Siege of Rheinberg (1597)

Part of the Eighty Years' War & the Anglo–Spanish War

Siege of Rheinberg in 1597 by Jan Janssonius

Date	9 up to 19 August 1597
Location	Rheinberg (present-day Germany)
Result	Dutch & English victory

Belligerents

Dutch Republic

England

Spain

Commanders and leaders

Maurice of Nassau

Horace Vere

Camillo Sachino

Strength

8,200

850

Casualties and losses

light

All captured

The Siege of Rheinberg took place from the 9 to 19 August 1597 during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War by a Dutch and English army led by Maurice of Orange. The siege ended with the capitulation and the withdrawal of the Spanish after much unrest in the garrison. The liberation of the city of Rheinberg was the commencement of Maurice's campaign of 1597, a successful offensive against the Spaniards during the period known as the Ten Glory Years.

The fortified town of Rheinberg which had been in the possession of the Electorate of Cologne had been garrisoned by the Spanish for seven years after the place was finally taken by Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld on 3 February 1590 after a four-year siege. In mid 1597 the government at The Hague with improved funding ordered a new campaign for Maurice of Orange, the commander of the Dutch and English troops, to oust the Spanish in Twente while they had been preoccupied with the Siege of Amiens.

Maurice's objective was to march along the Rhine and take the towns of Rheinberg and Meurs along the river, and then head directly through the east of the Netherlands, where Grol and Oldenzaal being the strongest cities. The conquest of Rheinberg was important for Gelderland as it would increase the isolation of Spanish bases in the rest of Overijssel.

On the 4th of August Maurice along with his cousin (and brother in law) William Louis arrived at Arnhem with a force of seven thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry. This included thirteen ensigns of English troops under Colonel Horace Vere and ten ensigns of Scots under Sir Henry Balfour. Horace's brother Francis Vere was at this time governor of Brill and general of Elizabeth I's forces in the Netherlands and this meant Horace was temporarily in the field.

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Wikipedia