Lamoraal van Egmont — the Count Behind the Play That Beethoven Composed Music For

A nobleman from the 16th century whose death helped spark the national uprising known as the Dutch Revolt.

The Arrest of Egmont by Louis Gallait, painted in the 19th century.

What portions of history will live on in infamy are often as mysterious as they are interesting. When I found out that one of the counts whose beheading is more famous than their lives had a play with his name on it written by our eastern neighbour’s most famous playwright (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), as well as one of the most famous composers in all of history writing music to said play, I was more than a bit baffled that we know nothing about the count in question. With opportunities to discuss the count of Egmont in detail in no fewer than three separate classrooms — namely music, history, and German — it is a true shame that we never highlight his existence beyond one or two offhand remarks in a regular history class.

And I should mention that I went to school in a place the count of Egmont was an instrumental figure in raising quite literally out of the waters, no less. So with that said, I think it deservedly so that I should discuss him in an article of his own. Lamoraal van Egmont — Lamoral for an easier English pronunciation, with the origins of the name presumably stemming from the French word…