Martin Schenk from Nideggen

Martin Schenk von Nideggen , Dutch Maarten Schenk van Nijdeggen or Nydeggen , (* around 1540 in Goch ; † August 10, 1589 in Nijmegen ), Count of Afferden and Bleijenbeek, was a military leader in Spanish and later Dutch service.

Life

Martin Schenk von Nideggen was the son of Diederich Schenk von Nideggen and Anna von Berlaer. He resided at Bleijenbeek Castle . In a contemporary description it is characterized as follows:

"... a person who never handled weapons better than when he was drinking out of his senses from much and never more secretive than with the trophy, ... wildly hungry for bloodshed and booty, and therefore dear to the soldiers."

It was hired where it was best paid. He first fought under Farnese Duke of Parma on the Spanish side against the Dutch who rebelled under William of Orange .

Later, as he did not see his efforts and successes adequately appreciated, he took the side of the Cologne bishop Gebhard , who, in order to be able to get married , wanted to introduce the Reformation in the diocese with the help of the Protestant canon Adolf von Neuenahr , and in doing so considerably Resistance from Catholic forces met.

He besieged, pillaged and plundered almost continuously and relied cities Nijmegen, Venlo, Werl, Neuss and other violently. Although he had been captured on various occasions, he was always able to escape or buy himself free with cunning.

Schenk von Nideggen built the Schenkenschanz in 1586 as a fortress in the fork of the Rhine and Waal . It exists today as a locality.

In a battle of the Truchsessian War on the Haar near Bremen , Soest district, on March 2, 1586, he was wounded in the buttocks by a musket ball, the so-called Arnsberg master shot.

On December 20, 1587, Schenk had moved from Rheinberg to Zülpich with only a few foot soldiers . On the way, waiting riders were picked up and drawn to Rheinbach . It was expected that he would move on to Arenberg Castle, but Schenk changed direction and hid his small army in the forest near Bornheim . The deception succeeded.

On 23/24 On December 15th, 1587, Schenk appeared in Poppelsdorf with 200 infantry and 150 horsemen . The city of Bonn expected an attack from the south or from the west. Schenk started a mock attack on the city walls with a lot of shouting and at the same time blew up a city gate coming from the Rhine side, so that he had free access. Schenk surrendered the city to his mercenaries for sacking for an hour.

He kept the city occupied for several months even during the siege by the Spaniards . His mercenaries pillaged and plundered Cologne area from here and, on one of these missions, also plundered Dernau . During this time, Schenk himself tried to get more support from the Netherlands, from Adolf von Neuenahr and also from the Queen of England. However, this was not given to the extent that he had imagined.

In June 1588, the Reichsacht was imposed on Schenk and Schenk soon found himself in a losing position in Bonn. Schenk gave his camp commandant von Putlitz the order to surrender. On September 28, 1588, the occupation was allowed to leave the city with booty and weapons.

Schenk himself then fought mainly for the Netherlands on the Lower Rhine and in the province of Gelderland . His castle Blyenbeck was conquered by the Spaniards.

During a siege of Nijmegen in 1589, Schenk was killed when, while fleeing the city, he threw himself on an overloaded pontoon and drowned in his armor in the Waal. By decision of the Nijmegen council, he was also beheaded as a corpse, quartered and the head placed on a stake at the city gate. After the Dutch retook the city in 1591, the body parts of Schenk were collected. He received a state funeral.

literature

Olga van den Broek: Maarten Schenck van Nijdeggen. Carrière in oorlogstijd . Van den Broek, Bergen 2016, ISBN 978-90-9029715-6 .
Felix Kampelmann: Martin Schenk von Nideggen or the Battle of Werl 1586. A historical ballad in five parts. Urselinenrealschule, Werl 2002, ISBN 3-9807740-4-X .
Karl Kossert: Martin Schenk von Nideggen or the missteps of bravery. Mercator-Verlag, Duisburg 1993, ISBN 3-87463-196-6 .
Pieter Lodewijk Muller : Schenk von Nideggen, Martin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, pp. 62-64.
Wilhelm Mauren: The battle near Ense-Bremen and the Arnsberg master shot. A story from the history of the Sauerland. Strobel, Arnsberg 1991, ISBN 3-87793-030-1 .
Heike Preuß: Martin Schenk von Nideggen (1540–1589) and the Truchsessian War. In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter . Vol. 49, 1985, pp. 117-138.

Web links

Dutch:

Footnotes

^ Wouter Loeff: De aanslag van Maarten Schenk op Nijmegen. Het ongelukkige lot van een krijgsheer in de Tachtigjarige Oorlog , in the Mijn Gelderland portal , accessed on April 27, 2019.

personal data
SURNAME	Schenk von Nideggen, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Nydeggen, Maarten Schenk van (Dutch)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German aristocrat, military leader in Spanish and later Dutch service
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH	Goch
DATE OF DEATH	August 10, 1589
Place of death	Nijmegen

[1] Wouter Loeff: De aanslag van Maarten Schenk op Nijmegen. Het ongelukkige lot van een krijgsheer in de Tachtigjarige Oorlog , in the Mijn Gelderland portal , accessed on April 27, 2019.