Jacques Pastur: Difference between revisions

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==Life==

===Personal life===

 

===Career===

The battle meanwhile continued in the morning of 18 August 1705, as the Allied army under Marlborough and [[Henry de Nassau, Lord Overkirk|Nassau-Overkirk]] marched through the Sonian Forest to the vicinity of the [[Groenendael Priory]], in an effort to reach the heights commanding the [[City of Brussels]]. The Franco-Spanish army commanded by Maximilian blocked this manoeuver by making a stand at [[Watermael-Boitsfort|Boitsfort]]. Generals [[Marquis of Verboom|Verboom]] and Grimaldi managed to block the Allied advance near Groenendaal. The [[Irish Brigade (France)|Irish Brigade]] under [[Charles O'Brien, 5th Viscount Clare|lord Clare]] and Flemish troops came to reinforce them, followed by the infantry brigades of [[Bavarian Army|Bavaria]], [[Picardy]], and a Spanish brigade under d'Alvelda. Together they forced the Allies to retreat in disorder. Pastur managed to take many prisoners that day from among the Dutch troops of general [[Ernst Wilhelm von Salisch,]] and the English light infantry. The next day the Allied army retreated across the [[Dyle (river)|Dyle]] in good order near Laurensart. This was the last time Pastur fought near the Sonian Forest.<ref name=pierron1017-109>Pierron, pp. 107-109</ref>

 

 

In later years, he apparently specialized in the type of cavalry raids that were the only recourse left to the Franco-Belgian army, after it had lost the war in the Southern Netherlands. His largest exploit was a deeply penetrating cavalry raid of about 1500 troopers into the [[Generality Lands]] of the Dutch Republic in August 1712, which brought him through [[North Brabant]] to the [[Tholen|city of Tholen]],{{efn|Tholen was at the time one of the four voting cities in the States of Zeeland.}} which city he ransacked and burned on 25 August.<ref name=quincy83-85>Quincy, pp. 83-85</ref><ref name=Lennep289>Van Lennep, p. 289</ref><ref name=cayron231-236>Cayron, pp. 231-236</ref> This raid was a retaliation for a similar [[Grovestins' Cavalry Raid|raid]] through Northern France executed by the Dutch general [[Frederik Sirtema van Grovestins]] in July 1712.<ref name=pierron109 /> [[Charles Sevin de Quincy|Quincy]] relates that Pastur at the head of his dragoons started during the night of 23 to 24 August 1712 from [[Namur]] (including part of the garrison of that fortress). Despite the need to cross several rivers, he arrived on 25 August in the vicinity of [[Bergen op Zoom]] where he divided his force into three parts. He himself went with about 300 troopers toward Tholen, while the two other detachments went towards [[Heusden]] in the east, and [[Fort Lillo]] in the west. The entire area between Bergen op Zoom and [['s-Hertogenbosch]], and Heusden and Lillo, was put under "Contribution".{{efn|This was a kind of "regulated extortion" used by both sides in the war. The people in an affected community were, under threat of burning their houses down, forced to pay a certain some of money, called the ''contribution'', that usually did not exceed normal taxes, and they were allowed by their own authorities to deduct that sum from their normal taxes. This was put into a formal agreement with the affected authorities, that would be enforceable by actual violence if the agreement was not honored.<ref name=dop55>Van Dop, p.55</ref>}} To ensure payment about sixty hostages were taken, mostly people in authority, like [[burgomaster]]s, [[Bailiff (France)|bailiff]]s, and other magistrates. In retaliation for the depredations of Grovestins, according to Quincy, Pastur could have burned down Tholen and [[Steenbergen]] in their entirety, but it sufficed for him to just put a few houses to the torch, to make his point, and left it to the inhabitants to extinguish the fire. His troopers showed less moderation as they pillaged the communities, taking most of the possessions of the richer inhabitants. While Pastur was busy with his punitive expedition, the garrisons of the fortified places in the area mobilized to pursue him and if possible, surround him. [[Prince Eugene of Savoy|Prince Eugene]] sent a detachment of 30 squadrons of cavalry to [[Leuven]] to try and cut him off at the pass, but it was in vain as they arrived three hours after Pastur had already passed the city on his way back to Namur, where he arrived on the night of 27 August , with his sixty hostages, and a large amount of war booty, among which a hundred drayhorses. He had lost just one dragoon.<ref name=quincy84-85>Quincy, pp. 84-85</ref>

==Sources==

* {{cite book|author=Cayron, J.R.|title=La véritable histoire de Jacques Pastur dit Jaco brigadier de cavalerie et de dragons au service de l'Espagne|place=Bruxelles|year= 1953|publisher= Coll. d'histoire militaire belge|language=fr}}

* {{cite book |last=Van Lennep |first=Jacob |title=De geschiedenis van Nederland, aan het Nederlandsche Volk verteld|volume=3|trans-title=The history of the Netherlands, told to the Dutch nation|place=Leiden|year=1880|contribution=Twinstigste hoodstuk|pages=276–291 |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/lenn006gesc07_01/lenn006gesc07_01_0020.php|language=nl|access-date=12 August 2023}}

* {{Cite book |last=Wijn |first=J.W. |title=Het Staatsche Leger: Deel VIII-2 Het tijdperk van de Spaanse Successieoorlog 1706–1710 (The Dutch States Army: Part VIII-2 The era of the War of the Spanish Succession 1706–1710) |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff |date=1959|language=Dutch}}