Henri de Fleury de Coulan

Who is Henri de Fleury de Coulan?

Henri de Fleury de Coulan, Sieur de Buat, St Sire et La Forest de Gay was a captain of horse in the army of the Dutch Republic, who became embroiled in a celebrated conspiracy during the First Stadtholderless Period to overthrow the regime of Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt in favor of future Stadtholder William III, known as the Buat Conspiracy. He was convicted of treason in 1666 and executed.

The conspiracy was romanticized in the novel "Elisabeth Musch", by Jacob van Lennep

The Dutch poet Constantijn Huygens wrote the following epitaph

OP BUAT, ONTHOOFT II. OCT. 1666. EX LATINO MEO

Hier light een schuldigh man, van Hooft en Hals berooft,

Die, doen hij schuldigh weird, een’ hals had, maer geen hooft.

which may be translated as:

Here lies a guilty man, deprived of head and neck,

who, when he became guilty, did have a neck, but not a head

Ritmeester Buat was a Dutch TV series with actor Coen Flink in the role of Buat