The Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547-1619) was the principal architect of the independence of the republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands after the death of William the Silent.

Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was born on Sept. 14, 1547, in the province of Utrecht, in the small city of Amersfoort, into a family of very minor nobility. At the age of 16 he began the study of law in an attorney's office at The Hague, then in 1566 undertook 4 years of formal legal studies in the universities of Louvain, Bourges, Cologne, Heidelberg, and probably Padua. In 1569 he returned to practice law in The Hague and Delft. He chose the party of the Prince of Orange in 1572 and took part in the vain attempt to relieve Haarlem in 1573 and in the successful relief of Leiden in 1574. From 1577 until 1586 he was the pensionary (chief legal officer) of Rotterdam, but his legal duties were...