Epitaph for Laurentius de Blau, 1674. The 25-year-old lieutenant Laurentius de Blau died in 1674 at the siege of the fortress town of Grave in Brabant. This siege was part of the successful counterattack by Stadholder Prince William III against the French, who had occupied large areas of the Republic. De Blau was accompanied during the campaign by his wife. She fetched her husbands body from the trenches for a proper burial at the Galilee church in Leeuwarden, where this epitaph with De Blau's coat of arms was placed.