Josias Rantzau
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(painter: Jean Alaux )
Josias Rantzau , Lord of Bothkamp , (born October 18, 1609 at Gut Bothkamp near Kiel ; † September 14, 1650 in Paris ) was like his father Breide Rantzau a Danish military leader, Marshal of France and one of the most adventurous figures of the thirty-year-old and at the same time Spanish-Dutch War . He is said to have gradually sustained 60 wounds, lost an eye (during the siege of Dole ), an ear and, in front of Arras, an arm and a leg.
Origin and family
Josias was born as the grandson of Paul, the younger son of Johann Rantzau , on Gut Bothkamp near Kiel. His parents were Breido Rantzau and his wife Oelgard von Qualen . He married his cousin (2nd degree) Hedwig Margarethe Elisabeth , the youngest daughter of the Danish governor Gerhard Rantzau (uncle 2nd degree). He and his wife converted to the Catholic Church in France in 1645. The family estate in Holstein was lost in bankruptcy and the marriage remained childless.
Life
Rantzau received a good education and is said to have shone in philosophy, mathematics and theology, and he is said to have spoken eight languages. He decided to do military service and from an early age he served under Prince Moritz of Orange and under King Christian IV of Denmark . He came to Sweden in the service of Gustav II Adolf , but where his career ended after a duel with a captain of the guard. He went to Italy in the army of Johann von Aldringen and took part in the Mantuan War of Succession in 1630 in the assault on Mantua, where he is said to have been the first in the fortress. The Swedish king also heard about it, brought him back into Swedish services and gave him commands on the Rhine and the Flemish border. After the king fell at Lützen , Rantzau came to Andernach as governor, which he successfully defended against the Spaniards in 1633. Then he was governor of Strasbourg for two years. Rantzau seems to have displayed an impetuous and often successful bravery rather than a real general art.
In 1635 Rantzau accompanied the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna to France, where he was noticed at the Paris court with his blond beauty. The French king had already heard of him and took him into his service as maréchal de camp . Rantzau took over 4,000 men from the army of Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar and marched into the Free County of Burgundy in the spring of 1636 to besiege the heavily fortified Habsburg capital of the region under the command of Henri de Bourbon-Condé Dole . The city was able to defend itself successfully for weeks and Rantzau lost an eye in the fighting. When an imperial relief army under Charles of Lorraine approached in August , the French broke off the siege. In October of that year, Rantzau strengthened the fortified town of Saint-Jean-de-Losne on the Saône against an attack by the imperial army under Matthias Gallas . Due to the soil in front of the walls of the city that was washed up by rain and the lack of ammunition of the attackers, they ultimately had to give up the siege.
In 1640 he was defending Arras . Rantzau commanded a strategically important fort that changed hands several times. In the end he was able to stay there, but lost a leg in the fighting and one hand was mutilated. After he could return to the army, he took part in the siege of Aire . Here he was able to cover the retreat of the defeated siege army with 2,000 men and suffered three new wounds.
In the following years, Rantzau was temporarily captured twice: on May 18, 1642 in the Battle of Honnecourt by the Spaniards and on November 28, 1643 in the Battle of Tuttlingen by the Imperialists, after he had been buried with four serious wounds under his horse . After the sieges of Thionville and Cirq on the Moselle, he was appointed lieutenant-général . In 1643 Rantzau came to Marshal von Enghien , fought at Rocroi and took part in the campaign in Germany. In 1644 Marshal Guébriant fell during the siege of Rottweil , Rantzau took over his position and successfully brought the siege to an end. Called back to Flanders, he conquered the city of Gravelingen under the Duke of Orleans .
On June 30, 1645, Rantzau was appointed Marshal of France and converted to Catholicism in the same year. His ear was shot off during the siege of Bourbourg. In the fighting in Flanders, the fortresses of Armentiers, Bethune, L'Illiers, St. Venant, Leui, Courtray, Dixmude, Bergues, Mardyck , Dunkirk and Ypres fell to the French. He was then appointed governor of the Dunkirk fortress, conquered in 1646. At Furnes he defeated the Spanish relief army.
During the riots of the Fronde he was recalled to Paris at Mazarin's instigation and imprisoned in the Bastille on February 27, 1649 , but acquitted and released on January 22, 1650. He died shortly afterwards on September 14, 1650 in Paris. He was buried in the Franciscan monastery near Nyon.
His grave inscription reads:
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literature
- The Rantzau House: A Family Chronicle, p.149ff
- The historical remarques on the newest things in Europe ninth part, on the 1707th year, volume 9, p. 326
Individual evidence
- ^ Lothar Höbelt: From Nördlingen to Jankau. Imperial strategy and warfare 1634-1645 . In: Republic of Austria, Federal Minister for State Defense (Hrsg.): Writings of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien . tape 22 . Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-73-3 , p. 139-140 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rantzau, Josias |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German military leader in the Thirty Years War, Marshal of France |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 18, 1609 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Good Bothkamp near Kiel |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 14, 1650 |
| Place of death | Paris |