Siege of Breda (1624)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Siege of Breda
partof=the Eighty Years' War


caption= "The Surrender of Breda" by Diego Velázquez. Oil on canvas, 1635.
date=August 28, 1624 – June 5, 1625
place=Breda, Netherlands
result=Spanish victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=Maurice of Nassau
Ernst von Mansfeld
commander2=Ambrosio Spinola
strength1=14,000
strength2=18.000
casualties1=10,000 dead, wounded, or captured
casualties2=4.550 dead, wounded, or capturedThe Siege of Breda is the name for two major sieges of the Eighty Years' War and Thirty Years' War. The Dutch fortress city of Breda fell to a Spanish army under Ambrosio Spinola in 1625; it was retaken by Frederick Henry of Orange in 1637.

The battle

Under Spinola's orders the Spanish laid siege to Breda in August 1624, contrary to the wishes of their king. The city was heavily fortified and defended by a garrison of 7,000. Spinola rapidly invested its defences and hurled back a Dutch army under Maurice of Nassau attempting to cut his supplies. The defenders held. In February 1625 a force of 7,000 Englishmen under Ernst von Mansfeld failed to relieve the city.

Justin of Nassau surrendered Breda in June 1625 after a costly eleven-month siege.

Aftermath

The Siege of Breda was Spinola's greatest victory and one of Spain's last in the Eighty Years' War. It was part of a plan to isolate the Republic from its "Hinterland". In 1629, however, after Piet Heyn's capture of the Treasure fleet, stadtholder Frederick Henry was able to capture the fortress city of 's-Hertogenbosch, breaking the land blockade.

Spain's efforts in the Netherlands continued thereafter though political infighting hindered Spinola's freedom of movement. Yet the siege of 1625 captured the attention of the princes of Europe and, for a while longer, Spanish armies continued to recapture the formidable reputation they had held under Charles V.

This first siege is best known as the subject of Diego Velázquez's 1635 canvas, "The Surrender of Breda" ("illustrated, to the right").

1637

In the early thirties Frederick Henry pursued a policy of conquering — or liberating, as the Dutch rebels saw it — most of the Spanish Netherlands with French help. Partly he accomplished this by slowly advancing along the Meuse valley in the east capturing Venlo, Roermond and Maastricht. To march on Brussels he however had to retake Breda, the "dagger pointing to the heart of the Republic" and the formerly most important possession of the House of Orange in the Netherlands.

On 21 July 1637 Dutch troops tried to take the city by a surprise assault but were repelled. On July 23 the siege began in earnest. The Dutch army surrounded the city by a trench system, allowing it to advance to the gates under cover. On September 1 the moat had been dammed at two places but the garrison continued to resist ferociously, bringing the attack to a halt. On October 6 the garrison proposed an honourable retreat; this was granted and on October 11, 11:00 AM, it left the city with beating drums, retreating to Mechelen.

In modern literature

The 1624-1625 siege is the subject of the 1998 novel "El sol de Breda " ("The Sun Over Breda") by the Spanish Arturo Perez-Reverte, part of this author's "Captain Alatriste" Series. The events of the siege - including both the grueling fighting with Dutch and the infighting among the Spanish, including a major mutiny by unpaid Spanish troops - is depicted from the point of view of a boy serving with the Spanish forces. The realistic depiction of war and soldiers' daily life seems influenced by the writer's long own experience as a war correspondent.

External links

* [http://www.pitt.edu/~arthome/callot/m/m.htm Jacques Callot's prints of the siege]
* [http://www.stadsarchief.breda.nl/actueel/Breda_750/Juni/Spinola/BodySpinola1_E.htm Siege of Breda]