Genealogy Van Zanen » Caesar Claudius Macett (± 1557-1622)

Personal data Caesar Claudius Macett 

• He was born about 1557Frinco, Piedmont, Italy.
• He died on February 10, 1622Bolsward, Friesland, Netherlands.
• A child of Claudio Mazzetti
• This information was last updated on December 31, 2012.

Household of Caesar Claudius Macett

He had a relationship with Mayke Arents van Lunsingha.

Child(ren):

1. Catalina Caesars de Machet  ± 1590-± 1654 
2. Jeroentje de Macetti  1593-1654 
3. Trijntje de Macetti  1596-1654
4. Franske de Macetti  1599-????

Notes about Caesar Claudius Macett

{geni:about_me} About the photos: The stone relief dated 1600 is in the Lommertsteeg (Pawnshop alley) in Bolsward, and it is said to be a portrayal of Caesar Macett. The gravestone is for Ceasar and his wife, in the church in Bolsward, located under the organ loft. Macett is the spelling used here for Caesar, because that is how his gravestone reads.

Caeser Claudius was a member of the Mazzetti family -- an old Italian noble family of bankers. He arrived in Bolsward around 1580 from the province of Piedmont, Italy.

The Mazzetti Family

The Mazzetti pedigree begins with four brothers: Giovanni, Domenico, Giovanni Ercole and Nicoletto. The family had its roots in Bologna. From there they moved to Savoy (France), and in 1442 the four brothers bought a castle in Frinco, which is in the present day province of Asti in the Piedmont region of Italy. At that time, however, the Prince of Savoy governed the region.

The family name is notated differently in different countries and at different times. Examples are Macet, Macett, Machet, de Machet, Macetti, Mazetti, Mazzetti, Mazet and Mazeth. The original version is probably Maccii.

[The following two paragraphs contain unverified information, and it is not know if the Macetii's referred to are related to Caesar:

* Several Mazzetti's can be found in the Middle Ages. For example, in Paris Landuce Machet (or Mazzetti) financially supported the Philip IV (aka Philip the Fair, King of France King of France (1285-1314) at the time of the Battle of the Golden Spurs in Flanders (Belgium). The battle, known also as the Battle of Courtrai was fought on July 11, 1302, near Kortrijk (Courtrai) in Flanders, and the Flemish defeated the French. Afterwards the Landuce and his sons were rewarded for the support and stayed in Flanders. They and their descendants can be found on the site of the family de Baets. The Belgium historian Paul Rogghé has published an interesting article on this topic.

* Likewise, several Mazzettis can be found In Italy, France and in the new world. [Unverified: For example, Gerard Machet (1376-1448) was a cardinal at the court of the Dauphin, Charles VII, at the time of arrival of Jeanne d'Arc. His writings can be found in the Bibliotheque Imperiale in Paris. Gerard Machet : cardinal français, confesseur de Charles VII né vers 1380 á Blois, mort le 17 juillet a Tours, 1391 entra au collège de Navarre á Paris, docteur en théologie 1411, chargé de présider l'interrogatoire de Jeanne d'Arc (Mars 1429) il accueillit cette héroine avec une sympathie bienveillante etc."

More about Caesar

Caesar was a Liege Lord (i.e., a lord to who loyalty was owed by certain subjects] Salugien and Monteferrat (a district in the Piedmont region of Italy) and had a castle in Frinco, which was a small town in the middle of Piedmonte Like his ancestors he was a banker. Why he moved to Bolsward is uncertain.

Caesar is first mentioned as a taeffelhouder (banker) in Bolsward in 1586 in "de stedepachten" (rent register), which indicates he owned houses numbered 1-3 on Nyehofstraat. On March 16th, 1603 he and his wife Mayke bought the brewery located at 't Groot Sand (a street) for the amount of 1429 golden florins and 18 pennies.

At the same time, his nephew Ercole (Hercules) confiscated Caesar's properties in Italy, including his castle. The reason for this may be that Ceasar was deemed to be living with heretics, since the northern part of the Netherlands during that period of time into a protestant country. It could also be that Caesar fled to Bolsward because he had problems, and in Bolsward he was safe or he had protestant sympathies. At that time Bolsward was a quite isolated town were almost no foreigners settled; certainly not noblemen.

Caesar died in 1622 and is buried under the organ -- the most important spot -- in the Martini Church in Bolsward.

In 1658 Caesar's only son tried to repossess the lost properties in Italy by lobbying at the court of the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand III, in Vienna. However, at his return in Italy he was poisoned with a pasty.

Caesar's Family

Caesars four daughters -- Catalina, Jeroentje, Trijntje and Franske -- all married. Catalina married a son of the major, Douwe Sijmens Eysma. [Descendants of this family can be found on the sites of http://brontesisters.tripod.com/frinco/ and Y.Houkes-Winter.] Trijntje married Major Frederik Bothes. Franske married Reverend Matthias C. Walsweer.

Jeroentje married first the brother of the famous Frysian poet Gysbert Japicx (Holckema), Evert Jaocbs. Her second marriage was to Ynthe Symens Ynthema.

The last Mazzetti (Machet) in the Netherlands lived in 1807 in Amsterdam when a J.J. Machet an booklet entitle The French Perfumery.

About Piemonte (Piedmont)

Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celtic-Ligurian tribes such as the Taurini and the Salassi. They were later submitted by the Romans (c. 220 BC), who founded here several colonies including Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) and Eporedia (Ivrea). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was repeatedly invaded by the Burgundians, the Goths (5th century), Byzantines, Lombards (6th century), Franks (773). In the 9th-10th centuries there were further incursions by the Magyars and Saracens. At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marks and counties.

In 1046, Oddo of Savoy added Piedmont to their main territory of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry (now in France). Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful communes of Asti and Alessandria and the marquisates of Saluzzo and Montferrat. The County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563.

In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and increasing Turin's importance as a European capital.

The Republic of Alba was created in 1796 as a French client republic in Piedmont before the area was annexed by France in 1801. In June 1802 a new client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont and in September it was also annexed. In the congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored, and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France.

Piedmont was an initial springboard for Italy's unification in 1859-1861, following earlier unsuccessful wars against the Austrian Empire in 1820-1821 and 1848-1849. This process is sometimes referred to as Piedmontisation. However, the efforts were later contradicted by efforts of rural farmers. The House of Savoy became Kings of Italy, and Turin briefly became the capital of Italy. However, the addition of territory paradoxically reduced Piedmont's importance to the kingdom, and the capital was moved to Florence, and then to Rome. One remaining recognition of Piedmont's historical role was that the crown prince of Italy was known as the Prince of Piedmont.

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Timeline Caesar Claudius Macett

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