Background
He was the grandson of Pieter Willemsz.
He was the grandson of Pieter Willemsz.
Hooft (1547 – 1627 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch statesman. Hooft himself held numerous positions in the administration of Amsterdam. He was amongst others, schepen, twelve times mayor, and treasurer in a period of fast growth, so that the city had to be expanded three times.
Cornelis" father established himself in Amsterdam.
In 1569 he went into exile, but in 1574 came back from Königsberg and established himself in Hoorn. Then, in 1578, after the Alteratie on 26 May, he risked going back to Amsterdam.
He lived on Nieuwendijk on the IJ. As an independent merchant he had a large share in Baltic trade and reshipped herring, oil and grain. In 1588 he was chosen as mayor.
Hooft was opposed to the appointment of foreigners to important posts, pointing to the Flemish Calvinists and preachers such as Petrus Plancius.
He also resisted the expansion of the stadholder"s power. Hooft was critical on other points. In 1611 his role in the vroedschap came to an end, when he was appointed as weesmeester and commissaris (commissioner) of the Wisselbank.
Hooft was never concerned by the VOC or Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, as the most Amsterdam mayors.
Vondel praised him in his satirical work "Roskam" as a reliable man and described him as "Hoofd volume kreuken, een geweten zonder rimpel" (a wrinkled brow, but a conscience without wrinkle). In 1618, stadholder Maurits of Orange, in his purge of Remonstrant regents from the vroedschap as a result of the Synod of Dort and the arrest of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, spared Hooft, who took a neutral stance.
He is buried in the Oude Kerk.
In 1584 he became a member of the vroedschap, in which he remained until its final session. As a member of the government of Amsterdam, he was delegated to the States of Holland and through them to the States General.