Friedrich von Schomberg

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Friedrich von Schomberg
Signature Friedrich von Schomberg.PNG

Friedrich (Hermann) Graf von Schomberg , actually von Schönberg (* late December 1615 in Heidelberg ; † 11 July 1690 in the Battle of the Boyne , Ireland, died) was a German-born military leader who served various European rulers over the course of his life and assumed different nationalities: 1675 Marshal of France , 1687 Brandenburg General “over all our armies and troops in all our countries and provinces” and 1688 British General of all His Majesty's forces .

Life

Friedrich von Schönberg was the offspring of the Rhenish noble family Schönburg auf Wesel , which came from Schönburg near Oberwesel on the Rhine. He was born in Heidelberg at the end of December 1615 as the son of Count Hans Meinhard von Schönberg (1582-1616), Elector Palatine and Elector Brandenburg Field Brister, and the Englishwoman Anne Dudley († 1615), daughter of the 5th  Baron Dudley . The mother died at birth, the father a year later; the grandmother took over the care and upbringing.

As a Calvinist nobleman, he studied appropriately at the Sedan Academy and the University of Leiden and joined the army of Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Orange in 1633 , then moved to Sweden, recruited a company for the regiment of Josias Rantzau and fought against it in the Thirty Years' War until the end of 1637 the imperial ones.

Disappointed about the unfavorable course of his first campaigns for him, he left active military service, took over the management of his property in Geisenheim , married his cousin Johanna Elisabeth von Schönberg on April 30, 1638 and looked after male descendants. Since the male line of descendants of his uncle and father-in-law Heinrich Dietrich von Schönburg auf Wesel († 1621) had expired with the death of his brother-in-law and cousin Johann Eberhard von Schönburg auf Wesel in 1637, he secured the family castle and surrounding fiefs of his family through marriage Count of Schönburg on Wesel . But already in the following year he joined the arquebusier regiment of the Prince of Orange as a lieutenant, fought against the Spanish until the end of the war, resigned again in 1651 and joined the French army, in which he served under Turenne in the following years .

Schönberg, whose name is now appearing more and more among the military leaders, now called himself with the Frenchized name “Comte de Schomberg”. Later in Portugal he signed documents with "Schonberg".

Schomberg fought in northern France during the Franco-Spanish War with varying success. On March 22, 1657 he had to hand over the beleaguered Chislain, but was able to conquer and hold Bourbourg on October 18 . In the Battle of the Dunes (June 14, 1658), Schomberg successfully commanded the left wing of the second meeting and contributed to the fact that Spain had to move towards the conclusion of the Peace of the Pyrenees . In 1661, on Turenne's recommendation and through Mazarin's secret diplomacy, he entered the service of Portugal , which had been gaining independence from Spain in 1641 ( → War of Restoration ), but encountered so much resistance and so great obstacles that the campaigns of 1662 were unsuccessful. Schomberg, who no longer believed that the war would end happily for Portugal under these circumstances, asked for his departure and was ready to embark, but was changed by public opinion and the urgent wish of Louis XIV and persuaded to stay - also by the fact that Charles II of England now subordinated to him the English auxiliary troops promised at his wedding to the Portuguese princess and appointed him Baron of Tetford .

Although his main adversary, the Portuguese general Conde de Vila Flor was replaced by Marquês de Marialva , his position remained difficult due to the jealousy and clumsiness of the Portuguese officers and the shortcomings of the Portuguese army. Through continued structural and tactical reforms, with the help of French, English and other auxiliary troops, Schomberg succeeded in the following years in gaining several brilliant victories over the Spaniards under the Infante Juan José de Austria and finally Luis de Benavides, Marques de Caracena and them finally to force the final recognition of the House of Braganza and the Kingdom of Portugal in 1668 (June 8, 1663: victory of Ameixial near Estremoz, June 17, 1665 victory of Montes Claros near Vila Viçosa ). In memory of the victory at Vila Viçosa , the House of Bragança founded the order of the same name ( Ordem Militar de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Vila Viçosa ). Schomberg received the hereditary title Conde de Mértola in 1663 , combined with a relatively small annual pension of the equivalent of 317 gulden . But it was his Portuguese successes on which his legendary reputation as a genius military leader was based.

Schomberg returned to France and allowed himself to be naturalized as a French. He bought the lordship of Courbet in the Seine-et-Marne department and married Susanne d'Aumale , mistress of Aucourt in Normandy , on April 14, 1669 - his first wife had died in Geisenheim in 1664.

In 1672 he went to England to undertake a landing in Holland with British troops during the Third Anglo-Dutch War , but soon returned to France because the plan was not carried out. During the campaigns of Louis XIV in 1673 and 1674, he commanded first between Meuse and Sambre , then in Roussillon , and in 1675, after Turenne's death, became one of eight Marshals of France . In the same year he set up the Régiment de Schomberg from the Languedoc militia (November 15) , invaded Catalonia as commander-in-chief , took the Fort de Bellegarde and in the following years was active in the Dutch campaign in the Flemish theater of war. Sometimes he was in the vicinity of Louis XIV, sometimes he did independent jobs. He horrified Maastricht in 1676 (→ Siege of Maastricht (1676) ), took part in the capture of Valenciennes and Cambrai in 1677 and then commanded an observation corps at Sedan. In 1678 he took part in the conquest of Ghent and Ypres .

