Andries Boelens

Andries Boelens (1455-1519), longtime burgomaster of Amsterdam and the most illustrious member of the Boelens family

Andries Boelens (Amsterdam, 1455 – there, 1519), also: Boelenz, [1] Boelensz., Andries Boel Dircksz. or Andries Boelen Dircksz, was an alderman and mayor of Amsterdam. In the period from 1496 to 1517 he was mayor fifteen times.[2] The term of his office is the first to be characterized as a period with a rather closed government elite. Because of this he was one of the founders of the Amsterdam oligarchy.[3] Boelens is considered the progenitor of the Amsterdam regents of the Dutch Golden Age such as the De Graeff and Bicker families who largely claimed descent and their political legality from him.[4]