The Leeuwarden Series: Members of the House of Nassau To the great despair of his staunchly Protestant father Jan the Middle, Jan the Younger converted to Catholicism in 1613 after one of his two trips to Italy. Having fought briefly in Maurits’s army before his conversion, he entered into the service of Archdukes Albert and Isabella after it. At the end of the Twelve Years’ Truce, he fought against the United Provinces. In 1629, he took part in the military expedition in the Veluwe, which he subsequently plundered, and in 1631 he commanded the Spanish fleet that attacked Zeeland. The latter mission, however, did not meet with success; the Spanish fleet was destroyed and Jan the Younger narrowly escaped with his life. He was a knight of the Golden Fleece and Marquis of Monte Caballo.43 Contrary to what has been stated in past Rijksmuseum collection catalogues, the present portrait is not signed but inscribed ‘M. Mirevelt’. Rather than being an original by Van Mierevelt, it is more likely a work by Van Ravesteyn’s studio. It compares best with the Portrait of Gaspard de Coligny (SK-A-546) in the present series, which is also attributed to Van Ravesteyn’s studio. Although close to Van Ravesteyn’s 1611 Portrait of Jan the Younger in the collection of the Mauritshuis,44 the collar in the present portrait is trimmed with lace. Both this and the bust-length Portrait of Jan the Younger (SK-A-539) in the Katzenelnbogen Series may perhaps replicate another, lost portrait of this sitter by Van Ravesteyn. A copy of the present portrait was executed by Johannes Tideman for the Statenzaal of the Provinciehuis in Groningen in 1671.45 Jonathan Bikker, 2007 See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 365.