eighteenth-century furnishings are still there. And, besides, the daily life of the Van Reede family who lived here can be reconstructed extremely well from the 500 meters of archives that are still preserved and are kept in The Utrecht Archives. This is important for us now, because the Van Reede family belonged to Belle de Zuylen’s circle of relations, which was the reason for her regular visits to Amerongen. A brother of Belle’s father married a sister of Frederik Willem van Reede, the fourth count of Athlone and lord of Amerongen. The daughter of this couple, Annebetje, was Belle’s dearest friend. Annebetje regularly went to Amerongen as a child. Later on, when Annebetje was married and lady of Amerongen in her own right, she received Belle on numerous occasions: after her visit to Eng-land, in the summer of 1767; and in 1768, when the marquis de Bellegarde stayed at Amerongen shortly before he withdrew as a candidate for Belle’s hand. Belle also came to Amerongen after her marriage, during her visits to the Netherlands in the years 1773, 1774 and 1775.
This location and the archives pertaining to it can provide insights into relationships between the people who lived there and Belle. The contacts between Belle and her cousin Annebetje in particular are likely to shed light on a period in Belle’s youth about which, until recently, much remained un-clear, and about which much, probably, still remains to be discovered.
Read more in Belle de Zuylen Papers 2007.....
SvD, September 2008
- Publications > Belle de Zuylen Papers > 2007 > Stoppelenburg