Grave 1674 III

Eerder heb ik al eens het werk van Knoop gememoreerd. Knoop komt duidelijk uit de patriottistische 19e eeuwse school, is uitermate pro-koningshuis en pro Willem III. Hij is daarnaast ook kritisch en heeft zeker oog voor beide kanten. Het voornaamste probleem in zijn werk is dat hij geen gebruik van noten of literatuurlijsten maakt.


In zijn werk over Willem III, 'Krijgs-en geschiedkundige beschouwingen over Willem den Derde', tweede deel, p112 ev, meldt het volgende over de Franse troepen bij Grave:



Knoop gebruikt Sylvius en de Europese Mercurius als bron en is daar zeer kritisch over. Over Sylvius: 'Zoo wordt op ééne plaats gezegd dat op den 15en juli de generaal-majoor Spaan met 1500 man Brandenburgse ruiterij in het leger voor Grave kwam, en eenige bladzijden verder 'dat Spaan met 3000 Bradenburgers den 12en Augustus voor Grave aankwam.

Over de Staatse sterkte schrijft hij verder:



en over de verliezen het volgende:




Geïnteresseerden kunnen mij e-mailen voor de rest van het hoofdstuk.

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Earlier on I made some reference to the works of Gen. Knoop. Knoop belongs to the patriotic historical school and has the reputation of being very pro William III. I don't think he is that bad as a historian, he speaks his languages (unlike some present modern day historians) and he does have a good grasp of matters and looks at both sides. His use of words is archaic and really bad is his lack of a notation system and literature list.

Anyway, I have scanned three pages from his book on William III, (in fact vol 2) about the siege of Grave. The first page deals with the French forces, the second with the States' forces and the third is a summary of the losses. It looks like knoop used the works of Sylvius (of which he is highly critical) and a newspaper called the 'Europese Mercurius'. Sylvius claims for instance that general Spaan arrived with 1500 Brandeburg troops on one day and on another day with 3000 troops!

So, for the French Knoop states that the besieged consisted of 71 companies, being 27 of the regiment Normandie, 10 of the regiment Bourgogne, 10 of Languedoc, 12 Dampierre, and 12 of the Regiment Vendome. Also there were 9 companies cavalry, six of the St-Louis regiment and three of the Carcado Regiment.

Commander of the infantry was Colonel Guiscard, Mestre-de-Camp of the cavalry was De Saint-Louis. Lieutenant du Roi (-commander of the city) was de Beton, marquis de Chamilly.

Nest, the States' troops:
Mid August there were the following cavalry regiments: Schwartsenburg, Amama, Wittgenstein, Burum, two companies of Wrangel's regiment, 2 Groningen companies, six Spaniards and 12 companies of Brandenburgers.

The foot regiments are described as follows:
- Rabenhaupt, 12 co.
- Golstein, 12 co.
- Beaumont, 12 co.
- Nieulant, 12 co.
- Dutil, 6 co.
- Klooster 12 co.
- Uilenburg, 11 co.
- Lutzow 12
- Lange 11,
- Hoorn 6 co.
- Verken 5 co.
- Hundebeek 11 co.
- Stek 6 co.
- Wagenheim 12 co.
- Wijnbergen 9 co.
- Hendrik Casimir (Frisian) 10 co.
- Coerland 12 co.
- Holstein Plön 5 co.
- Frits of Nassau 12 co.
2 co. from the town of Bommel and two from St-Andries,

in total 192 companies.
Knoop remarks that in the OOB of Seneffe also Holstein and Wittgenstein are mentioned, so there might be a double count somewhere. He estimates the total strenght on 16.000 men.

Finally the losses: several writers estimate the States' losses to a staggering 8000 men, and a minimum of 5000. French losses were minimal 2500 dead or wounded.

For those interested in the full text of Knoop, drop me a mail.