Willem Jan Knoop Willem Jan Knoop ( Deventer , May 2 , 1811 — The Hague , January 24 , 1894 ) was a Dutch lieutenant - general , military historian , and politician . As a young captain of the Dutch General Staff he wrote a rebuttal of the English military historian captain William Siborne ' s account of the Battle of Quatre Bras and the Battle of Waterloo , published as " History of the war in France and Flanders in 1815 " in 1844 , in which Siborne disparaged the conduct of the Dutch army at these battles . Siborne ' s book had caused a furore in the Netherlands as he saw fit to insult the honor of the Dutch army , and of king William II of the Netherlands , who as Prince of Orange had commanded that army at both battles , and was revered as a national hero by the Dutch . As Siborne ' s book is still in use as a source for Anglophone historiography of the battles , and is still the subject of controversy , Knoop ' s criticisms are still relevant , and play a role in this controversy . Biography . Knoop , a lifelong bachelor , was the son of colonel Willem Hendrik Knoop and Henrica Willemina Hartkamp . 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 . He started his military career at age 14 in 1825 as a volunteer in the Sixth Division Infantry in Bruges . In 1829 he was commissioned as a second - lieutenant of infantry . In 1842 , with the rank of captain of infantry , he was appointed as professor of strategy , tactics , and military history at the Royal Military Academy of the Netherlands at Breda . ( As such he was apportioned to the Dutch General Staff ) . As a reward for his work there he was made a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 1845 . Duel . This was remarkable , because in 1844 he had become involved in a celebrated scandal . Like many contemporary military men , Dutch officers were prone to duelling , though this was a criminal offense . A colleague of Knoop at the Academy , Professor Bolhuis , had quarrelled with a young cavalry officer , and Knoop had been one of his seconds at the ensuing duel . Unfortunately , Bolhuis had been killed at this duel on February 14 , 1844 , and Knoop had subsequently been arrested for his participation in this " affair of honor . " He was court - martialed and acquitted , but after the prosecution appealed to the High Military Court , sentenced to three years in prison . However , he was soon pardoned by King Wiliam II , and apparently his career did not suffer . The Siborne Controversy . Though Knoop of course had been only four at the time of the battle , so he had no personal knowledge , he could avail himself of the recollections of many Dutch veterans who had been there , and as a general - staff member he had access to the after - battle reports the Dutch units had made within two days after the battle ended . ( These archived reports could have been made available to Siborne , and in one case he appears to have been in actual possession of one , but he never bothered to consult them ) . As a trained historian , Knoop now started to research these sources and wrote a detailed repudiation of Siborne ' s book based on all these sources . 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 spontaneoulsy offered to act as Knoop ' s seconds , if necessary . But Siborne stayed safely in England . Knoop ' s book was soon translated in French and German , and met with much interest in France and Prussia at the time . These translations were sent to the editor of the " United Service Magazine " , but no acknowledgement was ever received , at least directly . However , many years later Knoop received an indirect indication that his book " had " registered , when in the February 17 , 1855 issue of the English 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 . " . Siborne himself , though not deigning to reply directly to Knoop , wrote an indirect reply in a later edition of his work ( reprinted in the modern edition ) in which he repeated his bold accusations against the Dutch - Belgian troops , and complained about the tone in Knoop ' s " pamphlet , " which he calls " abusive . " In defense of his accusations he just states that these are based on the testimony of the officers he surveyed , implying that the word of a British officer and gentleman ought to suffice . Siborne ' s book nevertheless became a celebrated source in Anglophone historiography for many secondary accounts of the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo , that faithfully perpetuated the many egregious errors of fact and fabrications ( willful or accidental ) in Siborne ' s work . His son , Major - general Herbert Siborne , edited and republished his work and his sources in 1891 as " Waterloo Letters " . Of course , Siborne had his detractors in England also ( the Duke of Wellington not being the least of them ) , but his supporters there seem to have the upper hand . Recently the controversy resurfaced with the attack by David Hamilton - Williams , who used Knoop ' s rebuttal as one of his sources ( though not for his accusations of fraud aimed at Siborne ) . This apparently earned Hamilton - Williams the enmity of many Siborne - fans , and an avalanche of mostly " ad hominem " attacks . Of course , because Knoop was favorably mentioned by Hamilton - Williams ( though he misspelled his name ) he also was drawn into the modern controversy . An example is the attack by Peter Hofschröer , a defender of Siborne , on a minor point in Knoop ' s book in the article linked in the External Links . Further career . Knoop ' s military career progressed apace . 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 . In 1861 he was promoted to major - general , commanding divisions in Limburg and Noord - Brabant until he temporarily went into politics in 1869 . He was a Liberal , unlike many of his colleagues , and as such not very popular with king William III of the Netherlands ( who had succeeded his father William II in 1850 ) . Probably because of his political leanings he had been offered the post of Minister of War in a Liberal Cabinet in 1862 , but he declined . In 1869 he stood for the Second Chamber of the States - General of the Netherlands and was elected . This required that he temporarily resigned his commission . 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 . For that reason he had to resign his seat in parliament , as serving officers cannot sit in Dutch parliament . He retired as a lieutenant - general of infantry in 1872 . During his entire career Knoop was a recognized authority on military history . In 1847 he became a contributor to the literary magazine " De Gids " that published many scholarly articles on historical subjects . As such he became a friend and colleague of the eminent Dutch historian Robert Fruin , with whom he sometimes had friendly disputes . He was the editor - in - chief of the Dutch military history journal " Militaire Spectator " from 1849 till 1869 . His renown as a historian earned him a membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1857 . He also was president of the " Vereeniging tot beoefening van de krijgswetenschap " ( Society for military arts and science ) for many years . 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 . A listing of his works , and many of those articles , are available online in the Digital library for Dutch literature ( see External Links ) . Knoop died almost eighty - three years old in 1894 .