Descartes: A Biography

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The ScientificEssaysand theDiscourse on Method 

all ages, the diseases from which young children suffered made it espe-

cially challenging to survive childhood. Claude Clerselier, who was later

to become Descartes’ literary executor, was not atypical in this respect. He

married at the relatively early age of sixteen and had fourteen children, all

butthree of whom died in infancy.

Once Francine had died, there are few indications later that Descartes

gaveher life and early death much thought. He refers briefly, in a letter

to Chanut in,toanoccasion ten years earlier when he had lapsed

from the high Christian ideals by which he normally lived, and Baillet was

satisfied to set aside the whole episode as a unique episode in an otherwise

blameless life, a singular ‘fall’ from grace.

However, despite the uncertainty of their relationship during the inter-

vening years, Helena Jansdr vander Strom reappears in Descartes’ life

when he agrees to act as a witness to her wedding sometime after June.

Helena married Jan Jansz van Wel, who was originally from Egmond, and

they settled in Egmond ann den Hoef. Prior to marrying, the two parties

filed a prenuptial agreement with a notary public in Leiden in May. They

made an inventory of the goods contributed to their common household

byeach party, and then agreed that if either party were to die prior to their

having children, the other party would recover his or her original invest-

ment together with an extra thousand florins. As it happened, they had at

least one child, Justinus, who became the local chief of police in Egmond

betweenand.InMay, Descartes had returned to live in

Egmond aan den Hoef, from which he travelled to Leiden on his way

to visit France. He had hoped to finalize the publication of thePrinciples

before his departure, but there were delays caused by the preparation and

printing of the diagrams.However, he also had an ulterior motive, for it

seems that Descartes was in Leiden to facilitate the marriage of his former

servant. The prenuptial agreement mentioned that the groom’s father had

provided a gift of,florins, which would be returned to that family if

Helena were to die without children. That amount of money – the equiv-

alent of a university professor’s annual salary – was unlikely to have been

donated by the groom’s father, who owned a tavern in Egmond. Besides,

this clause was crossed out in the prenuptial agreement, suggesting that

some of the money may have been donated by Descartes, to help Helena

marry into a respectable and independent life. One likely interpretation

of this complex affair is that Helena Jans followed Descartes as a servant

to Egmond in, and that she lodged with the parents of Jan Jansz