It is the 2nd of July, 1600. An army of the United Provinces, commanded by Dutch Stadtholder Maurits
of Orange, marched along the Flemish coast. Due to bad weather, he had to abandon his initial plan to
sail towards Dunkirk, a major Spanish port that served as a harbour for anti-Dutch privateers.
The harbour was still at least 8 hours of marching away. Maurits understood the danger: he was deep
in hostile territory, with a hungry army and no backup. His supplies were running out, and
frankly, the entire mission had been a disaster up until this point. Just as the main contingents of
his army were crossing the River Yser, he received news from one of his scouts. A large hostile army
was approaching in the rear. Maurits was stuck in a pincer movement. There was no escape. All
he could do was call back his troops that crossed the Yser and prepare for the inevitable battle.
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Ever since 1568, William of Orange led a revolt against the Spanish control over the Low
Countries. The response to this revolt had been bloody and brutal. But monetary problems pestered
the Spanish and slowly but surely the King was forced to grant the rebels more concessions.
The Low Countries weren’t united. In January 1579 the southern provinces
established the Atrecht Union and began peace negotiations with the Spanish. In response,
the northern provinces created the Utrecht Union, a defensive alliance against Spain. Two years
later they presented the Act of Abjuration, the Dutch declaration of independence. Despite
their monetary problems the Spanish were still a military force to be reckoned with.
In the months after the declaration, they subjugated many of the southern provinces.
When in 1584 William of Orange was assassinated in Delft, things did not look good for the rebels.
In 1588 the rebels declared the Netherlands a Republic, basing their legitimacy on the Act
of Abjuration. The key figure for the military successes of the young republic was, without a
doubt Maurits of Orange. Born to William, he was 17-years-old when his father was assassinated.
In the following years many Dutch provinces declared him their Stadtholder.
In terms of military innovation, Maurits could be considered ahead of his time. The ancient
Spartans inspired him. He made a science of warfare and professionalised the Dutch army.
Frankly, his tactics and strategy stood at the forefront of modern warfare. He specialised in
besiegements, meticulously planning the campaigns against Spanish-held cities.
In early 1600 he planned to capture the strategically important city of Den Bosch.
Maurits’ campaign was successful. He captured two closeby fortresses without much of a significant
battle. Financial trouble on the Spanish side prompted Maurits’ close advisor Johan
van Oldenbarneveld to begin planning a campaign that would put a severe dent in the Spanish side.
Instead of capturing Den Bosch, Johan proposed to attack Dunkirk, a Spanish-controlled port
from which privateers launched the majority of attacks against Holland’s trading cities.
Dunkirk cost the United Provinces a lot of money, approximately one million guilders annually.
[Planning the Invasion]
The plan was to use Ostend, a Protestant stronghold within the Catholic territories,
as a springboard to Dunkirk. Maurits wasn’t necessarily in favour of the risky campaign.
Dunkirk lay far in the south, deep in hostile territory. He made it known he preferred
sieges to battles. But Johan pushed through. On June 17, 1600 Maurits departed from Vlissingen.
His fleet numbered 1300 ships, carrying 13000 soldiers and 2800 horses. But then things went
sour. The weather changed for the worse and a strong headwind meant the ships were unable to
continue their voyage. So Maurits could do nothing but put his soldiers onshore across the channel.
The march to Dunkirk was around 70 kilometres. They didn’t have enough drink and food to last
them for more than a few days, but no bother, Maurits figured, as surely the locals would
be on their side. He could not have been further from the truth. Towns and villages
ignored any requests and letters for aid. Meanwhile, the sovereign of the southern
Netherlands, Albert, Archduke of Austria, was stationed in Maastricht. His scouts informed him
of a large hostile army trekking southward. He figured his best bet was to cut them off
in their rear. He took command of two armies stationed nearby, totalling around 8000 soldiers.
But Maurits was none the wiser, still trekking southward. When they reached
Ostend he left two garrisons of troops behind to guard the Protestant stronghold,
before continuing their trek southward. Around this time Maurits finally received word a
Spanish army was rapidly closing in. He decided to send the rearguard, commanded by his cousin Ernst
Casimir van Nassau back north to fend off the rapidly approaching threat. A significant portion
of his army had already crossed the Yser river. He now ordered them to return as soon as possible.
