Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Jan Pieterszoon Coen has both been glorified and criticized over time. He played a major role in the history of Hoorn and the Dutch East India Company. His name and image is still connected to statues, buildings, tunnels, harbors, streets and a beautiful suite in the Van der Valk Hotel in Hoorn.
The Governor-General of the VOC was born in Hoorn on 8 January 1587 as the son of a salt merchant. At the age of thirteen he left for Rome, to study with a Flemish cloth merchant. He was able to use this knowledge well when he joined the VOC in 1606.
Eleven years after his first visit to the East Indies, Jan Pieterszoon Coen was appointed Governor-General. In that period he also acquired a less attractive nickname: the slaughterer of Banda. Since 1602 the VOC had a trade contract with the leaders of this archipelago. The population would only supply mace and nutmeg to the Dutch. The Dutch were unable to provide sufficient clothing and food in exchange for the spices and therefore the Bandanese sought other trading partners to provide for their livelihood. For the VOC and Coen, however, this was unacceptable: Coen led a fleet to the archipelago and "fifteen thousand Bandanese were slaughtered, expelled or enslaved."
Despite the horrific murders of the Bandanese under his leadership, Coen was appreciated at that time. He was a strong military leader, a good organizer and had a lot of perseverance. If he saw the necessity of an action, he would execute it by force if necessary. The two sides of Jan Pieterszoon Coen