Van Aemstel Family
The van Aemstel or van Amstel dynasty (Dutch: Heren van Amstel, also spelled Heeren van Aemstel or Heren van Aemstel) was a major lordly dynasty in the medieval Netherlands, which held the heerlijkheid of Amstelland (the area around the Amstel), which it governed in the name of the bishop of Utrecht and the count of Holland.
In 1994, the foundations of a castle were discovered in Amsterdam, possibly built by this family, though historians differ on this.
Dutch writer and playwright Joost van den Vondel based his play Gijsbrecht van Aemstel on the history of Gijsbrecht IV of Amstel and his son Jan I of Amstel. Gijsbrecht has a bust on the facade of the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, and also has a park in the city named after him. Cafes in Amsterdam, Breskens, Arnhem, and Majorca have been named Heren van Amstel after the dynasty.
Read more about Van Aemstel Family: Wolfger and Egbert, Gijsbrecht II of Amstel, Gijsbrecht III of Amstel and Arnoud, Gijsbrecht IV of Amstel, Jan I of Amstel, Jan II of Holland, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words van and/or family:
“Mrs. Van Daan’s grizzling is absolutely unbearable; now she can’t any longer drive us crazy over the invasion, she nags us the whole day long about the bad weather. It really would be nice to dump her in a bucket of cold water and put her up in the loft.”
—Anne Frank (1929–1945)
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)