Lodewijk van Bylandt
Encyclopedia
Lodewijk Count Van Bylandt (Keken, 1718–Hoeven
, 28 Dember, 1793) was a Dutch lieutenant-admiral. He gained a certain notoriety in the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
of 1779 and even more in consequence of the refusal of the Dutch navy to put out to sea to combine with the French fleet in Brest
in 1783, during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
, for which refusal many held him responsible. He was court-martialed and exonerated in the first case, and in the second case an inquiry into his conduct was long delayed and eventually quietly abandoned after stadtholder
William V
had prevailed against the Patriots
in 1787. This made his promotion to lieutenant-admiral (the highest rank in the Dutch navy, as that of General Admiral
could only be held by the stadtholder)possible. He died in office as inspector-general and commander of the gunners corps of the navy of the Dutch Republic
.
of the House of Bylandt
), a Prussian high official, and Christina Maria Louisa Freiin (baroness) von Heyden - Broeck. He never married. He was a relative of several other high officers in the army and navy of the Dutch Republic and Kingdom of the Netherlands
, among whom Willem Frederik van Bylandt
, who commanded a brigade at the Battle of Waterloo
.
) in 1736 in which year he sailed on a cruise to Curaçao
. He attained the rank of captain
in 1747. In 1756 he was captain of West Stellingwerff and in 1768 of Thetis with which he took part in expeditions against the Barbary corsairs
in those years. In 1775 Van Bylandt was acting-commander of a Dutch naval expedition (with the rank of rear-admiral) against Morocco
. This expedition was successful in its object to force Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah to sue for peace.
After the start of the American Revolution
Dutch merchants became heavily involved in trade with the new American Republic. The Dutch West India Company
had an entrepôt
in its colony of St. Eustatius where American merchants came to trade in colonial wares like tobacco and indigo (which had hitherto been prohibited to them under the British Navigation Acts
). Dutch and French merchants imported guns and munitions, and also naval stores to St. Eustatius, which were then re-exported to the rebellious American colonies. The British considered such trade "illegal" and tried to hinder it by enforcing a trade embargo
with the help of British privateer
s, which were a real encumbance to American merchantmen that visited the island, and also to Dutch, French and other neutral shipping (France was at this time not yet at war with Great Britain). To suppress this privateer activity the Dutch government sent a Dutch naval squadron under Van Bylandt to the West Indies. He remained there a year and was successful in keeping the privateers at bay. (Note that at this time the Dutch Republic was still neutral and was just defending its rights as such).
After France and Spain became involved in the War of the American Revolution in 1778 Dutch merchants also were heavily involved in trade with these belligerents in goods that the British considered contraband
, but that fell outside the narrow definition of that concept in the Anglo-Dutch Commercial Treaty of 1668. This treaty guaranteed Dutch shipping a privileged status and exempted it from trade embargoes enforced by the British Royal Navy
as far as non-contraband goods were concerned. A diplomatic conflict between Great Britain now ensued about the interpretation of this treaty and of the definition of "contraband" under it. The British tried to declare naval stores, like ship's timbers, spars, masts, rope, tar and pitch "contraband," against which the Dutch maintained the narrow definition of the treaty as only "arms and munitions." The trade in naval stores was important to France, as her naval construction depended on it. France therefore strongly opposed the tendency of the pro-British Dutch government of stadtholder
William V
to give in to the British demands and insisted on the Dutch "defending their treaty rights" to the point of selectively using economic sanctions against Dutch cities that supported the stadtholder's policy on this point. In November, 1799, the States-General of the Netherlands
therefore directed the stadtholder (as commander-in-chief of the Dutch navy) to offer limited convoy to Dutch merchants. This was a compromise, as it still excluded protection of merchantmen transporting naval stores to belligerents, but it was hoped that other, even more innocent Dutch vessels could be protected from the harassment of the Royal Navy and British privateers in this way.
One of the first convoys, escorted by five Dutch warships under command of Van Bylandt, departed from the Texel
in December, 1779, and was intercepted by a far stronger British squadron near the Isle of Wight
on December 30, 1779. This led to the celebrated Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
in which Bylandt was forced to strike his colors after firing just one broadside. This humiliation caused a furore in the Dutch Republic in which the stadtholder was also attacked. Van Bylandt demanded a special court-martial to clear his name of accusations of cowardice and treason, and he was acquitted.
