Friedrich Wilhelm Quirin von Forcade de Biaix,[4] baptized Quirin Frideric de Forcade, aka Friedrich Quirin von Forcade, aka Frédéric Quérin de Forcade[5] (11 January 1699 – 23 March 1765) was a Prussian military officer,[1][6][7] the second son of Jean de Forcade de Biaix, an early Huguenot immigrant to Brandenburg-Prussia and a descendant of the noble family of Forcade. He was one of Frederick the Great's most active and most treasured officers.[8][9] He was wounded three times and once left for dead on the battlefield. Together with his wife, he fathered 23 children.[8]
He was Regimentschef of the 23rd Prussian Infantry Regiment,[7] recipient of the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order of merit for heroism, Knight of the Order of Pour le Mérite,[4] Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle,[3] Canon (German: Domherr) of Havelberg,[4] Castellan (German: Drost) in Neuenrade in the County of Mark,[6] Lord Seneschal (German: Amtshauptmann) of Zinna,[6] President of the Ober-Collegium Sanitatis in Berlin and Lieutenant governor of Breslau.[7]
In 1851, his name was place on the north facing commemorative plaque on the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great in Berlin.
Friedrich Wilhelm Quirin von Forcade de Biaix was the second son of Lieutenant General Jean de Forcade de Biaix (1663–1729) and his wife, the Baroness Juliane von Honstedt, daughter of the Major General Baron Quirin von Honstedt,[6][10][11] from Württemberg but in the service of Prussia. His baptismal Godfather was Frederick I of Prussia.
His father was a Huguenot religious exile[8][12] who was among the earliest arrivals in Brandenburg-Prussia,[13] after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau[9] in October 1685. Unlike his father and his eldest brother, choosing to not abjure from his Calvinist beliefs, he left his native Béarn in France for Brandenburg-Prussia, where Frederick I of Prussia, then Elector of Brandenburg, was not only encouraging, but actively facilitating, Huguenot immigration.
Von Forcade is erroneously referred to in some Prussian 19th century historical sources as the Marquis de Biaix,[3][9][14] but for neither his father or him there is evidence that he was a marquis. Biaix was not a marquisate, but rather a noble house. He was also never the Seigneur de Biaix; that title, inherited from the grandfather who purchased the Biaix Manor in 1659, went to h is father's eldest brother and then to his son.[15]
The lives and careers of both Friedrich Wilhelm Quirin von Forcade de Biaix and his father are intricately linked to the history of the 23rd Prussian Infantry Regiment, founded in 1713 and disbanded in 1806. Forcade spent the majority of his career on the infantry side of this regiment. The regiment also included a company of Grenadiers, the 2nd Grenadier Company. It was garrisoned in Berlin from 1716 until 1806. He later commanded the entire regiment, including the Grenadiers, for 17 years, (14 July 1748 - 23 March 1765). His father commanded the regiment during 13 years (February 1716 - 2 February 1729). During much of its existence, as well as more than 200 years after, it was referred to as Forcade's Regiment. The Regiment is immortalized in the German military marching composition "Das Regiment Forcade" that was in use as late as World War II.
Forcade entered Prussian military service in 1713[16][6] during the reign of King Frederick William I of Prussia (1713–40), beginning what would become one of the most notable military careers in the history of the Kingdom of Prussia, spanning some 53 years,[17] and further serving under King Frederick the Great (1740–65).
Following Brandenburg-Prussia's declaration of war against Sweden in the summer of 1715, Forcade fought in the Pomeranian Campaigns. He fought at the Siege of Stralsund[16][18] (15 June 1715 - 23 December 1715), where he was wounded for the first time, the storming of the Peenemuende Lair (21–22 August 1715) and on Rügen Island (16–18 November 1715).
He fought near Glogau (29 December 1740 - 2 January 1741), Breslau (29 December 1740 - 2 January 1741), Ottmachau Palace (12 January 1741), Troppau (23 January 1740), Graetz (25 January 1741), the Battle of Mollwitz[16][18] (10 April 1741), at Neisse (19 October 1741 - 31 October 1741), Laa (12 March 1742), Bruenn (31 March 1742 - 3 April 1742), Austerlitz (10 April 1742) and Wartha (25–26 May 1742).
Forcade and the 23rd Prussian Infantry Regiment fought at Prague (2–18 September 1744), Pless aka Josephstadt (27 November 1744), Patschkau (27 December 1744) the Battle of Hohenfriedberg[16][18] (4 June 1745), Gross- and Klein Bocken (31 July 1745), around Neustadt in Böhmen (11–12 September 1745), at the Battle of Soor[16][8][18][9] (30 September 1745) and at Trautenbach and Schatzlar (16 October 1745).
The regiment lost its Regimentschef, Major General Wolf Alexander Ernst Christoph von Blanckensee, at the Battle of Soor. Forcade himself, was shot through the calf of his right foot.[18] Badly wounded,[8][7][9] he was left for dead on the battlefield.[18][17] King Frederick the Great attributed the glory of the victory to him for his actions on the battlefield that day,[4][18][17] and, on 6 January 1746, awarded him the Kingdom of Prussia's highest order of merit, the Pour le Mérite,[4][8][18][7][9] as well as a pension of 600 Thaler[4][8][18][7][9] and the title of Canon (Domherr) of Havelberg.[4][8][18][7][9]
Another episode in 1746 demonstrates just how much King Frederick the Great treasured Forcade. During a ritual presentation at court at the Berlin Palace, Forcade had to lean on a window because of his wounded right foot. The King personally brought him a chair, graciously saying: "My dear Colonel von Forcade, so brave and worthy a man, as He is, well deserves that even the King himself brings him a chair."[8][18][17][9][19][20]
Forcade commanded his regiment in early engagements near Pirna (11 September 1756 - 16 October 1756).
