Introduction

Biography

Valerius was the son of a French mi­li­ta­ry clerk and no­ta­ry, Fran­çois Va­lé­ry.

His fa­ther had a some­what pros­per­ous ca­reer, and in 1592 ob­tained a po­si­tion as Court Scribe to Pie­ter van Rei­gers­bergh, the Bur­ge­mees­ter (may­or) of the ci­ty of Veere.

Valerius’ fa­ther liked to play the or­gan, and bought a small church or­gan for 24 guild­ers when a church was pulled down af­ter the li­ber­a­tion of Mid­del­burg in 1575, dur­ing the war be­tween the Haps­burg Span­ish and the Dutch re­pub­li­cans.

In 1598, Va­ler­i­us be­came a the Toll and Cus­toms Con­troll­er for Veere. He mar­ried the Bur­ge­mees­ter’s daugh­ter in 1605, ad­vanced to Tax Col­lect­ions and was lat­er ap­point­ed to the City Coun­cil, and be­came a no­ta­ry for the Es­tates of Zea­land.

Valerius be­longed to the re­der­ijkers­kam­er (cham­ber of el­o­quent speak­ers) of Veere, an ama­teur po­ets’ society. He wrote most­ly re­li­gious texts, an un­com­mon spe­cial­ty in the re­der­ij­kers­move­ment.

He penned a num­ber of Dutch hymns, ma­ny of which are still sung to­day, col­lect­ed in his Ne­der-Landtsche Gedenck-Clanck (Dutch re­mem­brance-tunes). Among oth­er piec­es, he is al­so re­mem­bered for his adap­ta­tion of Het Wil­hel­mus, the Dutch na­tion­al an­them.