The Treaties of Nijmegen helped him to correct some inherited from his father claims to the Palatinate . Then he took part in the sacking of the Palatinate by Louis XIV, but did not manage to be rewarded for his services at German expense. Ludwig reached only the lifting of the sanctions against him an outlaw and the return of his reason otherwise assigned goods.

Ludwig's request to change his creed - he was a Calvinist  - he persistently refused and was therefore expelled to Portugal after the edict of Nantes was repealed in 1685, where he was still held in high regard by Peter II. Since the attempts at conversion did not subside here either and there were no military tasks for him either, he finally went to Brandenburg in 1687 on good luck . The great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm immediately gave the now 72-year-old command of all his troops, appointed him a secret council of state and war council and governor of the Duchy of Prussia, and gave him his own dragoon regiment . His pay was 30,000 thalers, plus fodder for 30 horses and other natural produce. The old Derfflinger and other generals felt that Schomberg's appointment had rightly set them back.

Schomberg settled in Berlin , later by Friedrich III. when Crown Prince lived in Dohnasche Palais Unter den Linden (" Kronprinzenpalais "), opposite the armory bought. His second wife died here in August 1688. He became an advocate for several thousand Huguenot refugees in Berlin.

Friedrich III. gave Schomberg the same confidence as his predecessor, the great elector. But Schomberg was not to find peace in Prussia either. His former opponent from the Franco-Dutch War, William of Orange , requested him from Friedrich when he was planning his campaign to England, and the elector sent him on the basis of the Celle contract concluded on August 5, 1688 with 5,300 men on foot and 660 Cuirassing to Holland. Previously, he defended the city of Cologne against Louis XIV , which he could no longer ignore.

Schomberg accompanied Wilhelm to England, where he was naturalized as an Englishman and on May 9, 1689 he was given the English nobility titles Duke of Schomberg , Marquess of Harwich , Earl of Brentford and Baron Teyes . In addition, he was accepted as a knight in the Order of the Garter and richly compensated by the English Parliament with £ 100,000 for the fact that Louis XIV had confiscated his French goods and destroyed his ancestral castle Schönburg in Oberwesel.

To complete the conquest of Great Britain, Schomberg led a detachment of English troops of 5,000–6,000 men to Ireland in the late summer of 1689. With this in every respect inadequate force, Schomberg maintained the field despite the most adverse circumstances until King Wilhelm III finally in mid-June 1690. arrived with reinforcements. On 1st / 10th In July 1690, the expelled Jacob II and William of Orange-Nassau, who led their armies personally, met on the Boyne River ( Battle of the Boyne ). Schomberg's son Meinhard helped the English army to victory, but the father fell from his own ranks by a bullet. According to other sources, while crossing the River Boyne, from which he had strongly advised Wilhelm against, he got into a group of Irish horsemen and, as he did not wear a cuirass when crossing the river , was killed by sword blows.

Friedrich von Schomberg is described as "a warlike, awe-inspiring and obedient figure, an excellent rider, loving splendor, thinking soldierly, prudent and brave, a loyal follower of the evangelical faith, but indulgent to those who think differently".

Friedrich von Schomberg was buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. In 1731 a memorial was erected for him there, which bears a Latin inscription by Jonathan Swift , in which his descendants are accused of not having helped their glorious father himself to a commemorative plaque.

His male line died out with his son Meinhard in 1719.

children

From his first marriage in 1638 with Johanna Elisabeth von Schönberg-Wesel (1617–1664) he had six sons:

  • Otto (born March 15, 1639 in Geisenheim, died in 1656 before Valenciennes )
  • Friedrich (born March 14, 1640 in Oberwesel; † December 5, 1700 in Geisenheim), was in French service, accompanied his father to Portugal, then returned to Germany, where he called himself Count von Schomberg; ∞ I) 1670 Catharina Ernestine von Bocholtz (1650-1716); ∞ II) 1684 Amalia Charlotte Veronica vom Spaen (1661–1731) daughter of Alexander von Spaen
  • Meinhard (1641–1719), 3rd Duke of Schomberg, 1st Duke of Leinster, 2nd Conde de Mértola, ∞ Karoline Elisabeth (1659–1696) daughter of Elector Karl I Ludwig von der Pfalz
  • Heinrich (born July 9, 1643 in Herzogenbusch ; already in 1667 in the French service near Brussels)
  • Karl (1645–1693), 2nd Duke of Schomberg
  • Wilhelm, (born August 11, 1647 in Herzogenbusch, † probably in France at the beginning of 1664)

His second marriage, concluded in 1669, to Susanne von Aumale-Haucourt (1625–1688) remained childless.

literature

Web links

Commons : Friedrich von Schomberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ ADB, Volume 32, p. 262
predecessor Office successor
Johann von Schönburg Count of Schönberg on Wesel
1638–1690 		Friedrich von Schomberg
New title created Conde de Mértola
1663-1690 		Meinhard von Schomberg
New title created Duke of Schomberg
1689-1690 		Karl von Schomberg
personal data
SURNAME Friedrich von Schomberg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedrich Hermann Count von Schönberg; Friedrich Hermann Count von Schomberg; Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Army commander, general, marshal of France
DATE OF BIRTH December 1615
PLACE OF BIRTH Heidelberg
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1690
Place of death Boyne , Ireland