Zoudenbalch - Evert Zoudenbalch (1423/24-1503)

Evert Zoudenbalch (1423/24-1503)

Evert Zoudenbalch, played a prominent role in the Utrecht Civil War, but his lasting fame is due to an act of charity which continues to resound to this day. Evert was born some years after his older brother Gerrit and was destined for the church by his family. He studied Divinity at the University of Louvain from 1441 to 1445, and upon his return to Utrecht immediately secured offices and sinecures thanks to the influence of his family. He was appointed a Canon of the Dom of Utrecht on 23 October 1445 and became Choir-Bishop (koorbisschop) some time before 10 January 1446, well before being ordained as a Deacon and Priest on 3 April 1451. He was appointed Procurator (fabrieksmeester) of the Dom and as such was responsible for the last stages of the construction & renovation of the great Dom of Utrecht. He certainly made use of his influence in this office to procure architects and artisans for his own family and charitable projects.

Evert's office as Provost & Arch-deacon of Westfriesland (from 1469 to 1483) was clearly a sinecure, but the post of Quaestier of St. Cornelius which he acquired from 1481 required him to lead „questes“ with the relics of St. Cornelius through the bishopric to raise funds for the construction of the Dom. He also had the priviliege of carrying the head of St. Adrian in processions of the Chapter of the Dom.

Having retained his office of Provost of the Dom after losing his episcopal title in 1466, Gijsbrecht van Brederode appointed Evert as his Socius & Officius as a reward for his support in the struggle with David of Burgundy. Before Gijsbrecht's death, Evert also succeeded him as Provost of Sint Servaas at Maastricht (1470). In 1480 Evert was appointed Vice-Deacon of the Dom (vice-domdeken) and in 1482 he became Treasurer of the Dom; he surprisingly retained this key post until 1500 despite his active opposition to the Prince-Bishop David of Burgundy in the Civil War of 1481-1483.

As a pre-eminent clergyman from a notable family it was self-evident that Evert should function as a member (and occasionally chairman) of the First Estate (clergy) of Utrecht. He used his political weight to support the Bishop-Elect Gijsbrecht of Brederode in his struggle against the Burgundian candidate for the see of Utrecht and was later a staunch supporter of his brother's anti-Burgundian policies. He accompanied his brother on his embassy to the Archduke Maximilian in September 1481 as the representative of the First Estate of the Sticht and was amongst the most prominent of the Hook leaders who were captured during the coup d'état of 21 April 1483. His devotion to the defence of the Sticht's old privileges was so intense that he personally subsidised the recovery of Utrecht’s lost war-materials from IJsselstein in 1482. He nevertheless reconciled himself with Bishop David of Burgundy following the siege and surrender of Utrecht in late 1483. Bishop David formally forgave him all that he had done against him in April 1484 and Evert remained one of the most prominent clergyman in Utrecht until his death twenty years later.

Between 1467 and 1468 Evert built a gothic palace for the family, known as Huis Soudenbalch, in the Donkerstraat in Utrecht on the site of the family's former home. He bought up most surrounding land on the block (nine houses in the Donkerstraat, as well as houses in the Mariastraat, Steenweg and Zadelstraat) and created a seigneurial domain within the city with its own courtyard, gardens and summer house. There is little doubt that Evert used his influence as Procurator of the Dom to engage talented architects and artisans from the cathedral in order to build his own gothic gem. He had already bought and broken down a house in the Donkerstraat in 1459 to create an alleyway to connect his home to his parish church, the Buurkerk - this alley was later known as Soudenbalchstraat. His family's fortune and his own income from church offices made Evert a profoundly welathy man. He owned 350 morgen land outside Utrecht. In 1475 his relative Alijt van Kuinre bequeathed him the High and Low Lordships of Urk and Emmeloord (see below).

Evert Zoudenbalch's most enduring legacy and greatest fame is due to an act of charity, for in the late 15th century he decided to establish the first orphanage in the northern Netherlands and left it an immense capital to finance its acts of charity. The chapel of the orphanage, the Sint Elisabethgasthuis in Utrecht, was consecrated on the Eve of St. Poncian’s day (13 January) in 1491. The orphanage was an exceptional piece of gothic architecture and was dedicated to the paragon of noble charity, St. Elisabeth of Hungary, Landgravine of Thuringia. Following Evert's death on the night of 28–29 March 1503, he was buried in the chapel devoted to St. Elisabeth. The gothic complex was however damaged beyond repair during the siege of Vredenburg (1567/1568) in the course of the Dutch Revolt and the buildings were demolished. The orphanage was then re-located to another location between the Springstraat and the Oudegracht in 1582. Evert's foundation for orphans continued to function after the Reformation under the benevolent charge of Utrecht's regents. To this day, after half a millennium, his capital continues to subsidize acts of charity through the Evert Zoudenbalch Foundation / Stichting in Utrecht.

Besides the Sint Elisabethgasthuis Evert Zoudenbalch also established altars and vicariates in various Utrecht churches. Some time around 1460 he commissioned a richly illuminated two-volume bible, which is a masterpiece of late Netherlandish illumination. The key contributing artist to the manuscript is known as "The Master of Evert Zoudenbalch". This Zoudenbalch Bible, that includes a portrait of Evert, is currently housed in the Austrian Library in Vienna . Further portraits of Evert Zoudenbalch are housed in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, whilst another continues to guard over the Regents’ Chamber of the Evert Zoudenbalch Foundation in Utrecht.