A conflict had started in 1648 between Styuvesant and Brant Aertzsz van Slechtenhorst, the commissary of the patroonship Rensselaerwijck.

Stuyvesant had claimed he has power over Rensselaerwijck despite special privileges granted to Kiliaen van Rensselaer in the patroonship regulations of 1629.

Stuyvesant had marched to Fort Orange with a military escort in 1649 and ordered houses to be razed to permit a better defense of the fort in case of an attack from the Native Americans.

When Van Slechtenhorst refused, Stuyvesant had sent a group of soldiers to enforce his orders.

The controversy that followed results in the founding, in 1652, of Beverwijck, a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River, that is to become Albany, New York.