Siege of Hulst | |||||||
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Part of the Eighty Years' War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Spain | United Provinces | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand | Frederick Henry | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Minor | Heavy |
The Siege of Hulst (1640) was a siege battle that took place during the Eighty Years' War. A Dutch army under Frederick Henry of Orange would attempt to capture the city of Hulst to achieve a better strategic position to threaten Antwerp. The Spanish army, a contingent of the Army of Flanders, having successfully defended the front in 1639, would yet again be set on the defensive as the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand would build up the Spanish defenses in preparation for a Dutch campaign. On the offset of the offensive, the army under Frederick Henry would begin landing as Hulst would be rapidly invested by Dutch forces.
In the years prior to this siege, Frederick Henry and the Dutch armies of Zeeland suffered disastrous defeats at the hands of the Spanish under the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand during Frederick Henry's 1638 campaign. Most notably, the Dutch army under William of Nassau-Siegen would be so thoroughly destroyed at the Battle of Kallo that 30 extra infantry companies had to be raised from various garrisons by Frederick Henry to replace the heavy losses, and above all, they weren't able to conduct notable military operations until 1640. [1] This debilitated the Dutch armies in Zeeland to a great extent up until the resumption of operations in 1640. Prior to that, skirmishes by the Dutch across the front had been repelled by the Spanish, and attempts to attack Hulst in 1639 resounded in failure. [2] The Cardinal-Infante since then has been able to consolidate his armies' position in the Spanish Netherlands effectively, bolstering local superiority and securing a strong strategical position. Frederick Henry knew he had to gain a firm footing in Flanders in order to threaten Antwerp, which led to the campaign of 1640.
In the summer of 1640, Frederick Henry would coordinate a joint offensive with the French to bring down the Spanish Netherlands. Frederick Henry would conduct a new campaign in Flanders targeting Hulst to establish a strong foothold in the province and eventually target Antwerp while the French would lay siege on Arras. [3] On the 1st of July, operations would begin as the Dutch army started to invest in Hulst. The Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand would not leave the Dutch offensive unchecked and rapidly reacted by redeploying Spanish troops from Antwerp to Hulst. The first obstacle for the Dutch army was Fort Nassaro. Both sides were already engaged at the fort on the first day, and by the second day, the Dutch only increased the pressure on the Spanish troops when artillery barges began firing. The Cardinal-Infante would embrace a more offensive strategy in the upcoming days, aiming to rapidly repulse the Dutch forces so that resources could be diverted south against the French. After several heated artillery duels and skirmishes around Fort Nassaro, the Spanish would conduct counter-attacks as the Cardinal-Infante gave orders for large-scale sorties against their Dutch counterparts. [4] Multiple days of constant combat at Fort Nassaro ended up draining much of the Dutch momentum and the campaign didn't seem to have much success in its way. The Spanish defenders were so stout in the several days of investment that Frederick Henry would later order a retreat on the 9th of July after fierce fighting around Fort Nassaro. [4]
Fort Nassaro would be heavily damaged but stayed under Spanish control up until 1645. Within the time frame from this siege to the next siege of Hulst, Frederick Henry would spend time reorganizing and planning the next campaign for the next 4 years. Although the Spanish received several years of respite after this siege, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand would pass away on the 9th of November, 1641. His future plans would never be realized and the new governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Francisco de Melo, would be appointed. De Melo would use the several years of respite to focus on the French front but would be unsuccessful in the coming years and eventually meet his biggest defeat at Rocroi in 1643.
Hulst is a municipality and city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders.
Frederick Henry was the sovereign prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1625 until his death in 1647. In the last seven years of his life, he was also the stadtholder of Groningen (1640-1647).
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand was a Spanish and Portuguese prince, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Catholic Church, Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo (1619–41), and a general during the Thirty Years' War, the Eighty Years' War, and the Franco-Spanish War. He is commonly considered the last great commander and strategist of the Spanish Empire, whose premature death in a critical moment helped bring about the end of Spanish hegemony in Europe. He is, as well, one of few generals undefeated on the battlefield.
