Andreas of Melville

Andreas von Melville , originally Andrew Melville (* 1624 in Scotland ; † 1706 in Gifhorn ) was a major general in Brunswick-Lüneburg as well as a senior magistrate and Drost von Gifhorn. His life provides information about the conditions in Europe after the Thirty Years War , as he kept a diary and published it later.

1637 to 1650

Melville came from the old Scottish clan Melville , which was traced back to the Norman knight Galfridus de Melville , who came from Melleville Castle in Normandy in the 11th century with William the Conqueror and whose descendants arrived in the 12th century 3rd century settled in Midlothian , Scotland, under King David I.

In 1637 his parents sent him to Königsberg in Prussia to learn German. But he was recruited there for the Polish army. Before he could be deployed, however, the war was over. He left the country and returned to Scotland. There he learned of the death of his parents and that the property had gone to creditors.

He lived for a short time as a soldier without a regiment and was captured by peasants, was able to escape again and went to France as a mercenary in 1647. His older brother moved on to Venice . He fought under Jean de Gassion in the siege of Lens, in which Gassion fell. He then fought under Josias Rantzau in the siege of Dixmunde and the siege of Ypres . Since no pay reached the soldiers, they plundered the area and he was picked up by soldiers from Armentières and was supposed to be shot, but he escaped. While on the run he was picked up by German soldiers and, since he spoke German, he was brought to their camp, where he was supposed to come to Lille as a prisoner of war. There he met an Irish regiment, whose Scottish commander Cascar pressed him into Spanish service. Since there was no return to French service, he helped the Duke of Lorraine to recruit a regiment for the English King Charles I. In 1648 he came to Emden with the mercenaries . He then spent the summer in Borkum to train the troops, but England was a republic and Charles I was executed. The troops should now be in Spanish service, but mutinied and came to Ostend. The Duke of Lorraine now rented his remaining troops to Leopold Wilhelm of Austria , governor of the Spanish Netherlands . Melville now fought in the siege of Guise .

1660 to 1655

In 1650 he traveled to Breda to meet the royalist army of the deposed King Charles II . But this had already crossed to England. He followed him and found him in sterling . The battle of Worcester ended in disaster for the royalists, Melville was also badly injured and only escaped with luck. Among the prisoners was a brother Melville, who was then exiled to forced labor on the sugar plantations of the West Indies . It took three months for him to recover. He then fled to Rotterdam via London. In 1652 he was in Brussels, where he met Cascar, who was now Major General in Lorraine. He was with the troops for a short time and was then released. In Paris he came to the bodyguard of the Cardinal von Retz Jean-François Paul de Gondi and after a while became their commander. When times calmed down, the bodyguard was disbanded and Melville joined the army under Schomberg and was billeted in Picardy . The next year he came to Montournais in Champagne . In 1654 the army was marched to relieve Arras . He fought there under Turenne's command . The army moved on to Quesnoy , while foraging he was captured. But he was lucky, initially he was supposed to be shot as a deserter, but after the misunderstanding was cleared up, he was exchanged. In the following year, 1655, he left the Schonberg army to go to Königsberg with a comrade named Molisson.

1655 to 1660

He came to Koenigsberg with Molisson. Molisson was able to stay there as a captain in the Waldeck regiment. Melville first tried to get to the Dragoons, but failed. But when the Elector of Brandenburg Friedrich Wilhelm wanted to recruit 4,000 soldiers for the Swedish king, he too got a job with Volrad von Waldeck , a cousin of Josias von Waldeck . But the campaign in Poland brought him nothing and in the end Volrad also died. So Melville switched to Josias von Waldeck's regiment and with him to Cleve , where it remained until 1658. When the Swedish King Karl X. Gustav recruited General Waldeck from Brandenburg for the war against Denmark , Melville also switched. He received the order to advertise a dragoon regiment in Bremen. With the help of the Swedish governor of Stade Christoph Delphicus von Dohna , he was able to advertise the regiment and became a lieutenant colonel there. The war ended with the Peace of Oliva in 1660 and the regiment was disbanded. Josias von Waldeck was also released.

