Claude Frédéric t'Serclaes van Tilly
Claude Frédéric t'Serclaes van Tilly , also de Tilly, (* July 1648 in Brussels ; † April 10, 1723 in Maastricht ) was a Lieutenant Field Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire , who also served in the Spanish and as commander-in-chief of the Army of the States General in the Netherlands would have.
Life
Claude t'Serclaes, Count of Tilly, came from the noble family t'Serclaes (with an ancestral castle south of Brussels) and was supposed to be a clergyman as the second eldest son, but then preferred to join the military. He first served with his brothers in France (in St. Omer he took command of a company of 300 men) and then in Spain. His brother Albert Octave t'Serclaes de Tilly (1646-1715) made it up to the viceroy of Aragon. In 1672 he switched to Dutch services. He also commanded the riders who guarded the prison in The Hague from an agitated mob in August 1672 when Cornelis de Witt and Johan de Witt were murdered. He was withdrawn shortly beforehand, which he commented by saying that he obeyed the order, but that the de Witts were now dead people. Previously he had a written order given, which he later gladly showed (as the death sentence of the de Witts), and as after the death of Wilhelm III. there was a risk that he could be held accountable for the withdrawal, so he could exonerate himself. He served in the Dutch War (1672 to 1678), being seriously wounded in the Siege of Maastricht (1673) and the Battle of Seneffe , in the capture of Binche and in the Battle of Cassel (1677) and the Battle at Saint-Denis (1678) . Because of his bravery, he was given command of a cavalry regiment. He then fought in the Palatinate War of Succession (1688 to 1697) in the battles of Walcourt , Fleurus , Steenkerke , Leuze and Eeckeren . In the Great Northern War he commanded an English division that took part in the siege of Tönning (1700) on the side of Denmark . In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) he was appointed Field Marshal Lieutenant of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701 and fought in the Battle of Ramillies and the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709 on the side of Marlborough and Prince Eugene . In the Netherlands he was 1704 after the death of Wilhelm III. Promoted to general (lieutenant general of the cavalry), but he never achieved the hoped-for rank of field marshal in the Netherlands, which was mainly due to the fact that he remained Catholic. After the death of Field Marshal Heinrich von Nassau-Ouwerkerk in 1708, he became head of the Dutch army and after the Peace of Utrecht (1713) he settled in Maastricht, where he built a town house in 1714. He received lucrative posts, was governor of Namur in 1713, of s'Hertogenbosch in 1714 and from 1718 to 1723 he was governor of Maastricht. There he refused to take the oath to the Prince-Bishop of Limburg and after lengthy negotiations it was agreed that he would be treated equally. He is buried with his wife in St. Servaas .
In 1682 he married Anna Antoinetta d'Aspremont Lynden, Countess of Reckheim (1655-1743).
literature
- Linda Frey: T'Serclaes, Claude Frederic, count of Tilly , in: The Treaties of the War of the Spanish Succession: An Historical and Critical Dictionary , Volume 1, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995, pp. 445-446.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | t'Serclaes van Tilly, Claude Frédéric |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 1648 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brussels |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 10, 1723 |
| Place of death | Maastricht |