Willem van Royen, a still life and flower painter who moved to Berlin in 1669,  had become court painter to Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, after van Royen's predecessor, the flower painter Adriaen van der Spelt returned to the Netherlands.

After a period in Potsdam in 1689, he had become one of the founders of the Berlin academy in 1695, where he will die in 1723.

He was probably born in Haarlem and during the years 1661-1668 became a pupil of Arnold van Ravesteyn there or in The Hague, according to the Netherlands Institute for Art History. 

The End of the Buccaneer Era and Their Integration into National Navies (Late 17th Century)

By the end of the 17th century, Western European powers had largely divided the once-independent buccaneer fleets into national units, incorporating them as auxiliaries within their respective navies. This marked the formal end of the buccaneer age, as states sought to harness their naval skills while eliminating their threat to imperial trade.

The Role of Buccaneers in the 17th Century

• Buccaneers were originally privateers, operating mainly in the Caribbean and along the American coasts, preying on Spanish treasure fleets and colonial outposts.
• They were loosely affiliated with European nations, especially England, France, and the Dutch Republic, which tacitly supported their attacks against Spain.
• However, by the late 17th century, the rising imperial ambitions of these Western European powers made unsanctioned piracy a liability rather than an asset.

The Transition: From Privateers to National Navies

✔ State-Sponsored Naval Incorporation

• European powers absorbed buccaneers into their official naval forces, offering them pardons in exchange for military service.
• They were used as naval auxiliaries in conflicts against rival colonial empires, such as:
  • The Nine Years’ War (1688–1697) between France and the Grand Alliance.
  • The War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714), where former buccaneers served in English, French, and Dutch fleets.

✔ Diminishing Need for Unregulated Privateering

• With permanent national navies expanding, European states no longer needed independent buccaneer forces.
• Treaties between European powers (such as the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697) normalized colonial boundaries, making piracy diplomatically inconvenient.

✔ Establishment of Formal Privateering Laws

• Governments restricted privateering licenses, making it illegal for unauthorized private warships to attack enemy vessels.
• Many former buccaneers transitioned into legally sanctioned privateers, serving their home nations under letters of marque.

The End of the Buccaneer Age

• By the early 18th century, most buccaneers had either:
  • Joined national navies as specialized raiders or auxiliary forces.
  • Turned to privateering under state sponsorship.
  • Transitioned to full-scale piracy, leading to the Golden Age of Piracy (c. 1690–1730), where unaffiliated pirates like Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts dominated the Atlantic.

Conclusion: Buccaneers Absorbed, Piracy Rises

By century’s end, buccaneers were no longer independent actors, having been divided into national units under European control. Their skills and tactics were integrated into formal naval warfare, while those who refused state control became outlaws, fueling the next phase of Atlantic piracy in the early 18th century.

Morocco withdraws its forces from the Western Sudan by the end of the seventeenth century, leaving the region to splinter into a group of smaller kingdoms.

Austria has reconquered Ottoman Hungary and Slavonia in the Habsburg-Ottoman war of 1683–99, sending a flood of Muslim refugees (mainly converted Slavs) into Bosnia.

Venice acquires the Peloponnese and ...

...much of Dalmatia, including the harbor of Cattaro (Kotor).

The 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz restores Northern Slavonia to Hungarian Croatia.

Christiaan Huygens, in his posthumously published book Kosmotheoros, argues that other planets in the solar system could contain extraterrestrial life, starting a debate that will extend into the twenty-first century.

The Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture), founded in 1648, holds the first of a series of salons at the Louvre Palace.

Only three hundred of the twelve hundred settlers have survived and only one ship has managed to return to Scotland.

Deaths continue on the homeward-bound Scots ships, and those who manage to survive the journey and return home find themselves regarded as a disgrace to their country and even disowned by their families.