Nicholas de Courville

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Nicholas de Courville (* around 1590 in France , † June 1, 1634 in Regensburg ) was a French general in the Swedish service. He took part in several battles in the Thirty Years' War, first as a colonel and then as major general under various Protestant military leaders. After his death in the fighting for Regensburg , he was buried in the parish church of Wöhrd , the former suburb of Nuremberg.

Military career

Courville was a colonel in Christian von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel's army until 1623 . Then he took part in the service of the Danish King Christian IV in August 1626 with the arquebusier regiment "Hünecken", later sold to the Swedish King Gustav Adolf , in the battle of Lutter am Barenberge , where he was captured after the heavy defeat. As the commander of a cuirassier squadron of five companies, he took part in the battle of Breitenfeld in September 1631 in Swedish service under King Gustav Adolf on the left wing under General Gustaf Horn . Then the triumphal march of the Swedish king to southern Germany began. On November 10, 1631, Courville surprised the gate guards of the city of Mühlhausen with three companies of horsemen and occupied the city for six days without leaving any damage and without harassing the population. The chronicle of the city reports about it with the following words: On St. Martini evening the city watch was at the Erfurt Gate, because it was a thick fog, taken by surprise by the Swedish Colonel Corvillt with three companies Reiter; took the city and lay here, but otherwise kept good discipline. On the 16th they withdrew . Afterwards Courville remained stationed in Franconia and his regiment was used by Gustav Adolf in September 1632 in the Battle of the Alte Veste and in November 1632 in the Battle of Lützen .

Engraving by Neuburg an der Donau

After the death of Gustav Adolf, the Courville regiment with five companies and 300 horses was incorporated into the newly established Franconian army of approx. 8000 men of the newly appointed field marshal, Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar . First, Duke Bernhard had to use this army to militarily secure the Duchy of Franconia, which King Gustav Adolf had promised him. He also planned to advance from Franconia via the Upper Palatinate to Regensburg , to conquer the city and to use it as a base for the further advance down the Danube towards Vienna. In the realization of this ambitious project, the regiments under the command of Courville, who was appointed major general, played a key role. After several failures had to be overcome when approaching Regensburg in the first half of 1633, Courville succeeded in early November 1633 in crossing the Danube south of Regensburg near Neuburg an der Donau with the greater part of the cavalry of the entire army. These regiments were then able to secure the Danube crossing of the entire army with artillery and with Duke Bernhard at Kelheim . The Danube crossing was necessary because the city of Regensburg, which is shielded in the north by the Danube, could not be taken from the north via the Stone Bridge .

Regensburg could only be besieged and taken from the south and that was achieved on November 8, 1633 after only a short siege. After the occupation of the city and further only partially successful military actions downstream and in Bohemia, Duke Bernhard and Courville left Regensburg with the main army for Franconia at the beginning of March 1634.

Death near Regensburg

Although Duke Bernhard had left a very strong garrison in Regensburg, the Swedish-occupied places down the Danube, in the Bavarian Forest and in the Upper Palatinate, were quickly recaptured by Bavarian and imperial troops. With this, the Swedish occupied Regensburg was again strongly endangered. An attack by the newly organized imperial army under the command of Archduke Ferdinand was to be expected in May 1634 . The attack from the north would hit the places on the north bank opposite Regensburg where the Swedish commander of Regensburg Lars Kagg had very effective defensive positions built. Regensburg could be seen well from the surrounding hills and could also be shot at with cartoons . Here in the northeast of Regensburg the river Regen flows into the Danube and the lower Regental formed by it was the approach route for the imperial army that set out in Bohemia at the end of May 1634 and wanted to achieve the reconquest of Regensburg. At the same time, Duke Bernhard and Courville had set out with a relief army in Franconia after they had been urged by Protestant imperial princes to help the threatened Regensburg. They had the hope of being able to prevent the imperial army from approaching Regensburg. This idea turned out to be an illusion when the great superiority of the imperial army was discovered and reported by the Swedish vanguard under Georg Christoph von Taupadel near Nabburg . Nevertheless, the relief army moved on and reached Regensburg on May 31, 1634. Under the command of Courville, it was even possible to build a battery position on the hill west of the mouth of the Regen River - called the Weinberg. From there it was possible to bombard the area on the east bank of the Regen and the town of Reinhausen, where the vanguard of the imperial army under Matthias Gallas had already arrived.

View from the north hill 1594: Stadtamhof and Regensburg; two arms of the Danube (B), two Danube islands. Far left at the edge of the picture: a part of the Regen river (A)

When the imperial army arrived the next day with its enormous artillery equipment, the imperial generals saw the city of Regensburg lying there from the hills, as the illustration shows. They noticed the Swedish battery position on the hill west of the river Regen and immediately had a battery position built on the hill east of the river - called Galgenberg. On June 1, 1634, there was an artillery battle between the two opposite artillery positions across the Regen River, in which Courville was killed. The Swedish battery position had to be given up and was taken by the imperial artillery. The exact circumstances of Courville's death have been described in various ways. A description by Duke Bernhard, which can be found as an attachment to a letter dated June 6, 1634 to the Reich Chancellor Oxenstierna, is probably correct. There it says: “In defensive shooting with the pieces is h. Major General Corville stayed, then he was penetrated by a stone, one of our pieces blown up by the masonry. "

Burial in Wöhrd near Nuremberg

The loss of the able general and equestrian leader Courville hit Duke Bernhard hard. In addition, the military situation had become untenable for his weak relief army after the arrival of the strongly superior imperial army, because one could easily have cut off the retreat route across the Danube at Kelheim. After reinforcing the Regensburg garrison by a few regiments, the remaining army withdrew from Regensburg to Nuremberg on June 3, 1634 and transported the corpse from Courville to Nuremberg. Courville was buried in the parish church in the suburb of Wöhrd , where his daughter was buried on August 23, 1632. The funeral took place with a large contingent and in the presence of Duke Bernhard, the Margrave (Hereditary Prince) Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach and many high officers. The Courville coffin was carried under a velvet canopy and was accompanied by 16 trumpeters and army drummers. A number of guns fired salute on the Laufer tower and at the Wöhrder bastion as the funeral procession started towards the church of Wöhrd.

literature

  • Peter Engerisser, Pavel Hrnčiřík: Nördlingen 1634. The battle of Nördlingen, turning point of the Thirty Years' War . Späthling, Weißenstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-926621-78-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b B. Warlich: Courville, Nicolas de.
  2. ↑ a b P. Engerisser, P. Hrnčiřík: Nördlingen 1634. pp. 19–36.
  3. ↑ a b c P. Engerisser, P. Hrnčiřík: Nördlingen 1634 ; Pp. 64-76
personal data
SURNAME Courville, Nicholas de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general in Swedish service
DATE OF BIRTH around 1590
PLACE OF BIRTH France
DATE OF DEATH June 1, 1634
Place of death regensburg