Battle of Kallo

Part of the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War

The Battle of Kallo. Oil on canvas by Pieter Snayers.

Date	June 20, 1638
Location	Kallo near Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium)
Result	Decisive Spanish victory

Belligerents

United Provinces

Spain

Commanders and leaders

William of Nassau

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand

Strength

22,000 soldiers
(6,000 engaged)

8,000 soldiers

Casualties and losses

2,500 dead or wounded,
2,500 captured,
28 guns captured,
81 barges captured

284 dead,
822 wounded

The Battle of Kallo was a major battle of the Eighty Years' War. It was fought on 20 June 1638 near the fort of Kallo, located on the left bank of the Scheldt river, between a Dutch army under the command of William of Nassau-Hilchenbach, and a Spanish army led by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, governor of the Spanish Netherlands. As the Dutch approached with the aim of surrounding the city of Antwerp, the Cardinal-Infante managed to assemble an army and almost miraculously repelled the much larger Dutch force, which lost several hundred men dead (one of whom was William of Nassau's only son), another 2,500 taken prisoner, and significant amounts of artillery and baggage. The Battle of Kallo was the largest action of the Spanish-Dutch War, as well as the only pitched battle and the worst Dutch defeat of the late Eighty Years' War.

While no major offensive operation was carried out against the United Provinces by the Spanish Army of Flanders during 1636–37, in July 1637 the statholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, marched into northern Barbant in command of an army of 18,000 soldiers and invested the Spanish-ruled city of Breda. Garrisoned by 3,000 Spaniards, Italians, Wallons and Burgundians, Breda was one of the main fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands and a symbol of the Spanish power in Europe. A Spanish force under the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand attempted to relieve the garrison of the city, but failed to dislodge the besiegers. Ferdinand decided move with his army to the valley of the Meuse, where he took Venlo and Roermond after two fierce bombardments, in order to distract Frederick Henry. However, he had to turn back shortly after, alarmed by the French advances in Artois, Hainaut and Luxembourg, and could not prevent the fall of Breda.

For the campaign of 1638, King Philip IV instructed the Cardinal-Infante to undertake an offensive strategy against the Dutch in order to subject them to massive pressure and force them to agree a favourable truce and the restoration of their conquests in Brazil, Breda, Maastricht, Rheinberg and Orsoy. The main objective of that year would be the capture of Rheinberg, which would give to Spain a crossing point in the Lower Rhine and contribute to tightening the blockade over Maastricht. Ferdinand was also ordered, when the offensive operations had finished, to quarter his army near the Dutch frontier in order to protect Antwerp, which had become more vulnerable since the loss of Breda, and even to reinforce the garrisons of many secondary fortresses. In the end, however, the Spanish were pinned to the defensive by a coordinated Franco-Dutch attack in May 1638.Marshal Châtillon laid siege to Saint-Omer covered by Marshal La Force in Picardy while Frederick Henry marched on Antwerp commanding an army of 22,000 soldiers, determined to besiege the city.

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Wikipedia