After the Affair the relations between the Republic and Great Britain steadily deteriorated, and the latter started the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
in December, 1780. The Dutch colonies in the West Indies were immediately attacked and Great Britain soon captured St. Eustatius that was subsequently devastated by admiral Rodney
. According to his biographer Molhuysen Van Bylandt was also sent to the area and he successfully organized the defense of Curaçao, which remained in Dutch hands. However, other sources, notably Dirks, tell us that Bylandt was never directly involved in the defense of Curaçao, but only detached a ship of the squadron with which he was staying in Lisbon
at the time for that purpose.
After his return to the Netherlands in 1781 he was promoted to vice-admiral and ordered to contest the British blockade of the Dutch coast. He found the state of the Dutch fleet so deplorable, however, that nothing came of this. As the stadtholder resisted a formal alliance with the French there was little cooperation between the Dutch, and the French and Spanish armed forces in the common war with Great Britain, which the Republic conducted as if it were alone. The French strongly favored informal cooperation in specific projects, however, and the stadtholder was not always able to prevent those. One of these projects was the combination of the French and Dutch fleets at Brest
in late 1782 (when the main British fleet had sailed to Spain to defend Gibraltar
), with the objective of either harassing the British coast, or attacking the British West-Indies fleet of admiral Rodney that was expected to return around this time. After long dithering the Dutch decided to provide ten ships of the line for such a project, and Van Bylandt was put in charge of this squadron. When he had inspected the ships he refused point-blank to sail in them, however, as he considered their state of readiness insufficient. In this refusal he was supported by the other Dutch commanders. The Dutch government was therefore forced to admit to the French that it was unable to provide the promised naval support.
This again caused a furore in the Republic and public opinion also held the stadtholder responsible for the fiasco, though he for once had supported the expedition. The States of Holland demanded a public inquiry and the commission that conducted that inquiry recommended prosecution of the officers involved, especially Van Bylandt. This time a court-martial was not deemed to be sufficient, but the case was taken up by a special judicial commission of the States-General at the end of 1783. The trial only started in 1785 (after the war had already ended) and was dragged out by his friends. Meanwhile the revolt of the Patriots
took its course and the military intervention of the Prussians and British in 1787, that ended that revolt, also enabled the stadtholder to quietly end the inquiry.
Van Bylandt had never lost the favor of the stadtholder and the latter was now able to promote him to lieutenant-admiral. He was given the prestigious function of inspector-general of the corps of naval gunners. He died in 1793, still in office.
During his career he made great contributions to codification of naval tactics with his Zeetactiek of Grondregelen der krijgskunde ter zee ("Naval tactics or Fundamentals of military science at sea;" Amsterdam, 1767) and he is also credited with restoring discipline in the fleet, which apparently had reached a low level at some point.
Hoeven
Hoeven is a village in the municipality of Halderberge in the Netherlands. The name Hoeven originated from the purchase of a certain amount of ground in 1282 by the abbey of Cistercienser of St. Bernard. This amount was equal to 100 "hoeven", a local measure of area in those days. A hoeve is...
, 28 Dember, 1793) was a Dutch lieutenant-admiral. He gained a certain notoriety in the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
The Affair of Fielding and Bylandt refers to a brief naval engagement off the Isle of Wight on 31 December 1779 between a Royal Navy squadron, commanded by Commodore Charles Fielding, and a naval squadron of the Dutch Republic, commanded by rear-admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt, escorting a Dutch convoy...
of 1779 and even more in consequence of the refusal of the Dutch navy to put out to sea to combine with the French fleet in Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
in 1783, during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...
, for which refusal many held him responsible. He was court-martialed and exonerated in the first case, and in the second case an inquiry into his conduct was long delayed and eventually quietly abandoned after stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
William V
William V, Prince of Orange
William V , Prince of Orange-Nassau was the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and between 1795 and 1806 he led the Government of the Dutch Republic in Exile in London. He was succeeded by his son William I...
had prevailed against the Patriots
Patriots (faction)
The Patriots were a political faction in the Dutch Republic in the second half of the 18th century. They were led by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, gaining power from November 1782....
in 1787. This made his promotion to lieutenant-admiral (the highest rank in the Dutch navy, as that of General Admiral
General Admiral
General admiral was a Danish, Dutch, German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish naval rank. Its historic origin is a title high military or naval dignitaries of early modern Europe sometimes held, for example the commander-in-chief of the Dutch Republic's navy .-Third Reich:In the German...
could only be held by the stadtholder)possible. He died in office as inspector-general and commander of the gunners corps of the navy of the Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
.
