When the first hastily organized Dutch troops fought off the French at Breda in December 1813, their commander wrote that their behavior under fire had been worthy of praise. In order to prove to the allies the Dutch were willing and able to help drive away the French, a new army had to be built from scratch. When Napoleon returned from exile in 1815 and marched his army into the newly formed Kingdom of the Netherlands, he met a Netherlands contingent of professional soldiers, fully armed, equipped, and dressed, and ready to defend the regained independence.
Worthy of Praise is not just a book about the build-up of the Netherlands’ army during and after the French occupation, up to the Waterloo campaign. Although it contains lots of detailed information about uniforms, arms and equipment, is packed with maps, orders of battle, and regimental genealogies, contains full color artwork, and shows much previously-unpublished material from contemporary sources and private collections, it is first and foremost a book about the men who served in that army. Some of the stories of these soldiers are the stuff of Hollywood movies. They tell of the men who served in the armies that fought in North Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Austria, Russia, Spain, Portugal, even as far as the United States, Suriname and Indonesia. Together they tell the story of the Netherlands during 20 years of war, in which the old Republic came to an end, to be replaced by a unified state with revolutionary zeal; which became a Kingdom, that was however ‘scrapped from the list of Nations’ and incorporated into the Empire; towards independence again, building an army for a new Kingdom, spurred on by the idea of the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic. In this book, that story is told through the exploits of the men that answered the call and joined the army during the War of Liberation: officers, NCOs, privates, noblemen and commoners, heroes and cowards, underaged recruits and hardened veterans, deserters and career soldiers, wealthy cadets and poor fools – in short: the men whose names were written down 200 years ago, and thus are not forgotten.
Marc Geerdink-Schaftenaar was born in 1972 and began studying military history and uniforms after casting his first tin soldiers when he was 12. Since then, he has been fascinated with history, especially when he discovered re-enactment and living history. Studying for his degree in teaching, he began writing articles, giving lectures and publishing documents for re-enactors, to make historical information easily accessible for anyone interested. The Dutch Army’s Regiment Limburgse Jagers presented him with an award for his research on their military history. He lives in Julianadorp, the Netherlands, with his wife Jolijn (also an active re-enactor) and four kids.