Commanding approximately 1800 troops, mainly cavalry, Ernst Casimir ran into Albert of
Austria’s soldiers at Leffingedijk. The subsequent battle was more of an onslaught. Ernst Casimir’s
horses ran wild and his Scottish infantry fled into the dunes where the Spanish cornered them and
slaughtered all 800. Ernst Casimir and his Zeeland soldiers were routed and found refuge in Oostende.
As Maurits received word of the defeat, he ordered it to be kept a secret from his troops
as not to cause panic and decline in morale. Understanding the Spanish were approaching,
Maurits ordered his approximately 11000-strong army to halt their march towards Dunkirk.
In total, his army numbered about ten to twelve infantry regiments and several troops of cavalry.
But Albert's army was already close, slowly advancing in battle formation
along the coast. Up until this point, every aspect of the campaign had been a disaster to Maurits.
Both sides used a wide variety of weaponry,
mainly arquebuses, muskets and halberds. Maurits deployed his army in three main
lines, spanning from the dunes to the outskirts of the village of Lombardsijde.
Maurits' infantry vanguard, English mercenaries and Frisian musketeers commanded by Francis Vere,
positioned themselves in the dunes. Vere kept an
infantry regiment as a reserve in his rear. Artillery covered both flanks.
Maurits' cousin Lodewijk Gunther commanded the cavalry, which was positioned in the rear
two lines initially. Maurits told both Lodewijk and Francis to act as they saw fit
during battle, while he set himself in the rear overseeing the fight. However,
Francis and Lodewijk disagreed about whether the infantry should initiate the attack
against the Spanish, leading to the plan being shelved.
Maurits knew the Spanish tended to deploy their army in large
contingents of halberdiers and musketeers. The official term was a tercio, a military unit
somewhat resembling a Macedonian Phalanx. A tercio consisted of 10 to 12 companies,
numbering around 1200 to 1600 men. Its halberdiers manned the centre, flanked by arquebusiers.
Renowned for being an innovative strategist,
Maurits decided to fracture his contingents into much smaller groups of soldiers.
These would be much more mobile against the inflexible bulwark of Spanish soldiers.
Vere later recounted how he had units of Frisian musketeers stand on top of dunes,
shooting at the advancing Spaniards. Thanks to their positioning,
the tercios were unable to reach them. Maurits also gained the advantage of standing with the
sun in his back, whereas the Spanish stood north of them facing the sun.
Maurits ordered his fleet to sail off, reinforcing the message to his troops
they were to fight on the beach and would have no place to flee in case of defeat.
The Spanish side suffered a few problems. Firstly, they were outnumbered. Albert commanded seven
tercio's, between 7 and 8000 infantry, two mutineer regiments in his vanguard and 1200
cavalry. In addition, many were mercenaries, who had not yet received pay, and sources
reveal that at least Spanish, German, Wallonian, Italian, Irish and English mercenaries fought on
Albert's side. Albert positioned his cavalry in front, followed by the tercios and mutineers.
[Battle sequence]
Maurits used his musketeers in a vastly different manner to the Spanish. Whereas they usually had
an entire contingent of soldiers shoot at once, Maurits rotated the frontlines of soldiers who
fired. One row of soldiers consisted of 60 men, with five rows numbering 300 in total. After the
front row fired their shot, they returned to the rear to reload their musket, while the second row
fired. Maurits named this barrage of fire tactic the 'contramars'. It was efficient and successful.
Albert saw the Dutch fleet sail off. He underestimated the army's size within the dunes
and figured its commanders were aboard the fleet instead of commanding their army.
The battle commenced between 2 and 4 PM. The Spanish took the initiative:
Albert ordered a minor cavalry contingent to charge against Vere's infantry vanguard.
Entering the range of the Dutch cannons, they charged into the halberdiers. All the while,
from the top of the dunes, Frisian musketeers took their shots whenever they saw fit.
The cavalry charged into the infantry, and fighting broke out.
Still, suffering minor losses, the halberdiers eventually repelled the cavalry.
Upon their retreat, Albert ordered the entire Spanish army to move forward.
The several thousand strong armies now slowly began moving forward
through the dunes and the plain behind the dunes.
Upon seeing the Spanish army advance, Maurits ordered his entire army ahead as well.
Once again, Vere was the first to engage in combat, now facing a tercio of musketeers and
halberdiers. Trying to spare his infantry reserves, Vere sent multiple messengers
to Maurits requesting reinforcements. But the Spanish tercio pushed hard into his front lines.
