In this distinguished house at Kneuterdijk 24 lived Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Dutch statesman and confidant of the Dutch Father of the Fatherland William of Orange, who was murdered in 1584, in the middle of the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain. That war cost a lot of money and it had to come from somewhere. Together with Stadholder Prince Maurice - more or less the successor of William of Orange - Van Oldenbarnevelt therefore founded the United East India Company, the V.O.C., in 1602. Partly with its profits, the V.O.C. was able to pay for, and eventually win, the war against Spain, after which the Netherlands was internationally recognised as a sovereign state. But it's fair to say that without Van Oldebarnevelt and the V.O.C. money he secured for battle from this place, the Dutch would probably not have been able to drive out the Spaniards.
Things did not end well with Johan van Oldenbarnevelt himself. In 1617, he quarreled with Prince Maurice, whom he feared was planning a coup. Maurice then accused him of high treason and had his old friend arrested. On 13 May 1619, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was beheaded at the Binnenhof.