Description:The intellectual position of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, has been controversial since the seventeenth century. According to her Dutch contemporaries, she still remains princeps ingenii: prominent among the elite. In his essay Thijs Weststeijn outlines a beautiful picture of this philosopher and her fifteen-year stay in Rotterdam and Antwerp. Thijs Weststeijn won the ABG VN Essayprijs for this essay.