Hofwijck: co-heir and occupant 1687 up to his death in 1695

During the last years of his life, Father Constantijn Huygens undoubtedly enjoyed the company of his son Christiaan, who lived with him. These more or less unavoidable years of residence were preceded by eventful years, in which Christiaan often stayed elsewhere, but just as often returned to his father's house in The Hague. Meanwhile he became increasingly renowned as a scholar in various fields. Below is a short overview of his youth and study years.

Commuting to Paris

As described earlier, in 1647 Father Constantijn had transferred his sons Christiaan and Lodewijck from the Leiden university to the Orange College in Breda, simply because he was a governor of this college. His good friend Jan Brosterhuysen had been appointed professor of Greek and Botany here a year earlier, partly thanks to Huygens. Here he made himself useful by planting a medicinal herb garden. No doubt Father hoped that his clever and inventive Christiaan would contribute to the yet to be acquired fame of this recently founded Orange College. Christiaan will certainly not have been happy about this move, because it meant that he could not attend the inspiring mathematics lessons of professor Van Schooten in Leiden. He compensated for this by corresponding extensively with this valued mathematics teacher. In 1649 Lodewijck Huygens got involved in a fight in Breda, where swords were drawn.

Father Huygens wrote the rector of the college an angry letter, in which he blamed him for weak discipline. Wearing swords at a university should simply be forbidden.

Huygens decided to recall his sons from Breda and so they lived with their Father for some time, without a diploma. After his return on December 22, Christiaan moved back in with his father. He too was destined for a civil service career. However, his already slim chances were reduced to virtually nil when in 1650 William II died unexpectedly and the Stadholderless Era began. For political reasons, the Orange Stadholders preferred to choose their civil servants from families that had no ties to the established regents, such as the Huygens family, who came from the Southern Netherlands.