Nicolaas Schmelzing

In 1593 he was raised to the position of Rittmeister upon recommendations of the Duke and Maurice of Nassau, and participated in the subsequent cavalry battle at Lippe.

In his memoires, the Prince of Orange later credited Schmelzing for his timely intervention at the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom, and for the imprisonment of 1,200 Spanish forces under the command of Ambrogio Spinola near the town of Ommen.

[3] Frequenting regularly at Court in The Hague in his later years, he became a close acquaintance of the exiled Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, and also befriended Constantijn Huygens.

His nephew Wolf Friedrich Schmelzing, who had moved from Austria to serve in the Dutch forces, and who reached the rank of Lieutenant by 1625, inherited his estates and art collections.

He later relocated to Upper Austria, with his descendants and other family members continuing to serve in Austrian and later Prussian military positions into the 20th century.