De Voorst House was built around 1700 by Arnold Joost van Keppel after he had made a fortune serving at the court of Governor (Stadholder) William III.The house was nicknamed ´The little palace´ because of its similarity to William III’s Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn. The estate’s luscious gardens on the other hand, gained it the additional moniker of ‘Versailles of the Achterhoek’.
Scandal
The Van Voorst family was originally simple landed gentry, a status that changed little when the family married into the Van Keppel line in 1565. One of the Van Keppels, Oswald van Keppel, had a rather dubious reputation for tax evasion, public drunkenness, debt and violence. According to one account in 1668, Oswald was visiting a man named Coenraad van Linden when he tore his house to pieces and gave his wife a black eye and a bloody nose.
Arnold Joost van Keppel
Oswald’s son, Arnold Joost van Keppel studied at Cambridge and served at the court of Governor (Stadholder) William III, where he quickly became one of the stadholder’s confidents. When William III became king of England in 1689, Arnold profited from this relationship and was made Baron of Ashford, Earl of Albemarle, a member of parliament, chamberlain in the royal household and a general. In order to solidify his status, he built a luxurious country house on his ancestral lands. The house was clearly inspired by Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn and the gardens were even designed by William III’s landscape gardener.
Fire
The good fortune of the Van Keppel family proved to be short-lived and just 50 years after it was built, De Voorst House changed hands and in 1846, an investor even tore down several of the buildings. However, the biggest blow for the house came in 1943, when the main building and nearly its entire interior burned down. The fire was not a result of the war, but a careless painter. Since then, De Voorst House has been completely restored and furnished as a grand hotel, wedding and conference venue.
