This Gerard van Heemskerk seems to have been under fairly serious suspicion of complicity in the murder of Floris V in 1296. At least he belonged to those noblemen who promised to come to Haarlem on 2 August 1296 and to stay there until their innocence would have been proven.
He was soon able to clear himself of this suspicion, which was certainly due to his political conviction. And in 1297 he belonged to the nobles, who also sealed the serfdom (right to a part of the inheritance) for Count John's consort.
After the death of Count Jan, Gerard van Heemskerk dedicated the Heemskerk house on 10 January 1300 to his new lord Count Jan van Henegouwen, from whom he got it back on loan. The castle is well known from the Hoekse and Kabeljauw disputes.
Arnoud's grandson, who was also called Gerrit (=Gerard), was one of the leaders of the Cod party. Around 1354 he managed to bring one of the heads of the Hoekse partij, lord Dirk van Brederode, to Marquette and to keep him prisoner there. Then the domestic quarrels gradually took on sharper forms.
Gerrit's son, Wouter van Heemskerk, who had succeeded him in 1355, experienced this amply. To this Wouter was in fact attributed the assassination attempt at Castricum on the young bailiff Reinhout van Brederode. This was the reason that a nobleman from Hoek, Jan van Polanen, besieged and took the castle Heemskerk in 1356.
It took until July 8th1379 before Wouter was released from captivity by Duke Albrecht. Wouter died in 1380 without any heirs. In 1418, under Countess Jacoba of Bavaria, the castle was thoroughly destroyed by the Hoeksen, but later rebuilt.
For a long time, the history of the castle will remain in the dark. It is known, however, that in the first half of the fifteenth century a reconciliation was achieved between the Heemskerkers and the Brederodes through mutual marriages. After that, the castle no longer played a role in history.
After the house had passed into other hands by inheritance several times, it was sold in 1610 by the Earl of Aremberg to a certain family "de Hertaing". This Daniel de Hertaing was lord of Marquette in Hainaut. From that time on, the castle was called "Marquette". Through inheritances and auctions it came into the possession of the Amsterdam mayor Joachim Rendorp in 1717, in whose lineage it remained until the death of damsel Pauline Johanna Rendorp of Marquette in 1913. She was the widow of jonkheer Hugo Gevers. Their son jonkheer mr. Hugo Gevers was mayor of Heemskerk from 1888 to 1907. He died in 1921. It was the Rendorps who gave Marquette its present form; a.o. in 1741 when it was thoroughly changed. The house was last inhabited by the son of Mr. Hugo Gevers, Mr. Abraham Daniel Theodor Gevers, married to Christine Bernardine Johanna, Baroness de Vos van Steenwijk. They left the castle in 1979.
After complete restoration in 1980-1981, the castle is now used as an event location; weddings, funerals, meetings, lunches, (private) dinners, etc.
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