Cornelis van Haarlem was born into a wealthy family from Haarlem. During the Spanish siege of Haarlem, his parents abandoned the city when he was only ten, leaving both the house and their son in the care of Pieter Pietersz, who was to become van Haarlem's teacher. Cornelis moved to France in 1579, but was forced to turn back at Rouen by an outbreak of the plague and spent a year in Antwerp at the studio of Gilles Coignet. Two years after his return to Haarlem in 1580-81, he established the Haarlem Academy with Hendrik Goltzius and Karel van Mander, where he set up practice as a painter and architect. In 1603, he married Maritgen Arentsdr Deyman who, in her own right, was quite wealthy. Later, he was to father an ill...