David van Orliens

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Fort Liefkenshoek on the Scheldt, from the Atlas van Loon 1649

David van Orliens (* 1570 ; † April 22, 1652 ) was a Dutch fortress engineer in the service of Moritz von Oranien .

For 30 years, until his death, he was a captain in the service of the province of Zeeland , a major in the city of Sluis and an engineer. He was buried in the choir of St. Janskerk von Sluis, which no longer exists (fire in 1811, demolished in 1823).

He was married to Catharina Nicolaij (1587–1659).

As a colleague of Simon Stevin (who also wrote a treatise on fortification, Stercktenbouwinge 1594, the authoritative textbook used at the engineering school in Leiden), for example, he visited the fortifications of Harderwijk in 1599 , at that time one of the most important fortresses in Holland (on the Veluwemeer on the Way to Amsterdam). Stevin was often a consultant, but the real work was done by other engineers such as Orliens or Adriaan Anthonisz . Orliens made the final plans for the fortification of Deventer , the construction of which took around fifty years. It was part of a fortress ring that was built in the Netherlands from the 1580s.

Fort Lillo

At the beginning of the 17th century, David van Orliens also designed the reconstruction of the fortresses of Fort Liefkenshoek and Fort Lillo , which were supposed to protect Antwerp on both sides of the Scheldt and were built by Moritz of Orange for this purpose. When the Spaniards conquered Antwerp in 1585, they remained in Dutch hands (the Spaniards bypassed them and blocked the Scheldt with two new forts and a ship bridge between them, starving Antwerp) and were later expanded. Shipping traffic in the Scheldt could be controlled through both forts and customs duties could be levied. This damaged Antwerp and contributed to the rise of the port of Amsterdam.

Fort Liefkenshoek

literature

  • Van Beurden: David van Orliens, Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, Online

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jozef T. Devreese, Guido Vanden Berghe, Magic is no magic. The wonderful world of Simon Stevin, WIT Press, Boston, 2008, p. 105
  2. ^ Maarten Prak, The Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge UP, 2005, p. 66
  3. ↑ Verleden van Fort Liefkenshoek ( Memento of April 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Orliens, David van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES David d'Orleans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH 1570
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1652