Family life
Van Bylandt was the son of Ludwig Roeleman, Imperial Count of Bylandt-Halt (a cadet branchCadet branch
Cadet branch is a term in genealogy to describe the lineage of the descendants of the younger sons of a monarch or patriarch. In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets – titles, realms, fiefs, property and income – have...
of the House of Bylandt
House of Bylandt
The House of Bylandt is the name of an ancient house of the nobility originating in the Lower Rhine region. It later split into the cadet branches of Bylandt-Well, Bylandt-Rheydt and Bylandt-Halt-Spaldorf.-History:...
), a Prussian high official, and Christina Maria Louisa Freiin (baroness) von Heyden - Broeck. He never married. He was a relative of several other high officers in the army and navy of the Dutch Republic and Kingdom of the Netherlands
Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...
, among whom Willem Frederik van Bylandt
Willem Frederik van Bylandt
Willem Frederik count of Bylandt or Bijlandt was a Dutch lieutenant-general who as a major-general commanded a Belgian-Dutch infantry brigade at the Battle of Quatre Bras and the Battle of Waterloo.-Family Life:Bylandt was the son of major-general Alexander count of Bylandt and Anne, baroness Van...
, who commanded a brigade at the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
.
Career
Van Bylandt entered the Dutch navy as an adelborst (midshipmanMidshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
) in 1736 in which year he sailed on a cruise to Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. He attained the rank of captain
Captain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
in 1747. In 1756 he was captain of West Stellingwerff and in 1768 of Thetis with which he took part in expeditions against the Barbary corsairs
Barbary corsairs
The Barbary Corsairs, sometimes called Ottoman Corsairs or Barbary Pirates, were pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, a term derived from the name of its Berber...
in those years. In 1775 Van Bylandt was acting-commander of a Dutch naval expedition (with the rank of rear-admiral) against Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. This expedition was successful in its object to force Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah to sue for peace.
After the start of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
Dutch merchants became heavily involved in trade with the new American Republic. The Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
had an entrepôt
Entrepôt
An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt...
in its colony of St. Eustatius where American merchants came to trade in colonial wares like tobacco and indigo (which had hitherto been prohibited to them under the British Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the...
). Dutch and French merchants imported guns and munitions, and also naval stores to St. Eustatius, which were then re-exported to the rebellious American colonies. The British considered such trade "illegal" and tried to hinder it by enforcing a trade embargo
Embargo
An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...
with the help of British privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s, which were a real encumbance to American merchantmen that visited the island, and also to Dutch, French and other neutral shipping (France was at this time not yet at war with Great Britain). To suppress this privateer activity the Dutch government sent a Dutch naval squadron under Van Bylandt to the West Indies. He remained there a year and was successful in keeping the privateers at bay. (Note that at this time the Dutch Republic was still neutral and was just defending its rights as such).
After France and Spain became involved in the War of the American Revolution in 1778 Dutch merchants also were heavily involved in trade with these belligerents in goods that the British considered contraband
Contraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
, but that fell outside the narrow definition of that concept in the Anglo-Dutch Commercial Treaty of 1668. This treaty guaranteed Dutch shipping a privileged status and exempted it from trade embargoes enforced by the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
as far as non-contraband goods were concerned. A diplomatic conflict between Great Britain now ensued about the interpretation of this treaty and of the definition of "contraband" under it. The British tried to declare naval stores, like ship's timbers, spars, masts, rope, tar and pitch "contraband," against which the Dutch maintained the narrow definition of the treaty as only "arms and munitions." The trade in naval stores was important to France, as her naval construction depended on it. France therefore strongly opposed the tendency of the pro-British Dutch government of stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
William V
William V, Prince of Orange
William V , Prince of Orange-Nassau was the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and between 1795 and 1806 he led the Government of the Dutch Republic in Exile in London. He was succeeded by his son William I...
to give in to the British demands and insisted on the Dutch "defending their treaty rights" to the point of selectively using economic sanctions against Dutch cities that supported the stadtholder's policy on this point. In November, 1799, the States-General of the Netherlands
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
therefore directed the stadtholder (as commander-in-chief of the Dutch navy) to offer limited convoy to Dutch merchants. This was a compromise, as it still excluded protection of merchantmen transporting naval stores to belligerents, but it was hoped that other, even more innocent Dutch vessels could be protected from the harassment of the Royal Navy and British privateers in this way.