The Battle of Kallo was a major field battle fought from 20 to 21 June 1638 in and around the forts of Kallo and Verrebroek, located on the left bank of the Scheldt river, near Antwerp, during the second phase of the Eighty Years' War. Following the symbolic recovery of Breda during the 1637 campaign, the Dutch Republic agreed with the French Crown, with whom it had allied in 1635, to besiege a major city in the Spanish Netherlands during the 1638 campaign. The commander of the Dutch States Army, Frederick Henry of Orange, planned an approach over Antwerp from the two sides of the Scheldt. After marching the army, Frederick Henry transferred 50 barges to Count William of Nassau-Siegen and he was left entrusted to land in the Spanish-controlled Waasland region, west of Antwerp, to seize the forts of Kallo and Verrebroek, along with several other key fortifications, to invest Antwerp from the west. In the meantime, Frederick Henry would advance on the opposite bank to complete the blockade of the city while the armies of France invaded the Spanish Netherlands from the south to oblige the Spanish Army of Flanders to divide its forces.
The siege of Schenkenschans was a major siege of the Eighty Years' War. In a successful campaign the Army of Flanders, commanded by Spanish general Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, captured Schenkenschans along with a number of important towns, reversing recent Dutch gains and opening the Dutch Republic to a possible invasion. The Dutch Stadtholder, Fredrick Henry, pushed the republic's military efforts to their limit to recapture the fortress of Schenkenschans to counter the threat to the exposed Dutch heartland. He succeeded in doing so after a costly nine month siege.
The fourth siege of Breda was an important siege in the Eighty Years' War in which stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange retook the city of Breda, which had last changed hands in 1625 when the Spanish general Ambrogio Spinola conquered it for the Spanish Habsburgs. Hereafter, the city would remain in the hands of the Dutch Republic until the end of the war.
The siege of Leuven was an important siege in the Thirty Years' War in which a Franco-Dutch army under Frederick Henry of Orange and the French Marshals Urbain de Maillé-Brezé and Gaspard III de Coligny, who had invaded the Spanish Netherlands from two sides, laid siege to the city of Leuven, defended by a force of 4,000 comprising local citizen and student militias with Walloons, Germans, Spanish and Irish of the Army of Flanders under Anthonie Schetz, Baron of Grobbendonck. Poor organization and logistics and the spread of sickness among the French, along with the appearance of an Imperial-Spanish relief army of 11,000 under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and Ottavio Piccolomini, forced the invading army to lift the siege. This failure allowed the Spanish forces to take the initiative and soon the invaders were forced into a headlong retreat.
The siege of Jülich was a major operation in the second phase of the Eighty Years' War that took place from 5 September 1621 to 3 February 1622. A few months after the Twelve Years' Truce between the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Monarchy expired, the Spanish Army of Flanders, led by the Genoese nobleman Ambrogio Spinola, went on the offensive against the Republic and approached the Rhine river to mask its true intentions: laying siege to the town of Jülich, which the Dutch States Army had occupied in 1610 during the War of the Jülich Succession. Although the capture of the town would not allow for a Spanish invasion of the Republic, its location between the Rhine and Meuse rivers rendered it strategically significant for both sides, given that the United Provinces greatly benefited from the river trade with the neighboring neutral states and Spain was pursuing a strategy of blockading the waterways which flowed across the Republic to ruin its economy.
The siege of Saint-Omer was a siege in the Thirty Years' War in which a French army under Gaspard III de Coligny, Maréchal de Châtillon, laid siege to the Flemish city of Saint-Omer, defended by a small garrison in command of Lancelot II Schetz, count of Grobbendonck. Despite several initial successes in the capture of the minor forts around Saint-Omer, on the night of 8/9 June a Spanish relief army under Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, surprised Châtillon's troops and established a small fort in the middle of the French lines. An entire army corps under Maréchal de La Force was ordered to move towards Saint-Omer to support Châtillon siege, but on 12 July a further Imperial-Spanish force commanded by Ottavio Piccolomini entered Saint-Omer, resolving the French marshals to withdraw.
