Catharina Hooft

Catharina Pietersdr. Hooft (28 December 1618 in Amsterdam – 30 September 1691 in Ilpendam) was a woman of the Dutch Golden Age. She became famous at a very early age, when she was painted by Frans Hals. At the age of sixteen she married Cornelis de Graeff, nineteen years her senior and the most powerful regent and mayor of Amsterdam. Thus she became first lady of Soestdijk, one of the family's country houses. Catharina Hooft was also a Lady of the High and free Fief of Purmerland and Ilpendam.

Her father Pieter Jansz Hooft was a nephew of the Amsterdam mayor Cornelis Pietersz. Hooft and related to the renowned P.C. Hooft of the Muiderslot - a wealthy citizen. Her mother, Geertruid Overlander (daughter of Volkert Overlander), was forty-one and she and her husband had given up hope of having children when Catharina was born. On 14 August 1635 Catharina married Cornelis de Graeff, an older widower, whose first wife had been Catharina's cousin (her father's sister's child). The couple had themselves painted in princely fashion, in proper black with golden chains. Catharina bore two sons: Pieter and Jacob. When stadholder William II died in 1650, ten years later followed by his wife, Cornelis de Graeff was made one of the guardians of the 10-year-old William, the "Child of the State", who played with Catharina's sons. By the Act of Seclusion William was not allowed to accede and power remained in the regents hands.

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