One of the first convoys, escorted by five Dutch warships under command of Van Bylandt, departed from the Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
in December, 1779, and was intercepted by a far stronger British squadron near the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
on December 30, 1779. This led to the celebrated Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
The Affair of Fielding and Bylandt refers to a brief naval engagement off the Isle of Wight on 31 December 1779 between a Royal Navy squadron, commanded by Commodore Charles Fielding, and a naval squadron of the Dutch Republic, commanded by rear-admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt, escorting a Dutch convoy...
in which Bylandt was forced to strike his colors after firing just one broadside. This humiliation caused a furore in the Dutch Republic in which the stadtholder was also attacked. Van Bylandt demanded a special court-martial to clear his name of accusations of cowardice and treason, and he was acquitted.
After the Affair the relations between the Republic and Great Britain steadily deteriorated, and the latter started the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...
in December, 1780. The Dutch colonies in the West Indies were immediately attacked and Great Britain soon captured St. Eustatius that was subsequently devastated by admiral Rodney
George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney
George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782...
. According to his biographer Molhuysen Van Bylandt was also sent to the area and he successfully organized the defense of Curaçao, which remained in Dutch hands. However, other sources, notably Dirks, tell us that Bylandt was never directly involved in the defense of Curaçao, but only detached a ship of the squadron with which he was staying in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
at the time for that purpose.
After his return to the Netherlands in 1781 he was promoted to vice-admiral and ordered to contest the British blockade of the Dutch coast. He found the state of the Dutch fleet so deplorable, however, that nothing came of this. As the stadtholder resisted a formal alliance with the French there was little cooperation between the Dutch, and the French and Spanish armed forces in the common war with Great Britain, which the Republic conducted as if it were alone. The French strongly favored informal cooperation in specific projects, however, and the stadtholder was not always able to prevent those. One of these projects was the combination of the French and Dutch fleets at Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
in late 1782 (when the main British fleet had sailed to Spain to defend Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
), with the objective of either harassing the British coast, or attacking the British West-Indies fleet of admiral Rodney that was expected to return around this time. After long dithering the Dutch decided to provide ten ships of the line for such a project, and Van Bylandt was put in charge of this squadron. When he had inspected the ships he refused point-blank to sail in them, however, as he considered their state of readiness insufficient. In this refusal he was supported by the other Dutch commanders. The Dutch government was therefore forced to admit to the French that it was unable to provide the promised naval support.
This again caused a furore in the Republic and public opinion also held the stadtholder responsible for the fiasco, though he for once had supported the expedition. The States of Holland demanded a public inquiry and the commission that conducted that inquiry recommended prosecution of the officers involved, especially Van Bylandt. This time a court-martial was not deemed to be sufficient, but the case was taken up by a special judicial commission of the States-General at the end of 1783. The trial only started in 1785 (after the war had already ended) and was dragged out by his friends. Meanwhile the revolt of the Patriots
Patriots (faction)
The Patriots were a political faction in the Dutch Republic in the second half of the 18th century. They were led by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, gaining power from November 1782....
took its course and the military intervention of the Prussians and British in 1787, that ended that revolt, also enabled the stadtholder to quietly end the inquiry.
Van Bylandt had never lost the favor of the stadtholder and the latter was now able to promote him to lieutenant-admiral. He was given the prestigious function of inspector-general of the corps of naval gunners. He died in 1793, still in office.
During his career he made great contributions to codification of naval tactics with his Zeetactiek of Grondregelen der krijgskunde ter zee ("Naval tactics or Fundamentals of military science at sea;" Amsterdam, 1767) and he is also credited with restoring discipline in the fleet, which apparently had reached a low level at some point.