Mad King of Batavia

Connections

• Father of Caspian
• Slain by Diana...three times (human king to vampire king to ghost vampire king)

Context

Man, the Mad King of Batavia was awfully persistent. Going from human to vampire to evil ghost before finally expiring gives us a pretty good idea of what the Mad King and just how crazy he was. Apart from this madness, however, as well as his relationship to Caspian, we know little else about the Mad King of Batavia.

However, another lore nerd, Troonk, did some research into the real rulers of the real Batavia, hoping to find a possible "real" Mad King of Batavia in history that could have been Caspian's father. Troonk's research and theories (edited by me) are as follows:

From what we can find, the high officials of the later Batavian regime were Governor Janssens, commissioner-general De Mist, and a political council of four advisors appointed to the Governor. So, assuming Caspian was the legitimate son of one of these figures, his full name may have been this: Caspian Janssens, Caspian De Mist. That, or he was a son of one of the nameless advisors. 

There was also a guy named Alexander Isaac Yan Gogel, who managed finances, so "Caspian Gogel" is possible. Gogel managed finances, and finances were not good for the country. The Batavian state was in almost a half a billion dollars worth of debt at its beginning, and that's without adjusting for inflation. So one of the more simple-minded politicians may have had Caspian steal in a desperate, maybe last-ditch attempt to curb the rising debt in the Batavian Republic. It seems the Batavian Republic was a democracy up until negotiations that started in 1801 that reformed the government to a more parliamentary system, although Batavia was subsequently immediately occupied by the British. Batavia was then forced into war with the British by France.

Batavia became a client state of France, and France thereby had the ability to force them to do certain things, like change their form of government, which was what took place in the case of Napoleon, who completely reworked Batavia's governmental system to be more in line with that of the parliamentary French. At that point, the "king" of Batavia could have been Napoleon, although he preferred the title Holy Roman Emperor by 1804, near the end of the republic.

In 1805, Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck was appointed as the grand pensionary, the highest authority of the Batavian Republic, so Caspian's full name might be "Caspian Schimmelpenninck," but the battle of Trafalgar happened in the middle of the Schimmelpenninck administration later in 1805, suggesting that Caspian was a free spirit by now, which might mean his father was one of the high authorities in Batavia right before Schimmelpenninck. 

Although I’m definitely reading too much into this, the Batavian king's defiance to die may have been a reference to the Batavian Republic's short rebellion against the French before Schimmelpenninck subsequently took power under Bonaparte. The regime that ruled before Schimmelpenninck was known as the Staatsbewind, a semi-democratic system with a chaotic house of representatives, so Caspian's father may have been a high official within the Staatsbewind. Since the battle of Trafalgar is the first time we really see Caspian possibly acting out of his own free will (not under orders), it further supports the conclusion that his father was either dead, dying, dead for a second time, dying for a second time, or had lost control of his son by 1805.

The Dutch heads of state, closest to "kings" in the Staatsbewind's reign from 1801–1805, are these peeps:

Willem Aernout de Beveren (Oct. 1801–Jan. 1802)
Egbert Sjuck Gerrold Juckema van Burmania Rengers (Feb. 1802–Apr. 1802)

Samuel van Hoogstraten (May 1802 –Jul. 1802)

Gerrit Jan Pijman (Aug. 1802–Oct. 1802)

Johannes Baptista Verheyen (Nov. 1802–Jan. 1803)

Jacobus Spoors (Feb. 1803–Apr. 1803)

Campegius Hermannus Gockinga (May 1803–Jul. 1803)

Daniël Cornelis de Leeuw (Aug. 1803–Oct. 1803)

Augustijn Gerhard Besier (Nov. 1803–January 1804)

Anthonie Frederik Robbert Evert van Haersolte, Lord van Staverden (Feb. 1804–Apr. 1804)

Gerard Brantsen (May 1804–Jul. 1804)

Willem Queysen (Aug. 1804–Oct. 1804)

Willem Aernout de Beveren (Nov. 1804–January 1805)

Napoleon Bonaparte
De Mist
Alexander Isaac Van Gogel
Governor Janssens
Jan Bernd Bicker Feb. 1805–Apr. 1805)

So it seems we have 19 named candidates for the "Mad King of Batavia" title, and the title of Caspian's father along with that.

Since the King of Batavia was killed at least once by 1806, that rules out everyone who died in the 1820s or later, which means they probably wouldn't have been killed by Diana near the end of the Batavian Republic. This leaves the following candidates: 

Samuel van Hoogstraten

Gerard Brantsen 

Jan Bernd Bicker
Egbert Sjuck Gerrold Juckema van Burmania Rengers

Samuel van Hoogstraten is not going to be explored, as I couldn't find any information about the actual Dutch official, instead finding only articles about a Dutch painter who died in 1678, who may or may not have been Samuel's father.

Gerard Brantsen had two sons: Charles Louis Frederic Brantzen, and Louis Bellerive.

Jan Bernd Bicker had 9 SONS, although I could only find the name of one: Henric Bicker, who died in 1834, far before Caspian did (since Caspian's lore suggests he was alive in 1875 at the latest for the Kentucky Derby), so we have no reason to equate him to Caspian. 

Egbert Sjuck Gerrold Juckema van Burmania Rengers had two sons as far as I can see, named Justinus and Bernhard. Egbert was also the man who died closest to the collapse of the Batavian Republic in 1806, with Brantsen dying in 1809, and Bicker dying in 1812. This gives us a more likely pick for the Mad King of Batavia, although I couldn't find any sources outlining whether any of these three experienced some sort of dementia or mind-altering illness (hence “Mad” King of Batavia). Justinus also died in the 1830s, Bernhard died in the 1820s, and I wasn't able to find anything on Bransen's sons. So we have three candidates for the title of Mad King of Batavia, and three candidates for any real-life equivalents Caspian might have had, but none of them are historically significant enough to be able to go into further detail on.