Jean de Merode

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Jean Reichsgraf de Merode (* around 1589; † 8 July 1633 in Hessisch Oldendorf ), also Johann Reichsgraf von Merode , came from the Merode family and was an imperial general .

Life

Jean de Merode began his military career in the service of Spain, but was lured away and then fought with the troops of Emperor Rudolf II for the Holy Roman Empire .

In 1619 he was sent to support Bucquoy to Bohemia , where he took part in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 . 1622 ennobled Kaiser him Ferdinand II. To Imperial Count . In the following year, Jean de Merode advanced to colonel and repeatedly commanded independent companies under Wallenstein , especially in Switzerland and Italy , with great skill.

In 1627 he conquered Fehmarn and in 1629 secured the crossing of the Alps for the imperial troops intervening in the Mantuan War of Succession . Promoted to general sergeant in 1631, de Merode fought in Westphalia and Lower Saxony ever since, and in 1632 conquered Wolfenbüttel and Hildesheim . The latter successes brought him the promotion to Feldzeugmeister . After the battle of Lützen (November 16, 1632) he secured Wallenstein's withdrawal.

Jean de Merode fell on July 8, 1633 in the battle of Hessisch Oldendorf .

Merode brothers

During the Thirty Years' War those war invalids were called "Merode Brothers" who followed the official troops - often together with their families - and camped near them. This also included riders who had lost their horses. They lived from plundering and begging and, as marauders, were a burden to both the peasants and the troops.

In the thirteenth chapter of the fourth book of his novel The adventurous Simplicissimus, the writer Grimmelshausen tells of them and refers their name to an unspecified “dapffern Cavallier” who once brought a newly recruited regiment of particularly weak soldiers into the army: “Where one or I met more sick people and lame people on the Marck, in houses and behind the fences and hedges, and asked, What regiment? that was the common answer, from Merode! ". While Grimmelshausen is obviously referring to the imperial colonel Johann II von Mérode, the expression "Merode Brothers" in German research mostly refers to the troops of the Brunswick-Lüneburg, then Swedish colonel Werner von Merode, who mutinied on the Elbe in 1635 and ran apart.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Merode Brothers" in: The Thirty Years' War in personal testimonies, chronicles and reports (by Bernd Warlich).
personal data
SURNAME Merode, Jean de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merode, Jean Reichsgraf de (full name); Mérode-Waroux, Johann II. Von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION imperial general
DATE OF BIRTH around 1589
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1633
Place of death Hessian Oldendorf