Portrait of Nicolaas Schmelzing by Jan van Ravesteyn and workshop Nationaal Militair Museum MH419

Nicolaas Schmelzing (1561 – 8 September 1629) was an Austrian nobleman, Dutch courtier and military commander, lieutenant-governor of the Province of

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...

during the early 17th century, and President of the Dutch War Council at the successful

Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch The siege of 's-Hertogenbosch also known as the ''siege of Bois-Le-Duc''Markham pp. 435-38 was an action in 1629, during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War in which a Dutch and English army captured the city of 's-Hertogenbosch. ...

in the Eighty-Years War, during which he was killed.

Life

Nicolaas Schmelzing was born in 1561 at Castle Zwickledt in Wernstein, Austria, as Niklas von Schmelzing, into a family which was raised to the hereditary nobility by Emperor Maximilian II in 1567 for previous services in the

Italian Wars The Italian Wars, also known as the Habsburg–Valois Wars, were a series of conflicts covering the period 1494 to 1559, fought mostly in the Italian peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and the Mediterranean Sea. The pr ...

. He emigrated in the early 1590s to the Dutch Provinces for religious reasons, and entered the service of the

Duke of Nassau The Duchy of Nassau (German: ''Herzogtum Nassau'') was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what is now the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine and later of the G ...

. In 1593 he was raised to the position of

Rittmeister __NOTOC__ (German and Scandinavian for "riding master" or "cavalry master") is or was a military rank of a commissioned cavalry officer in the armies of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Scandinavia, and some other countries. A ''Rittmeister'' is typic ...

upon recommendations of the Duke and

Maurice of Nassau Maurice of Orange ( nl, Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was '' stadtholder'' of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince ...

, and participated in the subsequent cavalry battle at Lippe. In 1616, he was elevated to be Lieutenant-Governor of the province of Overijssel to act as Maurice's deputy, and command all its garrisons. In his memoires, the Prince of Orange later credited Schmelzing for his timely intervention at the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom, and for the imprisonment of 1,200 Spanish forces under the command of

Ambrogio Spinola Ambrogio Spinola Doria, 1st Marquess of Los Balbases and 1st Duke of Sesto (1569-25 September 1630) was an Italian ''condottiero'' and nobleman of the Republic of Genoa, who served as a Spanish general and won a number of important battles. He i ...

near the town of

Ommen Ommen () is a municipality and a Hanseatic city in the eastern Netherlands. It is located in the Vecht valley of the Salland region in Overijssel. Historical records first name Ommen in the early 12th century and it was officially founded as a ...

. Frequenting regularly at Court in The Hague in his later years, he became a close acquaintance of the exiled Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, and also befriended

Constantijn Huygens Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem ( , , ; 4 September 159628 March 1687), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist C ...

. The latter dedicated a poem in 1628 to Schmelzing and Elizabeth. Schmelzing died on 8 September 1629 during the Siege at 's-Hertogenbosch, having been elected President of the executive War Council in 1625. He was given a stately funeral in

Heusden Heusden () is a municipality and a town in the South of the Netherlands. It is located between the towns of Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch. The municipality of Heusden, including Herpt, Heesbeen, Hedikhuizen, Doeveren, and Oudheusden, merged with ...

. His nephew Wolf Friedrich Schmelzing, who had moved from Austria to serve in the Dutch forces, and who reached the rank of Lieutenant by 1625, inherited his estates and art collections. He later relocated to Upper Austria, with his descendants and other family members continuing to serve in Austrian and later Prussian military positions into the 20th century.Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins fuer Niederbayern (ibid.,159, 170)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmelzing, Nicolaas Austrian nobility Dutch courtiers 1561 births 1629 deaths