About
History
The name 'Clingendael' means 'valley in the dunes'. The original part of the Clingendael building was built between 1643 and 1660 for Philip Doublet, whose family had moved to The Hague from the south of the Netherlands. Several of the Doublets held the office of Treasurer General in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces.
Philip's wife was the sister of the celebrated poet and statesman, Constantijn Huygens, and Philip’s son married one of Huygens’ daughters, Suzanna. The architecture of the original part of Clingendael shares some of the features of the Huygens’s country house in Voorburg, Hofwijck.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Clingendael belonged to the Van Brienens, a prominent family of merchants and bankers. During the period of French rule in the Netherlands, Willem Joseph van Brienen was appointed Mayor of Amsterdam and elevated by Napoleon to 'Baron de l’Empire'.
The last of the Van Brienens in the male line, Arnout, built a racecourse for his guests at Clingendael; it has since been moved to nearby Duindigt. Arnout’s unmarried daughter Marguérite, known as Lady Daisy, laid out Clingendael’s fine Japanese garden.
During the Second World War, the house was occupied by the Nazi Reich’s Commissioner for the Occupied Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, and his family.
In 1954, Clingendael became the property of the municipality of The Hague, which it remains today. Since 1983, the Clingendael Institute (the Netherlands Institute of International Relations) has been located in Huys Clingendael.