Wilhelm René de l'Homme de Courbière

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Wilhelm René de l'Homme de Courbière
Graudenz, Kingdom of Prussia
Allegiance Dutch Republic
 Kingdom of Prussia
Service/branchDutch States Army
Prussian Army
Years of service1746–1753
1757–1811
RankGeneralfeldmarschall
Battles/warsWar of the Austrian Succession
Seven Years' War

French Revolutionary Wars
Napoleonic Wars

Awards
Pour le Merite
Order of the Black Eagle
Order of the Red Eagle

Wilhelm René de l'Homme de Courbière (25 February 1733 – 23 July 1811) was a Prussian field marshal who served in several wars of the 18th century and during the

Peace of Tilsit
, until the siege was finally lifted after 11 months.

Early life

Wilhelm René [Note 1] de l'Homme de Courbière was born on 25 February 1733 into a Franco-Dutch family, paternally expatriates from the Dauphiné province, in Maastricht in the Dutch Republic. Following his father, Alexis Baron de l’Homme de Courbière, young Courbière joined the Dutch States Army in 1746. He served with the Regiment d’Aylva in the War of the Austrian Succession, participating in the defense of Bergen op Zoom. He left Dutch service in 1753 and entered the Prussian Army as a company commander in 1757. Then he served in the Third Silesian and Pomeranian wars. Gaining the attention of King Frederick the Great, after the Siege of Schweidnitz (1758) he was given the rank of Major and command of a free battalion.[1][2][3] After the Siege of Dresden he received the Pour le Mérite.[4][5] He also fought at Liegnitz and Torgau.[1]

Prussian service

When the war ended he stayed in the army as garrison commander at

General der Infanterie.[1] In 1802 he was bestowed with the knighthood of the Order of the Black Eagle.[3]

Napoleonic Wars

The city and fortress of Graudenz along the Vistula river

In 1803 he was made governor and garrison commander at

Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno before Rouyer took over again.[10]

Graudenz was still in Prussian hands when the

Peace of Tilsit was signed on 9 July, however Courbière did not receive confirmation of this until 27 July. Enclosed in the official dispatch was a royal commission promoting him to Generalfeldmarschall.[11] Meanwhile, the French, against the statutes of the signed treaty, upheld their blockade of the fortress and continued to occupy the area; their troops now consisted mainly of Saxons under General Georg Friedrich August von Polenz. After the borders between Prussia and the new Duchy of Warsaw were finally set, with Graudenz remaining Prussian territory, on 12 December the blockade was lifted and the last French troops left the city. The siege had ended after 313 days with some 3,140 men remaining in the garrison.[12]

Later life and legacy

Courbiere's house within the citadel at Graudenz

Afterwards Courbière was named governor general of West Prussia and kept his official residence in Graudenz. He died there on 23 July 1811 and was laid to rest in the garden of the fortress headquarters.[2][13]

The general was the namesake of two regiments; the 58th Infantry Regiment "von Courbière", which eventually became the 7th (2nd West Prussian) Grenadier Regiment "King William I", and decades later the 19th (2nd Posen) Infantry Regiment "von Courbière".[14] Likewise the fortress he defended carried his name from 1893 until it became a Polish possession in 1920 after World War I.[15] His monument there was removed in the same year.[16] He also was the namesake of streets in Emden and Berlin as well as a square in the latter.[17][18][19]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ While originally named Guillaume René, the Germanised version is Wilhelm Reinhard. He is mostly referred to in the combined form of Wilhelm René.
  2. ^ The reply, made in French, has been given as Eh bien, ça se peut; mais s’il n’y a plus un Roi de Prusse, il existe encore un roi de Graudenz. or alternatively as Eh bien, ça se peut; mais s’il n’y a plus un Roi de Prusse, il existe au moins un roi de Graudenz; with some thinking that King of Graudenz was meant to refer to Courbière himself.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d Fischer, p. 15
  2. ^ a b c d von Alten, p. 851
  3. ^ a b Woodward/Cates, p. 378
  4. ^ Henninger, p. 1
  5. ^ a b Lippe-Weißenfeld
  6. ^ Henninger, pp. 2-3
  7. ^ Fischer, pp. 16, 18-19
  8. ^ Fischer, pp. 24-31
  9. ^ Fischer, pp. 32-35
  10. ^ Fischer, p. 35, 40, 42
  11. ^ Fischer, pp. 47-50
  12. ^ Fischer, p. 50, 54
  13. ^ Fischer, pp. 55-56
  14. ^ Fischer, p. 55
  15. ^ Monzer, p. 293
  16. ^ Paetzold, p. 13
  17. ^ Henninger, p. 3
  18. ^ Scholtze, p. 176
  19. ^ Elfert

References

  • Fischer, Paul (1907). Feste Graudienz 1807 unter Gouverneur de Courbiere - Geschichte der Blockade und Belagerung (PDF) (in German). Graudenz: Verlag Arnold Kriedte.
  • von Alten, Georg Karl Friedrich Viktor (1910). "Courbiere.1". Handbuch für Heer und Flotte (in German). II. Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong: 851.
  • Longmans, Green and Co.
    p. 378.
  • Henninger, Wolfgang (1997). "Wilhelm Ren' Baron de l'Homme de COURBIÉRE" (PDF). Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland (in German). II.
    ISBN 3-932206-00-2
    .
  • Graf zur Lippe-Weißenfeld, Ernst (1876). "Courbière, Wilhelm René Baron de l'Homme de". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). IV. Munich: Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities: 534–535.
  • Monzer, Frieder (2012). Posen, Thorn, Bromberg: mit Großpolen, Kujawien und Südostpommern (in German). Trescher Verlag. p. 293.
    ISBN 9783897942011
    .
  • Paetzold, Friedrich-Wilhelm (1987). Geschichte des Grenadier-Regiments König Wilhelm I. (2. Westpreussisches) Nr. 7 (in German). Weber. p. 13.
  • Scholtze, Gisela (1993). Charlottenburg und seine Strassen: Strassennamen im Spiegel der Zeiten (in German). Hentrich. p. 176.
    ISBN 9783894680404
    .
  • Elfert, Eberhard (2013). "Max-Josef-Metzger-Platz: Nur scheinbar unscheinbares Grün". Weddingweiser (in German).
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