Nicolas Doxat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lille fortress plan (1708)
Battle of Denain
on July 24, 1712
Execution in the privileged upright sitting position.
here as a comparable example:
The execution of Karl Ludwig Sand
on May 5, 1820 in Mannheim

Nicolas Doxat de Demoret ; also Nikolaus ; also Moriz Nikolaus ; also Doxat de Moretz and Doxat by Morez and also Dochat ; (Born November 3, 1682 in Yverdon ; † March 20, 1738 in Belgrade ) was a Swiss officer and fortress builder .

Life

Nicolas Doxat was born to Joseph zu Démoret (co-lord of Démoret) and Marguerite von Stürler . He was a Reformed denomination and a citizen of Démoret . He remained single and had the title of baron ; his estimated fortune was given at 30,000  fl .

Doxat was initially in Dutch and Palatinate , then in imperial service. In 1708 he was present at the siege of Lille . As a military engineer, he designed various fortifications in Flanders from 1709 to 1711 . In 1712 he entered the service of Austria, took part in the battle of Denain and the Sicilian campaign. As Lieutenant Colonel and Quartermaster General , he took part in the battle against the Turks in the Venetian-Austrian Turkish War on August 5, 1716 with the Battle of Peterwardein and the Battle of Belgrade under the general Prince Eugene . He was badly wounded during the previous siege of Temesvár . In Temesvár he fought at the side of Count Claudius Florimund Mercy and had found in him a great patron. For the victory in Belgrade he was promoted to major general in 1732. He had the conquered Belgrade fortified and led the vanguard, which Niš conquered on July 28, 1737 .

After a three-month siege of the city of Niš by Ali Pâsa with 20,000 men, he surrendered the city on October 18, 1737 without a fight and received free retreat. The Turks outsmarted the general by claiming that by October 15 there were already over 80,000 men behind the ramparts and that there was no chance for the Austrian army to win the war. General Doxat did not want to risk the lives of his minority garrison soldiers and sought the advice of his officers. The situation was hopeless, the provisions were sufficient for six weeks, but the wells were drying up and no help from Khevenhüller and Seckendorff was to be expected. It was decided that no attack would take place if an unimpeded withdrawal of troops were ensured. This was recognized and complied with on the Turkish side. Because of his surrender he was charged with high treason and beheaded on March 20, 1738 in Belgrade .

“ Doxat ... was declared General Feldzeugmeister in 1733. Now he wanted to retire to Switzerland, which his patron Prince Eugene did not want to admit. Not long afterwards, when death had withdrawn it from him, the sun of his happiness darkened, and although with the torch of innocence and truth he uncovered the secret snake-like creep of his slanders and their sinister malice, these could not prevent him either was even raised to Lieutenant General Field Marshal, it was precisely this distinction and the command of the conquered Turkish fortress of Nissa that had been the unfortunate cause of his fall. For he gave it to the Turks by piece, when they had barely started shooting them; he was arrested for this and subsequently beheaded in Belgrade in 1738. So this excellent general fell, sacrificed to envy, private and religious hatred, and sometimes also to state intentions. "

- Quote from the necrology of memorable Swiss from the eighteenth century

His execution was a disaster:

“ It was at 7 o'clock in the morning when the guard brought him to the place designated for execution in Raizen City (Serbian city), not far from the barracks , where 480 men on foot and 200 cuirassiers stood in parade , who immediately went with him Creis (circle) closed. ... The executioner dealt him an unfortunate stroke that went too deep on the shoulders, over which he fell from his chair, but without screaming in the slightest, whereupon his head was cut off with the 4th stroke on earth. ... His servants put him in the coffin and carried him several steps to the grave in the large square by the imaginary barracks, where he was placed in the black coffin, which he himself had also acquired, and encased with the black cloth and armchair. "

- Zedler's Universal Lexicon

literature

  • Daniel-Marc-Antoine Chardon: Essai sur la colonie de Sainte-Lucie / par un ancien intendant de cette isle; suivi de troi mémoires intéressans, deux concernant les Jésuites, & le troisieme le general d'Oxat. Imprimerie de la Société typographique, Neuchâtel 1779.
  • Pierer's Universal Lexicon. Altenburg 1858, vol. 5, p. 283.
  • Emile Küpfer: La général Nicolas Doxat 1682–1738. In: Gazette de Lausanne. December 27, 1910.
  • Sven Stelling-Michaud: Deux études sur Nicolas Doxat. Imprimerie centrale, Lausanne 1936.
  • Paul de Vallière: Honor et fidélité: Histoire des Suisses au Service Étranger. Editions d'Art Suisse Ancien, Lausanne 1940, pp. 433–437.
  • Robert Doxat: Nikolaus Doxat , an imperial general and engineer of the 18th century - depicted mainly on the basis of the sources of the Austrian war archive in Vienna, a dissertation , published in Vienna, 1954
  • Jean-Jacques Langendorf: Twilight and Shadow. Shape the monarchy 1550–1900. Karolinger Verlag, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-85418-075-6 .
  • Virginia H. Aksan: Ottoman Wars 1700-1870: An Empire Besieged. Longman / Pearson, Harlow / England 2007, ISBN 978-0-582-30807-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: Imperial and imperial generals (1618-1815) , list at the Austrian State Archives (2006).
  2. ↑ De Moretz (French page)
    Doxat de Moretz . In: La Clef du Cabines
  3. ↑ The strange living conditions and the unfortunate beheading . In: Johann Ullrich von Schafgotsch : Kaiserl. Colonel and Lord of the Kynast, as well as the Kaiserl General Doxat von Morez (Leipzig 1757)
  4. ^ Felix Kanitz, Bogoljub Jovanović: The Kingdom of Serbia and the Serbs. Leipzig 1909, vol. 2, p. 142 ff ( online ).
    Felix Philipp Kanitz, Danube Bulgaria and the Balkans: Historical-geographical-ethnographic travel studies from the years 1860-1875, published by H. Fries (1875)
    Meyers Konversations-Lexikon: Edition: 3 of 1877, page 73
    in the retro library: “ Niche "(General Dochat)
  5. ↑ Gottlieb Emanuel von Haller Library of Swiss History and All Parts, so related to it. (1785; page 199, no.707.)
  6. ^ Doxat, Nicolas. In: Oesterreichische National-Encyklopädie. Vienna 1835–1837, Vol. 1, p. 744 f ( online ).
  7. ↑ Wounds from the battles are listed as follows: his right knee was shot in two, his left shoulder was bruised and his left hip was shot completely off. His body was full of scars.
  8. ↑ The large western works in front of the Beogradska mahala, some reduits for 3 guns each and some brick bastions on the city ​​wall .
  9. ↑ Major General Leopold Daun , the Kaiser, brought the verdict to Vienna, who confirmed the verdict.
  10. ^ Felix Kanitz, Bogoljub Jovanović: The Kingdom of Serbia and the Serbs. Leipzig 1909, vol. 2, p. 143 ( archive.org ).
  11. ^ Necrology of memorable Swiss from the eighteenth century : By Markus Lutz , Heinrich Remigius Sauerländer 1812, original from the University of Lausanne
  12. ↑ Morez, N. Doxat v .. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 21, Leipzig 1739, column 1626 f.
    The execution took place in the privileged upright sitting position.
  13. ^ Research, University Library Vienna, online catalog
personal data
SURNAME Doxat, Nicolas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Doxat de Demoret, Nicolas; Doxat, Moriz Nikolaus; Dochat, Nicholas; Moretz, Morez
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss officer and fortress builder
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1682
PLACE OF BIRTH Yverdon
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1738
Place of death Belgrade