Van Dijck 2013
“Aleid van de Meervenne (1452/3-1523). De jeugd van een late bruid” (Lucas G.C.M. van Dijck) 2013
[in: Bossche Bladen, vol. 15 (2013), nr. 3, pp. 103-107]
Recent research in the archival records of ’s-Hertogenbosch, more precisely in the annuities, has led to the conclusion that Aleid van de Meervenne, Hieronymus Bosch’s spouse, was born in 1452 or 1453. On 3rd February 1452 Aleid’s father, Goijard van de Meervenne, received a wedding gift from his in-laws: so he must have married around that date. On 9th August 1453 he put money into an annuity for himself and his daughter Aleid: so Aleid must have been born before that date. Together these facts lead to the conclusion that Aleid was born in 1452 or 1453 and that at that moment she was the eldest daughter and only child of Goijard van de Meervenne and his legal wife Postulina van Arckel.
Aleid’s youth was characterized emotionally by some heavy moments: her father deceased in 1459 (nevertheless the rest of the family, a mother and three children, did not suffer from financial problems), in 1471 her mother died and in 1484 her younger brother Goijard (then only 26 years old) also died. When Aleid married Hieronymus Bosch in 1481, she was 28 or 29 years old (rather late for a bride in those days) and when she died in 1523, she was 70 or 71.
Also interesting to know: the coat of arms of the Van de Meervenne family showed a mermaid.
[explicit 1st November 2013]
