Maarten van Rossum

In a long career, he often put his motto ""Blaken en branden is het sieraad van de oorlog" ("Burning and torching is the jewel of war") into practice.

His way of waging war was quite similar to that of his Italian colleagues, the condottieri, and was characterized by guerrilla-like tactics, in which the civilian population was spared even less than was usual in his time.

[1] For thirty years he served the interests of the Dukes of Guelders in their struggle to safeguard the independence of the Duchy of Guelders against the Habsburg Netherlands of Charles V. Van Rossum had a number of military successes obtained through his use of ruses, daring and the indiscriminate destruction of civilian lives and property.

After the collapse of the Duchy of Guelders, he fought the last years of his life in the service of his old enemy Emperor Charles V against France.

During his life Maarten acquired the titles of lord of Poederoijen, Cannenburgh, Lathum, Baer and Bredevoort, field marshal of Guelders and Imperial stadholder of Luxembourg.

[1] Van Rossum had initially planned to cross the Meuse in Maastricht to travel west via Leuven.

Van Rossum laid siege to this city, at that time the most important trading centre of Western Europe.

In a battle for the gates of Antwerp, near the present-day Brasschaat, he defeated an army led by René of Chalon, the then Prince of Orange.

[2] In the spring of 1555 van Rossum became seriously ill, possibly infected with the Black Death or typhus in the city of Charlemont.