Vere himself participated in the heavy fighting and called upon his reserves to join them.
Vere was wounded in battle. But the infantry managed to push back part of the Spanish army.
But after a temporary minor retreat, another tercio came to the aid of the Spanish attacking
Vere's infantry. Outnumbering the Dutch, they slowly pushed them out of position towards the
sea. Maurits had observed the wavering lines of Vere and dispatched 200 infantry reinforcements
commanded by Francis' brother Horace Vere. Launching an effective counter-attack,
Francis found room to retreat and treat his wounds while his men held the line. To ensure
the lines not breaking, Maurits sent additional cavalry units to reinforce its right flank.
As the battle was raging on, Dutch ships bombarded the Spanish positions to support
their troops from the sea. The second to clash in combat was the Dutch cavalry.
Lodewijk Gunther ordered his cavalry on the right to charge against the Spanish left
flank. They burst into the mutineers and Spanish cavalry units. After heavy close combat fighting,
they routed both the mutineers and Spanish cavalry before charging into the Spanish infantry.
The infantry was armed with halberds and muskets. Putting up a fight,
the Dutch cavalry sustained heavy losses before retreating altogether.
As the battle progressed, Albert understood the Dutch enjoyed an advantage by their positioning.
In an attempt to counter this, he attempted to manoeuvre them towards the sea.
He succeeded in pushing part of the Dutch infantry towards the beach. To relieve the infantry,
Lodewijk Gunther launched cavalry charges against the Spanish units driving the infantry away.
Despite the cavalry charges, the Spanish continued their advance.
Fighting continued for hours. By the evening set in, they had captured two Dutch artillery
pieces and driven the Dutch formations back to where Maurits was commanding them.
Although Vere had been pushed off of his positioning and forced back by the combined
halberdiers and muskets, the Spanish units became cluttered and difficult to command.
Both sides were exhausted, but the battle had moved into Albert's favour.
Seeing the wavering Dutch infantry lines and their exhausted cavalry, he decided one final
massive charge should conclude the battle and lead to his victory. But as he ordered his army
to charge into the Dutch lines, Maurits had one last trick up his sleeve. He retained
part of his cavalry as reserves. Countering the Spanish charge, he sent in three fresh cavalry
units. The new soldiers surprised the Spanish, who had already used all of their reserves.
The Dutch cavalry charged into the Spanish cavalry.
It wasn’t much of a fight, and the Spanish soon retreated.
But Albert ordered them to continue the fight. He joined the vanguard and led another charge
into the Dutch ranks. However, during the charge, the halberd of a German mercenary sliced his head.
The wounds were severe to the degree that he retreated to tend to his injuries. However, his
leaving of the battlefield was perceived by his troops as a call to retreat.
It did not take long for all Spanish soldiers to break rank and retreat. The Dutch did not pursue
them because darkness was setting in. Contrary to expectations, it appeared Maurits' troops had won.
The Spanish lost at least 3000 soldiers, and Maurits army suffered at least 1700 casualties.
Albert and a portion of his army escaped. During the battle, Maurits captured a Spanish general
and some 520 other soldiers. His mercenaries plundered the surrounding villages and cities.
In the end, Maurits never reached Dunkirk. Instead, he laid siege to Nieuwpoort,
but its inhabitants flooded the surrounding countryside, a tried and proven tactic used
by the Dutch against the Spanish. And once again the tactic was successful.
Understanding he would not get any strategic success out of besiegements or further battle,
Maurits retreated to Ostend. Over here the wounded soldiers were treated and his fleet
picked up his soldiers and prisoners of war and brought them to Holland.
Even though the battle did not achieve any of its goals, it is still renowned in the
Netherlands as one of the most important and well-known events in Dutch history.
However, despite it being hailed as a glorious victory, in reality, the battle was a close call
and barely had any strategic value. But if Maurits had been defeated,
the Republic would have lacked an army. A defeat would indeed have meant the end of the Republic.
In 1601 Maurits finally laid siege to Den Bosch. Due to early winter, this failed and two years
later high water prevented him from isolating the city. In the year after the Battle of Nieuwpoort,
Maurits mainly used his army for the defence of the Republic’s territory against the Spanish.
Thank you for watching this video.