| Invasion of the Veluwe | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theEighty Years' War and theAnglo-Spanish War (1625–1630) | |||||||
_Nieuwe_Perfecte_Kaerte_van_D%2527Ysel-Stroom_met_een_gedeelte_van_De_%2c_RP-P-OB-81.227.jpg) | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Spain Holy Roman Empire |  Dutch Republic | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hendrik van den BerghJan van Nassau-SiegenErnesto Montecuccoli | Frederick HenryErnest Casimir von Nassau-Dietz | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 23,000–24,000[1] | Unknown | ||||||
TheInvasion of the Veluwe was an invasion of theDutch Republic in 1629 carried out by Imperial and Spanish troops in order to divert theStates army from theSiege of 's-Hertogenbosch. The invasion was led by CountHendrik van den Bergh with an army that likely consisted of around 20.000 men. Although the city ofAmersfoort in the province ofUtrecht was captured, the Dutch did not give up their siege of 's-Hertogenbosch, which meant that the main objective of the invading troops was not achieved. And after the Dutch troopscaptured Wesel, the Imperial-Spanish forces were forced to retreat.
In April 1629,Frederick Henry, the thenPrince of Orange began hissiege of's-Hertogenbosch after the Spanish tried to start a blockade of theDutch Republic in order to weaken its position. This blockade caused severe economic damages in the Dutch Republic. Frederick's siege was made possible byPiet Pieterszoon Hein's victory at thebattle in the bay of Matanzas in which Piet Hein captured an enormous Spanishtreasure fleet which sailed from the America's, the estimated booty that Piet Hein captured was equivalent to half a billion modern day Euro's.
Each Spanish attempt at trying to arrive at Den Bosch in order to relieve the city had failed. So instead of doing it another, Hendrik van den Bergh decided to invade theDutch Republic, this campaign was not launched with the intent of the destruction of the Republic, but rather an attempt to cause panic among the Dutch population that would eventually force Frederick Henry to break the siege of's-Hertogenbosch. In July the Spanish troops marched to Veghel through Boxtel, which meant that a siege ofGrave was possible, Frederick Henry however saw no threat of the city being besieged since the garrison of the defended town was raised to 4.000 men.[1]
On 27 JulyHendrik van den Bergh arrived with his army at Westervoort, but left after a few days. On 31 July he occupiedDieren and began building a bridge across theIjssel river atBrummen. In order to secure supplies fromWesel. Not much progress was made within the next week, which allowedFrederick Henry to take action against the invasion. He sentErnest Casimir towardsArnhem with fifty infantry companies and eight cavalry companies in order to prevent the Imperial-Spanish forces to make further advances, those troops did see how the Spanish cavalry was presented through the city walls and saw that they sacked the town ofVelp.[2] To further prevent this, the States ofHolland decided to raise an army that consisted of 5.000Burghers andGroningen andFrisia ordered the recruitment of 3.000 waardgelders.[3] The Imperial-Spanish armies faced a difficult logistical problem during the invasion, due to the main supply depot of both armies beingWesel, but the bakeries of the city were not able to reach the standard amount of bread to supply the army with enough food. And because of that the troops had to settle locally, but because of their bad reputations, the local inhabitants fled to other parts of the country.[4][5]
Even with a large army invading mainland Dutch territory, Frederick Henry still laid his focus on thesiege of 's-Hertogenbosch and kept a part of his army there because the siege was too costly to give up. And in his opinion, the invaders were not in such a state to deliver huge amounts of damages to the surrounding area's. On 10 August,Ernesto Montecuccoli joined the Spanish army under Hendrik van den Bergh, the plan was that Ernesto would reach theZuiderzee throughAmersfoort andHarderwijk which would consequently threatenUtrecht andNaarden. And under the command of Jacinto de Velasco y Henin, the Count of Salazar, the Imperial-Spanish armies would attackHattem which would openFrisia to an invasion. And Hendrik van den Bergh would protect Brummen with his army, CountJan VIII of Nassau-Siegen arrived at Brummen a few days later.
The Count of Salazar arrived beforeHattem in August and demanded the surrender of the city. The situation in the city was quite chaotic. The inhabitants did not believe that the city of Hattem could put up a proper fight against the Imperial-Spanish forces due to the city being undermanned and the poor state of defences.[6] The city of Hattem did receive help from Zwolle with a company of around 300 men and 140 musketeers and food supplies. Meanwhile, the city of Hattme took measures to defend the city, the city was cleaned up, and the men of the city planted green around the city walls for extra defence in order to prevent a possible storming of the city.[7] Although the city was better prepared than before, the city endured no major attack or storming, although thefield deputies in Arnhem wrote that the city endured and repelled 3 major assaults.[8] The Imperial-Spanish attack on Hattem failed, and the armies matched towards Oldebroek to plunder the city and threaten Elburg in the process.[9]
On 14 August,Ernesto Montecuccoli capturedAmersfoort without resistance. This triggered widespread panic among the population ofUtrecht, where citizens lacked confidence that their garrison of 3.000 men could withstand an assault.[10] Most of the local populations fled elsewhere to eitherHolland or theBetuwe, the capture also caused great panic among the Dutch population. Frederick Henry however did not see a threat, he sent Colonel Otto van Gendt with an army of 2.500 men towardsWesel which was the main supply base of the Imperial-Spanish armies.[10] And on 19 August, he carried out a surprise attack on the city in which the garrison that consisted of sixteen companies barely put up a fight. The capture of Wesel meant that the Imperial-Spanish troops had to cancel their invasion, and retreat.[11]
The Imperial-Spanish forces left the Veluwe after thecapture ofWesel. The invasion had proven that theDutch Republic was indeed capable of having sufficient resources and repel a foreign invasion on its own. Just before the invading troops retreated from the Veluwe,Frederick Henry of Orange capturedDen Bosch, bringing his costlysiege to an end. Which meant that the main objective of the Imperial-Spanish forces had failed, the invasion had also proven that theDutch Republic could handle such a costly siege and endure an invasion at the same time.[11]