Cupido and Sideron

In the seventeen sixties two boys arrived at the court of Stadtholder Willem V. Cupido came from the West African coast and Sideron from Curacao, where he was born into slavery. Both were handed over as diplomatic gifts, a practice bound up with the Dutch role in the transatlantic slave trade.

What happened next is harder to summarise. They were educated at court, taught to read, write and ride, and painted into the family portraits. Sideron rose to become the personal valet of Willem V, a position that carried real trust. When the Batavian Revolution swept the stadtholder out of the country in 1795, both men went with the family to England and returned with them afterwards.

Cupido married in 1802 and had three children. He died in 1806, and the Orange family went on supporting his widow and children.

No statue on the Noordeinde marks either of them. The man who arrived as a gift ended his life as somebody's husband and somebody's father, and the records say so plainly.

The next stop lies about four minutes to the east, on the Lange Voorhout.