Siege of Rheinberg (1597)

After reducing the town and castle of Alphen, Maurice marched to Rheinberg arriving there on 10 August and immediately attacked. The Spanish garrison of Rheinberg consisted of 850 men under the command of Camilo Sachino who had held many governing positions in the region for many years. The garrison though was not in a fit state to fight having had many desertions through lack of pay and many were unwilling to fight.^[3]

The Dutch and English army had access to a large quantity of artillery, which had landed via barges from the Rhine. On 11 August 1597 approaches were dug towards the city's walls as the siege commenced.^[3] William Louis of Nassau was wounded by a bullet in the thigh and Maurice not long after had a cannonball fly just over his head as it entered his tent while in repose. Once the batteries were placed, the city was intensively shelled which added to the misery of the garrison.^[2]

After ten days of shelling the Sachino afraid of a mutiny in the garrison called for negotiations and then surrendered on 20 August; the Archbishop of Rheinberg begged for the place and the populace to be spared from pillaging which Maurice agreed to.^[1] The Spanish garrison, who were allowed the honors of war but were not to fight for a long time, then marched out and the Dutch and English marched in.^[3] With the capture of Rheinberg Maurice knew that access over the Rhine was now an easy task and the East of the Netherlands was now open to him.^[6] Maurice's troops were thus able to take the offensive further and capture Meurs, Groenlo, Bredevoort, Enschede, Oldenzaal, and closed off the year and the campaign with the capture of Lingen.^[4]

The following year a Spanish force under Francisco de Mendoza, knowing how important Rheinberg was, retook the place, which the city garnered a new nickname La puta de la guerra (whore of war), a name that would stick for the next 35 years.^[4]

The Spanish occupation under Commander Don Luis Bernardo de Avila would last only till 1601 when Maurice again captured Rheinberg after a siege of more than a month.^[4]

Rheinberg was repeatably taken and retaken before in 1633 the place finally came back into Dutch hands.^[9]

• List of stadtholders in the Low Countries
• List of governors of the Spanish Netherlands
• Siege of Rheinberg (1586–1590)
• Siege of Meurs (1597)

• Fissel, Mark Charles (2001). English warfare, 1511–1642; Warfare and history. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21481-0.
• Israel, Jonathan. (1997). Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585-1713. Continuum. ISBN 1-85285-161-9.
• Markham, C. R. (2007). The Fighting Veres: Lives Of Sir Francis Vere And Sir Horace Vere. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1432549053.
• Motley, John Lothrop. History of the United Netherlands: from the death of William the Silent to the Synod of Dort, with a full view of the English-Dutch struggle against Spain, and of the origin and destruction of the Spanish armada (Volume 3). New York, Harper.
• Naphy, William G. (2011). The Protestant Revolution: From Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr. Random House. ISBN 9781446416891.
• van Nimwegen, Olaf (2010). The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588-1688 Volume 31 of Warfare in History Series. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781843835752.
• J.Wagenaar et al. (1753): Vaderlandsche Historie, Vervattende Geschiedenislessen der Vereenigde Nederlanden, in Zonderheid die van Holland, van de Vroegste Tyden af - Achtste Deel Amsterdam: Isaak Tirion (Dutch)