The siege of Venlo was an important siege in the Eighty Years' War that lasted from 20 to 25 August 1637. The Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, retook the city of Venlo from the United Provinces, which had taken control of it in 1632 during the offensive of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange against Maastricht. The capture of Venlo and Roermond, which was surrendered to the Cardinal-Infante a week later, effectively cut Maastricht from the Dutch Republic, thus preventing further attacks on the Spanish Netherlands from the east. In the southern front Ferdinand lost the towns of La Capelle, Landrecies, and Damvillers to the French, but then he forced them to retreat south of Maubeuge.
The siege of Lingen of 1605 took place between 10 August and 19 August 1605, at Lingen, District of Emsland, Lower Saxony, between Spain and the United Provinces, during the Eighty Years' War. Prince Maurice of Nassau tried to preserve Lingen at all costs. The Dutch garrison led by Captain Maerten Cobben, expecting to be aided by Maurice's army, held out for nine days, but were finally forced to surrender. The siege was part of Spinola's successful campaign of 1605–1606.
The siege of Rees of 1599, also known as the relief of Rees, was an unsuccessful attempt by Protestant-German forces led by Count Simon VI of Lippe, and Anglo-Dutch forces sent by Prince Maurice of Nassau, commanded by Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein and the Count Ernst of Solms, to capture the strategic stronghold of Rees, Lower Rhine, Duchy of Cleves from the Spanish forces of Don Francisco de Mendoza, Admiral of Aragon, second-in-command of the Army of Flanders, and Governor Don Ramiro de Guzmán, between 10–12 September 1599, during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). This Spanish victory was part of the campaign of Francisco de Mendoza and Cardinal Andrew of Austria of 1598-1599, also called the Spanish Winter of 1598-99.
The siege of Hulst of 1596 took place between mid-July and August 18, 1596, at the city of Hulst, Province of Zeeland, Low Countries, during the Eighty Years' War, the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). The siege was won by the Spanish forces of the Archduke of Austria. After a short siege, during which Maurice of Orange launched a failed attempt to relieve the city, the garrison of Dutch and English troops fell into Spanish hands on August 18, 1596.
The siege of Hulst was a siege of the city of Hulst that took place between 20 and 24 September 1591 by a Dutch and English army under the leadership of Maurice of Orange during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War. The siege was part of Maurice's famous campaign of 1591.
Events in the year 1635 in the Spanish Netherlands and Prince-bishopric of Liège.
The 1644 siege of Gravelines took place during the 1635 to 1659 Franco-Spanish War. A French army captured the port of Gravelines, then in the Spanish Netherlands, now the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France.
The years 1621–1648 constituted the final phase of the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish Empire and the emerging Dutch Republic. It began when the Twelve Years' Truce (1609–1621) expired, and concluded with the Peace of Münster in 1648.
The First Siege of Corbie took place from the 7th to the 15th of August, 1636 during the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Spanish War (1635–59) where a Spanish army under the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and his lieutenant Prince of Carignano successfully capture the important French fortress of Corbie. The siege would only last a little over a week with the fortress eventually surrendering after 8 days on the 15th of August. This important siege battle is part of the Crossing of the Somme campaign and caused a chain of events to happen after the siege with the French royal family fleeing Paris in fear of the Spanish tercios and the Cardinal-Infante's advance, which was thought to have been aimed towards the French capital.
The Capture of Roermond was a minor siege during the Eighty Years' War which took place from the 31st of August to the 1st of September, 1637. A Spanish army under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand would successfully siege and seize Roermond from the Dutch just one week after his victory at Venlo. This siege battle and that of Venlo were originally targeted to draw Frederick Henry away from Berda and towards the Cardinal-Infante's army for what could've been a field battle. Frederick Henry wouldn't be swayed by this attempt and was dedicated to sieging Breda and would eventually take it on the 11th of October.
The Capture of Schenkenschans was a battle during the Eighty Years' War which saw a small detachment from the army under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand capture the key fortress of Schenkenschans. The event leading up to the capture would be the Siege of Leuven in which the French and Dutch armies suffered a major defeat against the Spanish Army of Flanders. This would lead to a total collapse of the French and Dutch campaign in the Spanish Netherlands and result in a total counter-offensive led by Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand which resulted in large successes not only in taking back the territory lost but as well as in the offensive campaigns within France and the Dutch Republic.
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