| Maurice's campaign of 1591 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theEighty Years' War and theAnglo-Spanish War | |||||||||
 Depiction of all area's conquered byMaurice of Nassau | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Dutch Republic England |  Spanish Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Maurice of OrangeFrancis Vere | Alexander FarneseHerman van den Bergh | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 10,000[1] | Unknown | ||||||||
Maurice's 1591 campaign was a major campaign during theEighty Years' War, during the campaignMaurice of Nassau was able to recapture the cities ofNijmegen,Deventer,Zutphen,Delfzijl,Hulst and Knodsenburg.[2]
In October 1578,Philip II of Spain sentAlexander Farnese, Duke of Parma to theSpanish Netherlands as governor and to reconquer the territories previously occupied by the rebels who proclaimed theUnion of Utrecht shortly after.[citation needed]
During his service as governor,Alexander Farnese reconquered a lot of territories previously held by the proclaimedUnion of Utrecht, including the cities that were captured during the campaign.[citation needed]
In 1585,Maurice of Nassau becameStadtholder ofHolland andZeeland. Shortly after he conducted military reforms that improved theDutch States Army and made therebellion against Spain more organized. In 1590, Mauricecaptured Breda andSteenbergen, which allowed Maurice to launch his respective campaign.[citation needed]
In 1590, discussions were already made to start the campaign.[1] TheStates General discussed over which city would be captured during this campaign,Nijmegen was one of many that was agreed on the recapture. TheStates General also agreed to captureZutphen overGeertruidenberg even though it wasrecaptured by Parma, but they prioritized Zutphen over Geertruidenberg due to the garrison stationed there could cause more damage to the one in Geertruidenberg.
The siege of the city ofZutphen was the first major conflict during this campaign.Maurice of Nassau commenced this siege on the 19th of May and it ended on the 30th of May, the siege lasted 11 days until the garrison was forced to surrender. The city was recaptured by rebel forces.[3]
The siege ofDeventer took place shortly after thesiege of Zutphen. The siege lasted from 1 June to 10 June. The rebel forces recaptured the city from the Spanish garrison led byHerman van den Bergh.[3]
The capture ofDelfzijl began 16 days after thesiege of Deventer on 26 June and ended on 2 July. The city was recaptured by the rebel forces after the entire garrison surrendered.[4]
(Bartholomeus_Willemsz._Dolendo).jpg)
The siege of Knodsenburg was the major conflict during this campaign. The Spanish forces led byAlexander Farnese attacked the city on 21 July. The garrison, led by Gerrit de Jong was relieved by an intervention byMaurice of Nassau andFrancis Vere. On 25 July, four days after the siege started, Parma was defeated and managed to retreat through theRiver Waal.[5]
The siege ofHulst lasted from 20 to 24 September. The commander of the Spanish garrison, Colonel Castillo, asked for terms after five days of resistance, which were accepted.[6]
The siege ofNijmegen was the last conflict of this campaign, it lasted from 17 to 21 October, after the Spanish garrison, led by Derrick Vlemminck was forced to surrender. Afterwards the Spanish negotiated the surrender of the city.[5]
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Within a year, a lot of territories were reconquered by Maurice's army. Maurice later capturedSteenwijk, andCoevorden in 1592. This cut offGroningen fromTwente, which he would utilize tocapture Groningen, which expelled the Spanish from the Northern Provinces.
A few years after, Maurice startedanother campaign in 1597, in which he captured more Spanish held cities. These two campaigns were the height of histen years' campaign.