Aegidius van Braam (30 July 1758 in

Gorinchem Gorinchem ( ), pronunciation respelling, also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. It had a population of in . The munici ...

– 17 May 1822 in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

) was a Dutch naval officer who attained the rank of

vice-admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...

. When the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

was overrun by French Revolutionary troops in 1795, he remained loyal to the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of Or ...

and fled to England. Following the restoration in 1814, he was repatriated by King

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

and received the hereditary noble title of ''

jonkheer (female equivalent: ; in the masculine only; ''jonkvrouw'' is used in the feminine, even in French; ) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used ...

''.

Life

Aegidius van Braam was born in the town of

to Everhardus van Braam (1763–1812) and his first wife Aletta van der Sleijden (1729–1767). He left for

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and in 1783 joined the Dutch fleet as an officer. Van Braam lived in Delft for much of his life, in a chic mansion on the Oude Delft canal, on the corner with Nickersteeg alley (house number 73, now 36). On 12 March 1783, he wed Sophie Thierens (1767–1825). After his death, Van Braam was buried in a niche in the Nieuwe Kerk church in Delft. His sons also became naval officers. The noble line of the Van Braam family, his descendants, died out in 1939, but through the acknowledged children of his grandson George Marinus van Braam (1852-1921) a non-noble branch continues to exist.

Career

''Patriotten'' era

In 1797, during the conflict between the '' Patriot'' faction and the

stadtholder In the Low Countries, a stadtholder ( ) was a steward, first appointed as a medieval official and ultimately functioning as a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and ...

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, he served as lieutenant to Captain Tulleken of the cutter ''Salamander'', which lay anchored off the island of

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...

. Tulleken was arrested by the

States of Holland The States of Holland and West Frisia () were the representation of the two Estates (''standen'') to the court of the Count of Holland. After the United Provinces were formed — and there no longer was a count, but only his "lieutenant" (the stad ...

on charges of remaining loyal to the stadholder, ignoring the orders of the States of Holland, and inciting his crew to rebellion. Van Braam protested against the arrest of his captain and demanded his release, upon which Van Braam was himself arrested and dismissed from the navy. After the restoration of the stadholder by

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n troops later that year, Van Braam was restored to the navy and promoted to captain of the ''Argo'', a warship carrying 36 cannon.

The Vlieter Incident

When the

Batavian Revolution The Batavian Revolution () was a time of political, social and cultural turmoil at the end of the 18th century that marked the end of the Dutch Republic and saw the proclamation of the Batavian Republic. The initial period, from about 1780 to ...

in 1795 swept away the old republic and replaced it with the revolutionary

Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic (; ) was the Succession of states, successor state to the Dutch Republic, Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 after the Batavian Revolution and ended on 5 June 1806, with the acce ...

, many Orangist officers resigned from the fleet, including Van Braam. He however re-enlisted in 1798. In 1799, Van Braam held command over the ''Leyden'', a

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

carrying 64 guns. The ship was part of a squadron that was to escort a force of some 5,000 men under the command of General

Daendels Herman Willem Daendels (21 October 1762 – 2 May 1818) was a Dutch military officer and colonial administrator who served as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies from 1808 to 1811. Early life Herman Willem Daendels was born on 21 October 1 ...

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. Another Orangist naval officer who had left the fleet in 1795, Carel Hendrik Ver Huell, contacted Van Braam and another captain, Theodorus Frederik van Capellen. Ver Huell proposed that they mount a

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

on board the ships of the squadron. Around the same time, a British-Russian force invaded the

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

peninsula (see further

Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (or Anglo-Russian expedition to Holland, or Helder Expedition) was a military campaign from 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and ...

). The crews of the Batavian war ships could see that in the distance, orange flags were being raised on the forts and church steeples of allied-overrun

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

as a sign of loyalty to the House of Orange-Nassau. Mutiny broke out on a number of ships, including Van Braam's ship, the ''Leyden''. Van Braam later admitted that he could have easily crushed the mutiny, but decided to do nothing. He did however notify his commanding officer, Rear Admiral Story, of the "dangerous situation" on board the other ships of the fleet. Confronted with a British ultimatum on one hand and mutiny on his ship on the other, Story on 30 August 1799 surrendered his squadron to the British. This surrender was such a blow for the Dutch fleet that it would never again play a role of any significance in the subsequent French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Van Braam, Story, and other officers were taken back to England as British prisoners of war. Following the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...

in 1802, they were set free. However, they did not return to Holland, and in 1803 they were convicted in absentia by a Dutch court-martial of dereliction of duty, cowardice and disloyalty. The Dutch court also convicted the officers of

perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

(having broken their oath of loyalty). They were dishonourably dismissed and banned from Holland for life, on punishment of execution (in the case of Van Braam by a firing squad).

Restoration

In 1814, following the restoration of the House of Orange-Nassau and the coronation of

as first king of the

United Kingdom of the Netherlands The United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed from 1815 to 1839. The United Netherlands was created in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars through the fusion of territories t ...

, Van Braam and other surviving officers returned to Holland and were restored in rank and honour by William I. On 1 July 1814, Van Braam was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral, and on 8 July 1816 he was raised to the nobility as ''

''. He also received the

Military William Order The Military William Order, or often named Military Order of William ( Dutch: , abbreviation: MWO), is the oldest and highest honour of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is named after St. William of Gellone (755–814), the first Prince of Ora ...

(Knight Third Class), the

Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III (, originally ; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OC3) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bes ...

(Knight Grand Cross), and the Doggersbank Medal. In 1815, he commanded a squadron which sailed from

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an importan ...

to Surinam.M.A. van Alphen, ''Kroniek der Zeemacht'' (2003)
/ref> In 1817 he sailed with the frigate ''Frederika'' to the Mediterranean to assume command of Vice-Admiral Van de Capellen's squadron, which had taken part in the bombardment of Algiers a year earlier. Later, he likely held command over a squadron in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. In 1822, he ended his naval career, and died soon after.

Sources

A.J. van der Aa, Biografisch woordenboek der Nederlanden. Vol. 2
(Dutch)
Genealogie familie van Braam
(Dutch)
M. van der Tas, ''Kwartierstaat van der Tas-Einthoven''. Genealogische Vereniging Prometheus
(Dutch, PDF) * Roodhuyzen, T. (1998) ''In woelig vaarwater: marineofficieren in de jaren 1779-1802'', De Bataafsche Leeuw, (Dutch)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braam, Aegidius van Admirals of the navy of the Dutch Republic Dutch nobility Dutch military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars People from Delft People from Gorinchem Knights Third Class of the Military Order of William 1758 births 1822 deaths Burials at Nieuwe Kerk, Delft