Jean de Schulemberg

Jean III de Schulemberg, comte de Montejeu (ca 1597/98 – 25 March 1671), of distant Prussian origin, was born at the château de Guincourt, son of Jean, seigneur de Montejeu and his wife Anne, daughter of Jean d'Averhoult, seigneur de La Lobe.

Life He attended a course of studies at the Academy of Sedan, but at the age of sixteen served as cornet (standard-bearer) to the Protestant Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, sovereign prince of Sedan, whom he followed at the siege of Vercelli in Piedmont (1614), and then at the battle of Prague, 8 November 1620. In 1621 he proclaimed himself a Roman Catholic though still serving under Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne. With the formal outbreak of hostilities in the Thirty Years' War, he participated at the sieges of Saint-Jean d'Angely and Montauban, then commanded troops repelling the siege of Coblenz; he fought under the maréchal de La Force, commanded troops in Berry and in Artois, was made a field marshal (1639), a lieutenant-general (1650), and then, called from Coblenz to be governor of Arras, made a name for himself at the defense of Arras (1654), facing down and counterattacking the prince de Condé, at the head of Spanish troops; the Great Condé was forced to retire, 25 August. In consequence of this success he was made marquis de Montejeu and a Marshal of France, 16 June 1658. He was made a Chevalier du Saint-Esprit, 31 December 1661. daughter of the seigneur de Basancourt; she died in 1674. They left no children.