Louis of Nassau
Louis of Nassau (Dutch: Lodewijk van Nassau, January 10, 1538 – April 14, 1574) was the third son of William I, Count of Nassau-Siegen and Juliana of Stolberg, and the younger brother of Prince William of Orange Nassau.
Louis was a key figure in the
The Compromise
In 1566 he was one of the leaders of the league of lesser nobles who signed the
Battle of Heiligerlee
With the coming of
The Army under Louis's command would eventually be the only one to gain a victory. Jean de Villers and his troops were captured two days after they crossed the Meuse, while the Huguenots were attacked and defeated by French royal troops at St. Valery. Jean de Villers eventually betrayed the entire campaign and the sources of the war-treasury to his interrogators.
Louis entered Friesland on April 24, to which Alva responded by sending an army under the command of
Battle of Jemmingen
Although
Mons
After Jemmingen, Louis re-joined his brother
Louis quickly raised a small force in France, and entered
Battle of Mookerheyde
In 1574 funds were running low and the Spanish were closing in on Middelburg and Leiden. Hoping for a diversion in the south, William wrote to Louis asking for help. That spring, Louis, along with his youngest Nassau brother Henry and the Elector Palatine’s son Christopher of Bavaria, crossed the Meuse with their army. They hoped to be a decent diversion but found themselves outmaneuvered by the Spanish troops under an experienced leader, Sancho d'Avila. Leading the charge on the Spanish Louis was shot in the arm. He carried on, pretending he was fine, but was losing blood so fast that his friends took him away from the battle. He was brought to a nearby hut, where he ordered his friends to save themselves. Louis was never seen again, neither alive nor dead. His brother Henry and Christopher of Bavaria were also lost in the Battle of Mookerheyde.[6]
References
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Louis of Nassau". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 50. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Wedgwood, C.V., “William the Silent, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange 1533-1584”, ISBN I 842124013. p. 80
- ^ Motley, John Lothrop (1855). The Rise of the Dutch Republic.
- ^ "Gemmingen, donde 2.000 soldados de los Tercios arrollaron a 12.000 protestantes". 22 March 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-914059-70-4.
- ^ Dupuy, Trevor N., Curt Johnson and David Bongard, Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, (Castle Books, 1995), 539.