Jan Pieterzoon Coen

Officer of Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the early seventeenth century, holding two terms as its Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.
A national hero in the Netherlands, for providing the impulse that set the VOC on the path to dominance in the Dutch East Indies. A quote of his from 1618 is well known, "Despair not, spare your enemies not, for God is with us" ("Dispereert niet, ontziet uw vijanden niet, want God is met ons" in Dutch). Since the latter half 20th century he has been looked at in a more critical light, as some people view his often violent means to have been excessive.