Willem Jan Knoop

Willem Jan Knoop (2 May 1811 in Deventer – 24 January 1894 in The Hague) was a Dutch lieutenant-general, military historian, and politician.

He spent his early years in Bruges (his father was military governor there) where he frequented the library of the Maatschappij der Letterkunde, a Dutch benevolent society, promoting popular education, where he proved a promising autodidact.

This book (published with the explicit consent of King William II as a semi-official rebuttal), was received with much enthusiasm in Dutch military circles.

When soon thereafter there was a false rumor in the Dutch press that Captain Siborne was on his way to demand satisfaction, no less than six officers of horse-artillery spontaneously offered to act as Knoop's seconds, if necessary.

However, many years later Knoop received an indirect indication that his book had registered, when in the 17 February 1855 issue of the magazine Athenaeum, in a review of another historical article by his hand (quite unrelated) he was introduced as the man "...who acquired his first reputation by an angry and dashing attack on Captain Siborne.".

Though his scholarly work at the Academy did not seem to prepare him for great military advances, he was promoted to colonel in 1858, commanding a regiment at Breda.

But he was recalled to duty during the mobilisation of the Dutch army at the crisis of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, during which the Netherlands maintained an armed neutrality.

[8] He also was president of the Vereeniging tot beoefening van de krijgswetenschap (Society for military arts and science) for many years.

[9] In retirement he remained very active as a military scholar, writing many articles, and eventually publishing eleven volumes in a standard work on stadtholder William III.