Forcade and the 23rd Prussian Infantry Regiment were particularly active during the Seven Years' War.
He commanded his regiment, fighting alongside of his men, at
Forcade's infantry lost 600 men during each of the battles at Prague and Leuthen.
When the King took possession of Leuthen, he personally wrote of von Forcade:
English translation: "My dear Lieutenant General von Forkade. I know that he has endured much at this siege, and it is our fortune because of him, that we were soon able to become masters of the city, because he otherwise, without my being able to help or relieve him, would have had to endure even more. So I thank him for it, and because he endured the most here : so shall he also alone have the honor from it. So, I herewith award him not only the Order of the Black Eagle, but also appointed him as Lieutenant governor of Breslau. I have awarded the vacant {command of} the Bremen Grenadier Company in Golz' Regiment to his eldest son, who is my Adjutant, because he well deserves it".
Forcade was wounded again at the Zorndorf.[18][17][7][23] The Prussians lost 12,800 men, the Russians lost 18,000 men at Zorndorf. Forcade lost 1,600 of his men that day, 800 each from his infantry and Grenadiers, as well as the Grenadier's commanding officer, Major Ernst Sigismund von Wedell.
He again lost 1,600 of his men again at Hochkirch, 800 each from his infantry and Grenadiers, where the Prussians were defeated on the battlefield.
During this successful battle, Forcade's infantry took 700 prisoners and destroyed an important munitions depot.
At the Battle of Torgau, Forcade lost 15 officers and more than 600 men.
Although Forcade's Grenadiers won the Battle of Grethen against 4,000 Austrians, they lost their commanding officer, Major Joachim Friedrich von Rathenow, who died from his wounds a week after the battle.
In 1763, following the Treaty of Hubertusburg,[18] he received a gift of 8,000 Thaler[18] from King Frederick the Great.[8][7]
A cabinet order of the King on 19 May 1763 created a War Tribunal, presided over by Lieutenant General von Forcade, together with Lieutenant Generals von Wedell, von Czetteritz and von Wylich.[25]
The proverb "Brave wie Forcade" (Brave like Forcade) became a standard expression of valor in the Prussian Army during the 18th century. "Das Regiment Forcade (hat nie ein Feind besiegt)" (lyrics by Georg von Kries, melody by Hans Hertel, 1906) was long a standard, at times mandatory, composition in the German military song repertoire.
Following his death in 1765, his widow received a handwritten letter[18] in French from King Frederick the Great, praising him.[9][26]
He was interred following a state funeral where he was given a vault for himself and his family in the crypts under the Old Garrison Church in Berlin, which was destroyed during the allied bombing of Berlin on 23 November 1943.[citation needed]
In 1851, General von Forcade was immortalized on the north facing commemorative plaque on the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great in Berlin.[citation needed]
The family motto of the Prussian branch is "In Virtute Pertinax".[28]
Coat of Arms: An escutcheon with the field divided into four parts. Left half: argent tincture, a gules lion holding a sinople eradicated oak tree between its paws; azure tincture charged with three or mullets; Right half: a gules castle with three towers on an argent tincture; sinople tincture charged with three argent roses below it. A Grafenkrone (Count's coronet) as helmut on top of the escutcheon, crested with a or fleur-de-lis. Two or lions supporting the escutcheon. Motto: "In Virtute Pertinax".[29]
Heraldic Symbolism: The lion symbolizes courage; the eradicated oak tree symbolizes strength and endurance; the towers are symbols of defense and of individual fortitude; the mullets (5-star) symbolizes divine quality bestowed by god; the rose is a symbol of hope and joy; the fleur-de-lis is the floral emblem of France; the coronet is a symbol of victory, sovereignty and empire. A Count's coronet to demonstrate rank and because the family originally served the counts of Foix and Béarn during the English Wars in the Middle Ages.
Friedrich Wilhelm Quirin von Forcade de Biaix originally intended to marry a daughter of French Baron François Mathieu Vernezobre de Laurieux (1690–1748).[30] The rich baron and his family had left Paris after the collapse of John Law's Mississippi Company in 1720 and befriended King Frederick William I of Prussia. When the King ordered Vernezobre to marry his daughter to von Forcade de Biaix, who she rejected, the marriage was only averted when Vernezobre agreed to undertake the construction of a prestigious city residence for the King, referred to as the Vernezobre'sche Palais, located at Husarenstraße 102, later renamed in his honor to Wilhelmstrasse 102, after the King's death in 1740.
He subsequently married on 7 October 1727[31] at the French Cathedral in Berlin[31] with 18 year old Baroness Marie de Montolieu de St.-Hippolyte[8][18] aka Maria von Montaulieu, Freiin von St.-Hippolyte (* 23 August 1709, Berlin; † 15 September 1767,[32] Berlin[32]), the youngest daughter of Sardinian and Prussian Major General[18] Louis de Montolieu, Baron de Saint-Hippolyte (* about 1667, Saint-Hippolyte-de-Caton, France; † 23 August 1738, Berlin), also a Huguenot exile. From their marriage and until their respective deaths, the couple maintained a fixed residence and home in Berlin.
Over a period of 25 years, the couple had 23 children,[5][8][18][32] including four said to be stillborn.[5][18] Eleven survived[5][8][18] their father, of which four were sons.[5] Known are: