The siege of Ostend was a three-year siege of the city of Ostend during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War. A Spanish force under Archduke Albrecht besieged the fortress being held initially by a Dutch force which was reinforced by English troops under Francis Vere, who became the town's governor. It was said "the Spanish assailed the unassailable; the Dutch defended the indefensible." The commitment of both sides in the dispute over the only Dutch-ruled area in the province of Flanders made the campaign continue for longer than any other during the war. This resulted in one of the longest and bloodiest sieges in world history: more than 100,000 people were killed, wounded, or succumbed to disease during the siege. A garrison did a tour of duty before being replaced by fresh troops, normally 3,000 at a time keeping casualties and disease to a minimum. The siege included a number of assaults by the Spanish, including an unsuccessful assault by 10,000 Spanish infantry in January 1602 when governed by Vere. After suffering substantial losses, the Spanish replaced the Archduke with Ambrosio Spinola, and the siege settled down to one of attrition, with the strong points gradually being taken one at a time. The loss of Ostend represented a significant strategic setback for the Dutch Republic and England, but the outcome of the siege also came at great cost to Spain. The three-year siege of Ostend, marked by heavy casualties and high costs, was further partially offset by the Dutch and English conquest of Sluis shortly before its conclusion, yielding limited long-term strategic value. In this regard, it has been described as a pyrrhic victory, as the financial burden contributed to Spain's bankruptcy in 1607, and led the subsequent Twelve Years' Truce.
Background
In 1568, during the reign of Philip II of Spain, the Netherlands, until then under the rule of the Spanish Empire, took up arms against the Spanish crown. The first phase of the war began with two unsuccessful invasions of the provinces by mercenary armies under Prince William I of Orange (1568 and 1572) and foreign-based raids by the Geuzen or Sea Beggars, (irregular Dutch land and sea forces). By the end of 1573 the Beggars had captured the bulk of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland as well as converted the populace to Calvinism, and secured against Spanish attack. The other provinces joined in the revolt in 1576, and a general union was formed.
thumb|left|upright=1.35|Map of Flanders in the 17th century
In 1579 the union was fatally weakened by the defection of the Roman Catholic Walloon provinces in the Union of Arras. By 1588 the Spanish, under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, had reconquered the southern Low Countries leaving only Ostend as a major rebel enclave along the coast and stood poised for a death blow against the nascent Dutch Republic in the north. Spain's concurrent enterprises against England and France at this time, however, allowed the Republic to begin a highly successful counter-offensive under Maurice of Orange which lasted from 1590 to 1600, known as the Ten Glory Years.
In 1599 the Archduke Albert of Austria and Isabel Clara Eugenia, brother and sister of Philip III, ruled as joint sovereigns of the Netherlands through the will of the dying Philip II. By 1600 Maurice of Nassau was stadtholder and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was Grand pensionary of the States General of the Netherlands. Starting with the bankruptcy of the Royal Treasury in 1575; operations against the Ottomans in the Mediterranean, thirty years of war in Flanders against the rebel forces of the United Provinces and a war with England which had waged from 1585. The situation of the United Provinces was similar; more than thirty years of war, and foreign trade blocked by Spain had caused a financial drain. The Dutch tried to relieve their precarious finances by commercially expanding into the East Indies with the birth of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). England was in the same position and was fighting now in Ireland. This never happened however as disputes in the Dutch command meant that taking Spanish-occupied cities in the rest of the Netherlands took over priority as the opportunity arose. Maurice concurred and had his forces evacuated by sea leaving Ostend to be preoccupied by the Spanish. In the view of the State of Flanders; Ostend in the hands of the Protestant Dutch and English was a huge thorn in their side. Ostend unlike other places in the Netherlands had never been taken by the Spanish and the garrison had even repelled an attack by Parma in 1583. The garrison had also made frequent incursions into the adjacent country. The old church and town faced the seas, but in 1583 the new town, further inland, was fortified with ramparts, counterscarps, and two broad ditches. This was considered the most important area to defend as an attempt on the walls could be made on firm ground. The tercios consisted of recruited soldiers of all domains of the Spanish Habsburg empire; Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Walloons, Swiss, Burgundians loyal to Spain, and dissident Catholic Irish, along with mercenaries from other countries. They were led by the Archduke Albrecht who was military commander of the Spanish forces in the Low Countries. The English, having distinguished themselves highly in battles such as Turnhout and Nieupoort where they had faced and beaten the Spanish tercios, were considered the veterans, and the elite of the army as a whole. They did have a reputation however as being thieves, pillaging friend and foe alike during and after battle. With this in mind they looked round for the ablest commander in their service. Sir Francis Vere, the hero of Nieuwpoort, was chosen not as governor, but as general of the army along with ample powers. Vere's brother Horace was detached from Maurice's army with eight English companies to reinforce the Ostend garrison. Van der Noot met him at the water's edge, and delivered up the keys of Ostend.
Meanwhile, the fire from the besiegers continued and the soldiers of the garrison dug underground quarters in the marketplace near the "Pekel" bastion, for protection against the hail of shot.
thumb|Siege of Ostend, [[Sebastian Vrancx]]
The States General at this time demanded that Maurice should march to relieve the city; to take on the besiegers.
Maurice however knowing the futility in making a direct attack, chose to campaign in the surrounding areas in an attempt to block the Spanish supplies and divert the attention of the besiegers. He laid siege to and retook Rheinberg and then continued to Spanish-held Meurs in August which was also captured. He began to convey intelligence to the besiegers under an agreement with Albert. A boat was sunk in the mud, on the banks of the Old haven, near the South square; Conisby was to deposit letters there from which a Spanish soldier then took them during the night. Conisby however grew bolder, and tried to bribe a sergeant to blow up the powder magazine. The sergeant revealed the plot and Conisby confessed to everything, and was sentenced to be publicly executed but in an act of clemency was whipped out of the town.
Assault on the Sandhill & South Bulwark
In December 1601 the number of defenders of the garrison was down to less than 3,000 but the besiegers suffered terribly and had only 8,000 men fit for duty out of 25,000.
For the first six months and generally throughout the siege there were fired on average a thousand shots a day. It was not until the end of November that the Spaniards had been at work advancing their batteries, forming foundations in the haven by sinking huge baskets of wicker-work filled with sand, and building floating platforms, on which guns were mounted in the "Geule".
On 4 December a breach was made in between the Porcespic and the Helmund and the Archduke was prepared to storm. The assault never made it past the breach as the Spanish found the rubble almost impossible to fight on and suffered heavy casualties.
thumb|left|Spanish troops at Ostend
On 23 December, Vere learned from a deserter that the Spanish were in preparation for a large impending assault on the city; he realized he had no hope except to hold for time.
Vere then construed as much time as possible frustrating Spanish 'negotiations'; he ordered his men to beat to quarters even though there was no attack. Vere then ordered them to stay put because of the dark and high tide, and flagons of English ale were given as compensation. The Spaniards had by that time sent 163,200 shot into the town, and scarcely a whole house was left standing. Several houses, which had been ruined by the cannon fire, were pulled down for the sake of the beams and spars to be used as palisades.
Great Spanish Assault
Vere soon after received intelligence from deserters and scouts that the Spanish were preparing for a general assault; and began to prepare for it.
Preparations
At high tide, Vere shut the west sluice, which let the water into the town ditch from the Old haven in the rear of "Helmund", in order to retain as much water as possible. Horace Vere and Charles Fairfax, with 12 companies armed with pikes and muskets, were stationed in the "Sand-hill". Vere took his stand with six of his veteran English and Scots companies close by. Vere then went to the top of the "Sandhill" and issued orders to have everything in readiness, but not to fire until he gave the signal, and then to open with both ordnance and small shot. Along the curtain of the old town, the Spaniards rushed into the breach but as they climbed up they were met by ordnance fire from the bulwarks. Burning ash, stones, and rubble were hurled at them, before the flaming hoops were cast. The Spanish no sooner climbed to the crest of the "Sandhill" and the "Schottenburgh" but were repelled three times with heavy losses after rallying to the charge, while the struggle on the breach continued during the space of an hour. The loss of the garrison was forty killed and 100 wounded; Vere left Ostend on 7 March, accompanied by his brother Horace and John Ogle as well as the majority of his English companies, but the remaining English troops continued to fight for the Dutch until the end. Colonel Zelandés Frederic van Dorp, the new governor, arrived with a fresh rotation of eight Dutch and Frisian companies and by June more reinforcements put the garrison at 5,000 men in total.
In July 1602 Maurice launched an offensive, who after being joined by Francis Vere besieged Grave. A slow siege was conducted and after forcing away a Spanish relief attempt took the surrender of the town on 18 September, and continued their advance through Brabant.
There were no more assaults on Ostend throughout the rest of 1602, but there was an outbreak of pestilence during the summer for both armies causing loss of life and disease. Another thirty six Dutch infantry companies arrived in November 1602 on a rotation replacing those who had stayed the longest. As a result, the market provisions were cheaper in Ostend than any other place in Europe at the time.
1603
thumb|upright=1.35|Siege of Ostend, Braun & Hogenberg
The siege continued on in 1603 with both sides exchanging artillery; in the first few months the Spanish had unsuccessfully tried again to stop Ostend from being provisioned by Dutch and English ships. Both the ambassadors of Spain, Juan de Acuña Tassis and Juan Fernández de Velasco, congratulated the new monarch but also hoped to seek truces and mutual good faith. James at the same time discouraged the levy of English soldiers to help defend Ostend and declared a ceasefire at sea, in an effort to start peace talks with Spain. The ascension of James I to power effectively ended the Anglo-Spanish war, but this didn't deter English soldiers fighting for the United Provinces. John Ogle, who had been knighted at Woodstock in 1603, continued to recruit English troops to send to Flanders. He would later become the commander of the English forces at Ostend the same year. Meanwhile, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, heading the delegation of the States, tried to attract the complicity of the new English monarch in the conflict in Flanders, of which the focus was Ostend. As soon as the storm had ended the Spanish launched another attack, this time on the "Porcespic" by a force of nearly 8,000 Spanish and Italians. The Spanish had planted rope-ladders, swung themselves over the walls while the fight had been going on at the Porcespic. His fleet of galleys though was attacked by the English at Sesimbra Bay losing two galleys, and with the remaining six sailed towards Sluis but was defeated by an Anglo-Dutch squadron in the English Channel losing another three. Frederico would be defeated again and killed in a final battle off Sluis with the Dutch a year later ending any dream of Ostend being blockaded, let alone England invaded.
Meanwhile, Ambrosio Spinola, together with the Count of Fuentes, governor of Milan, recruited 8,000 men in Italy. These were at the expense of their own assets and lending by Genoese bankers, who proceeded to Ostend to reinforce the troops of the Archduke.
After two years of campaigning, Archduke Albert's progress in the siege were scarce: attempts to attack the Old Haven in the west had not had the desired result, and the dike held by Bucquoy in the east had failed stop the boats from entering the city harbour.
In October 1603, Ambrosio Spinola succeeded the Archduke in the command of the Spanish forces. However, in the field his relations with the soldiers and commanders of the Army of Flanders were soon appreciated; his personal involvement in the conflict and charismatic personality serving as an incentive to the troops. One of these was an inventor; Pompeo Targone, a Venetian engineer in the service of the Pope who devised and constructed a number of devices. Although this procedure was costly, it proved to be successful for the Spanish. Gieselles was killed soon after observing the captured position, and was succeeded by Colonel John van Loon, who died just four days later by the impact of a cannonball, his provisional substitute Jacques de Bievry was wounded and evacuated to Zealand.
Maurice and his cousin William Louis of Nassau, at the head of a Dutch and English army of 11,000 rising to 18,000 men entered Flanders in April 1604, and laid siege to Sluis on 25 April. Luis de Velasco, General of the Spanish horse, and later Spinola himself attempted to come to the aid of the city but Maurice's forces stood firm and defeated both Velasco and Spinola. The new defensive positions would cut the town in two and whole foundations of houses reduced to rubble by the bombardment were removed. The new defences were named after old ones including New Helmund, New Polder and New West Bulwark. The Spanish then launched a two-pronged assault, one on the breach and the other on the Polder bulwark. The Spanish soon crowded into the breach and ferocious fighting ensued. After a long and desperate struggle with heavy losses on both sides the Porepsic was at last carried and held by the Spanish. However, the assault on the Polder bulwark was repelled and further attempts to take the position were called off.
thumb|upright|Daniel d´Hertaing
On 17 June the Spanish sprang the mine under the Western bulwark. A decision thus was made to grant the Ostend garrison permission to surrender. Daniel d'Hertaing thus decided to send away all the Spanish deserters, heretical preachers, and other potential troublemakers that might have caused problems during the surrender.
Finally, an accord was signed on 20 September; d'Hertaing surrendered the city to the forces of Ambrosio Spinola. marched out with flags flying and drums beating and were allowed to go to Flushing without harm while Spinola entertained the officers at a banquet. thumb|left|upright=1.2|Albert and Isabella
Of the 3,000 civilians in Ostend, the majority had left en masse during the early part of the siege, and by the end only two civilians remained: the wife of a freebooter and her paramour, a journeyman blacksmith.
Meanwhile, the garrison arrived at the newly captured Sluis, and Maurice received them with the pomp and ceremony and both officers and private men were promoted or otherwise rewarded.
Spinola’s 1606 offensive
The economic and military fatigue from the long siege would force both sides to maintain a small truce during the winter of 1604–1605. Under Spinola, the Spanish made major advances into Dutch territory, capturing Oldenzaal, Lingen, Rijnberk and Groenlo despite the efforts of Maurice. The Spanish did not repeat the success that Maurice had achieved from 1590 to 1600, but Spinola had made significant gains in a short time and had caused panic in the Republic when he invaded the Zutphen quarter of Gelderland, showing that the interior of the Republic was still vulnerable to Spanish attack. However, Spinola was satisfied with the psychological effect of his incursion and did not press the attack. Maurice decided on a rare autumn campaign in an attempt to close the apparent gap in the Republic's eastern defences. He retook Lochem, but his siege of Oldenzaal failed in November 1606.
This was the last major campaign on both sides before the truce that was concluded in 1609. The strategic result of the Spanish gains of 1605–06 was that the Twenthe and Zutphen quarters were to remain a kind of no man's land right down to 1633, during which they were forced to pay tribute to the Spanish forces that often roamed there at will.
Analysis
thumb|Isabella entering the rubble of Ostend; she wept at the desolation
The siege of Ostend was the longest military campaign of the Eighty Years' War, and one of the longest and bloodiest sieges in world history: more than 100,000 people were killed, wounded or succumbed to disease; on each side, a precise number of casualties is impossible to pin down. The Spaniards and their empire troops had lost between 60,000 and 70,000 men in the fighting.
After the surrender, the Spanish army entered a completely devastated city that shocked many; Isabella wept at the desolation. Three years, two months and two weeks of siege under almost constant fire of artillery as well as defence efforts to rebuild the walls at the expense of the buildings had left Ostend but a wasteland of rubble.
The Habsburg authorities considered the capture of Ostend as a propaganda incentive, but the time, money and heavy casualties invested in the siege turned this into a propaganda failure. In 1605 the Dutch East India Company (VoC) made serious inroads into the Portuguese spice trade, by setting up bases in the Moluccas. These advances signalled a potential threat that the conflict might spread further in the Spanish overseas empire. That threat became more apparent when the Dutch scored a major naval victory over the Spanish fleet intended to find the merchant ships of the VoC at Gibraltar in 1607. The balance of power had led to a balance of exhaustion and after decades of war, both sides were finally prepared to open negotiations leading to the Twelve Years' Truce.
School and art of war
thumb|Ostend's military machines by [[Pompeo Giustiniani 1 & 3, the construction of wicker filled with stones and earth were buried in the trenches by the besiegers; they were used in the western part of the town to allow the fording of the Old Haven.
2 & 4, to the east, the deeper flowing channel Geule of the Old Haven, a dam was constructed by Count Bucquoy's troops on which rode artillery pieces to prevent the entry of ships into the harbour during low tide;
6 Cannons mounted on parapets on top of boats that ventured close to bomb the city; this design would be a failure as it sank on its maiden voyage without even firing a shot.
8 Mobile drawbridge or Targone bridge: this too was a failure after it took a direct hit.
With Ostend being supplied from the sea, regular siege warfare techniques were infeasible. The royal army's military engineers were forced to devise new methods to facilitate the capture of the town. According to American historian John Lothrop Motley and others, the siege of Ostend became progressively known as a 'great academy' in which the science and the art of war taught by the most skilful practitioners to all of Europe. Many names were given to the siege by pamphlets such as Military school of Europe, War College and the New Troy.
- Sebastian Vrancx, Cornelis de Wael, Peter Snayers created paintings and prints of the siege.
- Cartographers Floris Balthasar and Joan Blaeu, drew maps of the siege.
- Don Giovanni de' Medici reported extensively about Pompeo Targoni's military devices and accompanied his letters with sketches and models of the siege of Ostend. Medici ordered his draughtsman to make a huge scale model of the town and defences.
- Guido Bentivoglio, Emanuel van Meteren, Hugo Grotius notable historians of the time, were among the witnesses who recorded their experiences. The Leiden printer and publisher, Hendrick van Haestens provided accounts of the fighting in three publications.
- Cyril Tourneur who was at Ostend from 1601 to 1602 – references the parley stratagem employed by Francis Vere in The Atheist's Tragedy
- According to legend, the Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia promised not to change her underwear until the city of Ostend had been conquered. The long duration of the siege led to the colour of her clothes white to dark.
- In 1603 the Dutch minted a commemorative medal to the siege of Ostend with a satirical theme, on the obverse of the coin, a fox, representing Spain, looking up at a rooster in a tree, symbolizing Ostend. On the reverse, a map of the city. The obverse of this jeton refers to Aesop's fable of the Fox and the Crow/rooster. This fable warns against listening to flattery.
- Jeroni Desclergue, born in Montblanc, Tarragona, Spain, stemmed from the family who lived at the Casal dels Desclergues on the town square, was a member of the Corts of Barcelona in 1599, and was killed during the Siege of Ostend in 1604. His son, Antoni Desclergue, born in Barcelona, equally had a military career.
- The artillery fire against the city became so numerous and intense that the cannonballs fired by the Spanish guns were piled on the outside of the city walls by the defenders. The new cannon shots made them bounce like marbles.
- Simoni, (2003) p 10 A pyrrhic victory
- Sandler, (2002) p 650 was at best a pyrrhic victory