1660 to 1665

In 1660, however, Charles II had regained the English throne. And Waldeck and Melville went to London to congratulate the king. But neither Waldeck nor Melville was used in England. So they went back to Germany. There the Emperor Leopold had declared the Imperial War against the Turks and was planning to expel them from Hungary. All German princes should provide troops for this purpose. Therefore, the elector of Cologne brought Josias von Waldeck into his service and Melville also followed him first as a major, then as a lieutenant colonel. He took part in numerous sieges, including the battle of Mogersdorf . After the troops returned, they were released from service in the Electorate of Cologne. Melville received the post of Linn's commandant , if he had become Catholic it could have been Bonn , which he refused. In 1665 there was a dispute between Georg Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig-Calenberg about the succession in Braunschweig-Lüneburg . Georg Wilhelm brought Josias von Waldeck and on his recommendation the elector made Melville the commandant of Celle .

1665 to 1707

In 1665 he was also head of the Leibcompany. In 1667 he asked for permission to go into Venetian services with Waldeck and Mollison to fight the Turks. He was denied that, Waldeck went and fell in 1669 near Candia on Crete . In 1667 he went again to the English court under Charles II, but was again unable to achieve anything for himself. In 1672 he was promoted to commander of a militia regiment with a garrison in Hamburg . During the Dutch War , the Braunschweig-Lüneburg contingent under Johann Adolf von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön was in Alsace and was seriously injured in the battle of the Konzer Bridge . It is said that he had to wear a silver skull afterwards . He fought in northern Germany in 1676 in the campaign against the Swedes and took part in the assault on Stade. His friend Molisson was torn to pieces by a cannonball when the fortress was attacked.

In 1680 he accompanied Georg Ludwig, who later became King George I of England, to England. They met King Charles II in Oxford in February 1681 , where he also elevated Melville to the nobility. Since 1677 Melville Drost was in Gifhorn and in 1683 he resigned from the service because of his injuries. In 1683, his cousin George Melville, 4th Lord Melville, fled Scotland to Holland, as he was suspected of being involved in the Rye House conspiracy ; he joined the governor William of Orange there, who made him William III after his accession to the British throne . in 1690 raised to 1st Earl of Melville.

Andreas von Melville published his biography in French in 1705 and died a year later. His grave has not been preserved.

plant

• Memoires de monsieur Le Chevalier de Melvill . 1704. Digitized

family

In 1666 he married Nymphe de la Chevallerie (* 1640 in La Motte-Bisset), who had come to Celle with Eleonore d'Olbreuse . The couple had a daughter:

• Charlotte Sophie Anna (born January 28, 1670; † August 1724) ⚭ February 13, 1690 Alexander von der Schulenburg from the Altenhausen family (born November 24, 1662; † January 13, 1733), Lieutenant General

He then married Elizabeth Christina von Medefourt-Beneken . With her he had a son:

• Georg Ernst († 1742), major general, governor of the Hameln Fortress ⚭ 1717 Lucy von Staffhorst

literature

• Heinz Duchhardt: The Peace of Westphalia: diplomacy, political turning point, cultural environment . P. 605.
• Wissel: History of the establishment of all Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg troops , p. 841, digitized
• Bernhard von Poten :  Melvill, Andreas . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 303 f.
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 37, s: en: Melville, Andrew (1624-1706) (DNB00) (Engl.),
• JG Alger: A Scottish Free-Lance: Sir Andrew Melville Scottish Review (1895) Digitized
• Austrian military journal, Volumes 1-2, pp 349ff, General Melville , Digitalisat
• Christoph Meiners: Göttingisches historical magazine: Event of the Braunschw. Lüneb. General = Majors and Drosten zu Gifhorn, Mr. von Melvil , Volume 5, p. 417ff, digitized

Web links

• family tree

Individual evidence

1. ↑ in the original: Friedrich von Waldeck, brother of Josias, but Josias had no brother Friedrich
2. ^ A committee regiment, on the conditions see: Vaterländisches Archiv des Historisches Verein für Niedersachsen , p. 125, digitized
3. ↑ eschede.de