Laurens Reael
| Laurens Reael | |
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Laurens Reael (ca. 1620)
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| 3rd Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies | |
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In office 19 June 1616 – 21 March 1619 |
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| Preceded by | Gerard Reynst |
| Succeeded by | Jan Pieterszoon Coen |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
22 October 1583 Amsterdam, Dutch Republic |
| Died | 21 October 1637 (aged 53) Amsterdam, Dutch Republic |
Laurens Reael (22 October 1583 – 21 October 1637) was an employee of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1616 to 1619 and an admiral of the Dutch navy from 1625 to 1627.
Laurens Reael was the son of Laurens Jacobsz Reael, a merchant in Amsterdam named after the sign or gable stone of his house/shop In den gouden Reael ("In the Golden Real") and an amateur poet known for writing Geuzenliederen (songs of the geuzen). The Amsterdam neighborhood Gouden Reael is named after Laurens Reael's birth house, via a later (1648) warehouse of the Reael family on the Zandhoek that turned into a popular inn. Laurens Jr. had academic talents, excelling in math and languages. He studied law in Leiden, where he lived in the house of Jacobus Arminius who had married his older sister Lijsbet Reael in 1590. Laurens received his doctorate in 1608.
In May 1611 he left as commandeur of four ships for the East Indies. He quickly worked his way up to become the third Governor-General in 1616, where he was stationed at the VOC headquarters, at that time on Ternate in the Moluccas. That year he could personally welcome both Joris van Spilbergen (30 March) and Schouten & Le Maire (12 September) upon their respective arrivals at Ternate from the Dutch Republic via the Strait of Magellan and Cape Horn. He was unaware that the VOC had ordered Schouten & Le Maire's ships to be confiscated for alleged infringement of its monopoly of trade to the Spice Islands.
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