Character guide

Cornelius van Baerle

major

Also known as Cornelius, Dr. van Baerle, Baerle, Dr. Cornelius, Dr. Cornelius van Baerle, Poor honest Van Baerle, the unfortunate Van Baerle, Van Baerle

Godson of the murdered statesman Cornelius de Witt, Van Baerle has earned the love of Dort by shunning politics and pouring his fortune into the pursuit of a black tulip. His serene obsession is precisely what makes him vulnerable: he never suspects that his next-door neighbor, Isaac Boxtel, has been watching his beds through a telescope with murderous envy. When the mob's fury reaches him, his quiet passion becomes the axis on which the whole story turns.

Rosa Gryphus

major

Also known as Rosa, the fair Rosa, little Rosa, poor Rosa, Rosa Barloensis

Rosa lives inside the walls of Loewestein, where her father Gryphus guards the prisoners and her future is supposed to be settled by obedience. Instead she becomes the courier between Cornelius and the outside world, carrying bulbs, messages, and a tenderness she has never been allowed to show. Her plain courage — the same courage that later makes her stand before a burgomaster and demand justice — is what keeps the black tulip, and its grower, from vanishing.

Isaac Boxtel

major

Also known as Boxtel, Isaac, Mynheer Boxtel, Master Jacob, Jacob, Mr. Jacob, Master Boxtel, Mynheer Isaac Boxtel, Mynheer Isaac, fool Boxtel

Boxtel has spent years perfecting his soil and his frames, only to watch Cornelius van Baerle's garden outshine his own without effort. From his sycamore tree he spies on his neighbor's beds, and when the black tulip becomes the prize of Haarlem, his jealousy hardens into a plan. He is the story's engine of quiet malice — a man who murders with a rumor and steals with a ladder, and who never once admits to himself what he has become.

Gryphus

supporting

Also known as Master Gryphus, old Gryphus, My good Master Gryphus, good Master Gryphus, Old Gryphus

Gryphus rules his prison with growls and blows, treating every inmate as a personal insult and every kindness as a weakness to be stamped out. He is flattered by the false Jacob, bullied by his own temper, and blind to the fact that his daughter is the one person in Loewestein who cannot be locked up. His brutality is the pressure that makes Rosa's loyalty visible, and his stupidity is the crack through which the tulip survives.

Cornelius de Witt

supporting

Also known as Cornelius de Witt, Mynheer Cornelius, Mynheer de Witt, Mynheer Cornelius de Witt, the unfortunate Cornelius de Witt, Poor Cornelius

Brother to the Grand Pensionary and godfather to Van Baerle, Cornelius de Witt has spent his life in the thankless business of governing, and the Orange mob has decided to make him pay for it. His dignity on the way to execution — calm, prayerful, almost serene — is the moral backdrop against which the novel's later cruelties are measured. His friendship is the inheritance that turns an obscure tulip-grower into a political suspect.

John de Witt

supporting

Also known as John, Mynheer John, Mynheer John de Witt, the Grand Pensionary, the Grand Pensionary John

John de Witt has spent his career steering the Dutch republic through faction and foreign pressure, and now finds the streets of his own city turned against him. In the carriage with his brother he keeps thinking — testing gates, reading crowds, bargaining with a gatekeeper for one more chance — even as the noose tightens. His doomed composure in the early chapters sets the tone of political dread that hangs over the whole book.

William of Orange

supporting

Also known as William, the Prince of Orange, Prince William, the Prince

William moves through Haarlem's tulip affair as its highest authority, the man whose quiet presence turns a florists' ceremony into a matter of state. Where Rosa pleads and Van Systens trembles, he simply reads, asks one dry question, and lets others incriminate themselves. His suspicion of the De Witt faction shadows every judgment he makes, so the contest over a flower becomes a test of loyalty, truth, and who dares speak plainly before power.

President van Systens

supporting

Also known as Van Systens, the President van Systens, Mynheer van Systens, Mynheer Peter van Systens

Van Systens wants nothing more than to award a prize for the black tulip and return to respectable obscurity, but every witness who enters his drawing-room drags him deeper into danger. He trembles when Rosa confesses to consorting with a prisoner of state, and pales when Boxtel's claim collapses before the Prince. His fussy, fearful propriety makes him the perfect foil for the ruthless men around him, and his drawing-room becomes the stage where the novel's central theft is finally exposed.

Craeke

minor

Also known as honest Craeke

Cornelius de Witt's loyal servant who warns him of danger.

Count Tilly

minor

Also known as Tilly, Captain Tilly

Captain of the cavalry guard who protects the De Witt brothers.

Tyckelaer

minor

Also known as Honest Tyckelaer

A burgher of the Hague who incites the mob against the De Witts.

Van Deken

minor

Also known as Captain Van Deken, Captain van Deken

A captain who assists in the execution of Cornelius de Witt.

Grotius

minor

Also known as Mynheer Grotius

A famous Dutch jurist mentioned as a former prisoner of Loewestein.

Mathias

minor

A minor character who assists in the prison escape plot.

Bowelt

minor

Also known as Mynheer Bowelt, Mynheer d'Asperen, the Deputy Bowelt

A deputy sent to escort Cornelius van Baerle to Loewestein.

Master van Spennen

minor

Also known as Van Spennen

A Haarlem notary involved in the tulip society's proceedings.

Marquis de Louvois

minor

French minister of war who corresponds with William of Orange.

Louis XIV

minor

Also known as Louis

King of France, mentioned in diplomatic context with Holland.