Jacques-Louis Comte de Noyelles

Jacques-Louis, Comte de Noyelles ( 1655 – Barcelona, 11 April 1708) was a Walloon military officer in the service of the Dutch Republic between 1672 and 1708. He was also named an Austrian Field Marshal. He served in the Franco-Dutch War, the Glorious Revolution, the Nine Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession in both the northern and the Iberian theatres of that war.

Life Personal life Jacques-Louis was the son of the Walloon military officer in Spanish service Eugène-Eustace, Comte de Noyelles et de Fallais and Marie-Alexandrine, baronne de Ketteler et du Saint-Empire. He married Sophie-Charlotte d'Aumale de Hautcourt in 1679 in The Hague. They had six children: Marie (1681), Guillaume (1682), Eugène-Philippe (1685), Johanna-Amarantha (1686), Marie (2, 1687) and Guillaume (2, 1689). There was an earlier son, Frédéric-Charles-Louis (birthdate unknown), who was appointed as a captain in his father's regiment in 1699, which points to a possible earlier marriage.

Jacques-Louis received the county of Fallais, his grandmother's fief, from his father in 1686, despite the fact that by that time it had been auctioned off for debts on the orders of the feudal court of the Duchy of Brabant in the Spanish Netherlands. He obtained on 13 February 1688 an order from the feudal court for Brabant in The Hague, contradicting the order of the Brabant court, which enabled him between 1688 and 1692 to exercise all feudal rights in Fallais. For that reason he was able to add "comte de Fallais" to his name. But at the urging of the governor-general in Brussels the States General of the Netherlands decided on 16 January 1692 to invalidate the order of the feudal court in The Hague, and give the county back to the person who had bought it at auction in 1686. Jacques-Louis so lost Fallais, but he kept using the extension "de Fallais" to his name.

Career Noyelles started his military career as a cadet in the Blue Guard in the Dutch States Army in 1672. On 21 November 1674 he was promoted to captain in the Guard. On 7 January 1681 he was promoted to colonel of the Zeeland regiment of foot of Maregnault; this was henceforth known as "Fallais" after the name the colonel preferred. In 1688 he accompanied Wiliam III to England as part of the invasion force that brought about the Glorious Revolution. He was made a "brigadier" on 24 December 1689. His regiment was part of the army led by Waldeck that fought in the Battle of Fleurus (1690). In 1691 he was made a major-general After the disappointing events of 1707, especially the devastating losses during the Battle of Almansa, where Noyelles was not present, he asked for his recall. However, that didn't arrive in time. Noyelles died of a throat disease in Barcelona on 11 April 1708. Noyelles' death was seen as a significant setback for the Allies by Charles, as he had planned to place the entire Spanish militia under his command and entrust him with its reorganization.