Jean Victor de Constant Rebecque
| Jean Victor de Constant Rebecque | |
|---|---|
Jean Victor de Constant Rebecque
by Jan Baptist van der Hulst |
|
| Born | 22 September 1773 Genève, Republic of Geneva |
| Died | 12 June 1850 Schönfeld, Austrian Silesia |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Service/ |
General Staff |
| Years of service | 1788–1837 |
| Rank | lieutenant-general |
| Unit | Netherlands Mobile Army |
| Battles/wars |
Peninsular War Battle of Waterloo Belgian Revolution Ten Days Campaign |
| Awards | Knight Commander Military William Order |
Jean Victor baron de Constant Rebecque (22 September 1773 – 12 June 1850) was a Swiss lieutenant-general in Dutch service of French ancestry. As chief-of-staff of the Netherlands Mobile Army he countermanded the order of the Duke of Wellington to evacuate Dutch troops from Quatre Bras on the eve of the Battle of Quatre Bras, thereby preventing Marshal Michel Ney from occupying that strategic crossroads.
Rebecque was the son of François Marie Samuël de Constant d'Hermenches, seigneur d'Hermenches (1729–1800) and his second wife Louise Cathérine Gallatin (1736–1814). The father was, like the grandfather Samuel Constant de Rebecque (1676–1782) (who reached the rank of lieutenant-general), a Swiss officer in the service of the Dutch Republic. A nephew (not a brother as sometimes erroneously stated) was Benjamin Constant. Jean Victor de Constant Rebecque married Isabella Catharina Anna Jacoba baroness van Lynden (1768–1836) in Braunschweig on 29 April 1798.
They had children:
Rebecque entered the service of France as a sous-lieutenant in a regiment of Swiss Guards in 1788. He started a journal that year that he faithfully kept every day of the rest of his life, thereby providing useful source material to historians. On 10 August 1792 his regiment was massacred at the Tuileries Palace by French revolutionaries, but he escaped with his life. He returned to Switzerland where he was in military service until he (like his ancestors before him) entered the service of the Dutch Republic in 1793 in the regiment of Prince Frederick (a younger son of stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange). After the fall of the Republic, and the proclamation of the Batavian Republic he first entered British service (1795–1798) and subsequently Prussian service (1798–1811). During that Prussian service from 1805 he tutored the future William II of the Netherlands in military science and helped him pass his exams as a Prussian officer. When William started his studies at Oxford University he accompanied the young prince there and obtained a doctorate honoris causa from Oxford himself in 1811.
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