Hendrick van Nassau-Ouwerkirk (1635-18 October 1708) was a general of the United Provinces. The second cousin of King William III of Great Britain, he was the Count of Ouwerkirk and the Count of Nassau. He fought in the Franco-Dutch War, War of the Grand Alliance, and War of the Spanish Succession.
Biography[]
Hendrick van Nassau-Ouwerkirk was the grandson of Maurice of Orange, the leader of the Dutch Revolt. Count Ouwerkirk fought in the Franco-Dutch War in the 1674 Battle of Seneffe and the 1678 Battle of St. Denis. He was made the Count of Nassau by Emperor Leopold I of Austria of the Holy Roman Empire in 1679, and in 1689 he was made Master of Horse by William III of Great Britain when he took part in the invasion of England.
Nassau-Ouwerkirk assisted King William in his quelling of the Jacobites in the 1690 Battle of the Boyne and fought in the War of the Grand Alliance, fighting well in the Battle of Neerwinden in 1695. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Count Nassau-Ouwerkirk won the Battle of Ramilles and the Battle of Oudenaarde in the war, and in 1708 captured Lille. He died later that year in Rosselare in Belgium.