Guillaume de Lamboy, Baron of Cortesheim

Guillaume III de Lamboy de Dessener
Guillaume III de Lamboy de Dessener
Born	1590
Died	12 December 1659 1659 (aged 68–69) Dymokury, Bohemia
Allegiance	Spain  Holy Roman Empire
Years of service	1618–1648
Rank	Imperial Field Marshal
Battles/wars	Thirty Years War Bohemian Revolt, 1618-1621; Lützen, 1632; Siege of Hanau, 1635-1636; Kempen, 1642; Siege of Geseke, 1648; Wevelinghoven, 1648; Siege of Paderborn, 1648 Franco-Spanish War Les Avins, 1635; Siege of Dole, 1636; Saint-Omer, 1638; Arras, 1640; La Marfée, 1641;

Guillaume III de Lamboy de Dessener, 1590 to 1659, was a Field Marshal in the Imperial Army, who served in the 1618 to 1648 Thirty Years War, and the 1635 to 1659 Franco-Spanish War.

Born in Kortessem, then in the Spanish Netherlands, now Limburg, Belgium, Lamboy was a member of the Catholic, French-speaking, Walloon nobility. During the Dutch Revolt, they remained loyal to the Habsburg rulers of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Lamboy himself joined the Imperial army that suppressed the Bohemian Revolt. Despite being a close follower of Wallenstein, he supported the plot to eliminate him in 1634.

In 1636, he commanded Imperial troops during a nine-month siege of Hanau, before being forced to retreat, an event still commemorated each June in the Lamboyfest. He achieved a great victory at La Marfée in 1641 but was captured by French troops shortly after in a painful defeat at Kempen. Only released from captivity after two years, he returned into the military and campaigned with mixed success as supreme commander of the forces of Elector Ferdinand of Cologne. He retired from active service after the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, and settled in Bohemia.