Maximilian of Egmont was Count of Buren

Buren

Buren is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. It is also a county; with the Dutch Monarch still holding the title "Count of Buren".- Population centres :...

 and Leerdam

Leerdam

Leerdam is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland.The municipality covers an area of 34.32 km² of which 0.53 km² is water. It comprises the town of Leerdam, the rural villages Kedichem, Schoonrewoerd and Oosterwijk. The south border of the...

, and 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...

 of Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

 (succeeding George Schenck) from 1540 until 1548. He was the son of Floris van Egmont

Floris van Egmont

Floris van Egmond was count of Buren and Leerdam and Lord of IJsselstein and Sint Maartensdijk. He was stadtholder of Guelders and Friesland...

 whom he succeeded as count after his father's death in 1539.


He studied Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 at the Catholic University of Leuven

Catholic University of Leuven

The Catholic University of Leuven, or of Louvain, was the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium. The university was founded in 1425 as the University of Leuven by John IV, Duke of Brabant and approved by a Papal bull by Pope Martin V.During France's occupation of Belgium in the...

 in 1516 and was a friend of the 16th century intellectual Erasmus. By 1528 he was at the court of Erard de la Marck

Erard de la Marck

Erard de la Marck was prince-bishop of Liège from 1506 till 1538. He was the third son of Robert I de la Marck, lord of Sedan and Bouillon....

, Prince-Bishop of Liege.

In 1537 he was in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and was made a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece

Order of the Golden Fleece

The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It evolved as one of the most prestigious orders in Europe...

 for distinguishing himself as military commander of the Dutch army against France. He later saw action in the Schmalkaldic War

Schmalkaldic War

The Schmalkaldic War refers to the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire, commanded by Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League within the domains of the Holy Roman...

 from 1546 to 1547.
Maximilian married Françoise de Lannoy in 1531 and had one child, Anna van Egmont

Anna van Egmont

Anna van Egmont was a wealthy Dutch heiress who became the first wife of William the Silent, Prince of Orange.Anna was born in Grave. As the only child of Maximiliaan van Egmond and Françoise de Lannoy, she was suo jure Countess of Buren and Lady of Egmond...

, who later married William the Silent

William the Silent

William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...

, Prince of Orange

Prince of Orange

Prince of Orange is a title of nobility, originally associated with the Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France. In French it is la Principauté d'Orange....

 in 1551.

In England he is remembered as an ally of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 during the period of war between England, Scotland and France (1544–1551) known as The Rough Wooing

The Rough Wooing

The War of the Rough Wooing was fought between Scotland and England. War was declared by Henry VIII of England, in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots. Scotland benefited from French military aid. Edward VI continued the war until...

.

After the 1544 siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...

 of Boulogne-sur-Mer

Boulogne-sur-Mer

-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....

 Egmont presented the king with the basilisk

Basilisk (cannon)

The basilisk was a very heavy bronze cannon employed during the Middle Ages. The barrel of a basilisk could weigh up to 4,000 lb and could have a calibre of up to 5 inches...

 Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol

Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol

Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol is a cannon built in 1544 in Utrecht by Jan Tolhuys, before Elizabeth came to the throne. The gun was presented to Henry VIII by Maximiliaan van Egmond, Count of Buren and Stadtholder of Friesland as a gift for his young daughter Elizabeth.The cannon measures 24ft in...

 as a gift for his young daughter the future Elizabeth I.

He died of sickness in 1548, attended by the surgeon Vesalius

Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius was a Flemish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica . Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. Vesalius is the Latinized form of Andries van Wesel...

. On his death bed he wore full armor and drank the health of the Holy Roman Emperor.