In 1715 he married Henriette van Nassau-Zuylestein (a daughter of William Nassau de Zuylestein, 1st Earl of Rochford).

[1] Van Reede received a commission as ritmeester of a company of horse in 1691, during the Nine Years' War, in his father's regiment in the Dutch States Army from William III of England.[b].

[5] Later in 1708 he is mentioned, during the Siege of Lille, as being part of the column of Lieutenant-General Lottum which crossed the Scheldt river without much difficulty on the 26th of November.

[7] In 1710 Athlone was tasked to defend a big supply convoy, consisting of 36 vessels along de Lys river.

Marlborough had been urged to provide the escort with sufficient strength to counter attacks from nearby French garrisoned Ypres, but he believed he could not spare troops from the main army.

The latter, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Amerongen, had been scrambled together from all the various Allied fortifications in the Spanish Netherlands and thus did not comprise the best soldiers.

Athlone, who by now had known about the French arrival for some time, had placed his troops in a favourable position, behind a ditch and hedge in the meadows along the river.

[10] After the Peace of Utrecht, which ended the war, he was appointed military governor of the fortress of Mons on 19 May 1713 in the service of the Dutch States Army.