Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (
Deventer,
31 October 1761 -
Amsterdam,
15 February 1825) was a
Dutch politician of the
Batavian Republic.
He studied law at
Leiden University between 1781 and 1784. He became a lawyer in
Amsterdam in 1784. He was one of the leaders of the revolution against Prince
William V of Orange, when the
French army defeated the Dutch in January 1795.
He was a member of the
National Assembly (1796 - 1798) and belonged to the moderate unitarians, who were advocates of a central government. He was president of the National Assembly and acting head of state of the Batavian Republic between
17 May 1796 and
30 May 1796 and between
15 May 1797 and
29 May 1797.
He was the Batavian (Dutch)
ambassador to France between 1798 and 1801 and from 1803 to 1805 and the Batavian ambassador to
Britain in 1802 and 1803.
Napoleon made him the sole ruler of the Batavian Republic with the title of
Raadspensionaris ("
Grand Pensionary") and he ruled for one year from 1805. He had no employment between 1806 and 1811. The Netherlands became a part of France in 1810 and Schimmelpenninck was a member of the
French senate between 1811 and 1813. He was a member of the senate of the Kingdom of the
United Netherlands between 1815 and 1820.
