After the
Battle of Heiligerlee, the Dutch rebel leader
Louis of Nassau
Louis of Nassau (Dutch: Lodewijk van Nassau, January 10, 1538 – April 14, 1574) was the third son of William I, Count of Nassau-Siegen and Juliana of Stolberg, and the younger brother of Prince William of Orange Nassau.
Louis was a key f ...
(brother of
William the Silent
William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...
) failed to capture the city of
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
. Louis was driven away by
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba
Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...
and defeated at the Battle of Jemmingen (also known as Battle of Jemgum, at
Jemgum
Jemgum is a municipality in the Leer district, in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. The area is known as ''Rheiderland'' (German) or ''Reiderland'' (Dutch). Rheiderland is located in East Friesland.
The East Friesland area of Germany (also ...
in
East Frisia
East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...
- now part of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) on
21 July 1568.
Forces
The Spanish army consisted of 12,000 infantry (4
tercio
A ''tercio'' (; Spanish for " third") was a military unit of the Spanish Army during the reign of the Spanish Habsburgs in the early modern period. The tercios were renowned for the effectiveness of their battlefield formations, forming the el ...
s), 3,000 cavalry, and some cannons. Louis of Nassau opposed them with 10,000 infantry (2 groups), some cavalry, and 16 cannons.
Battle
After three hours of skirmishes, Louis' army left its trenches and advanced. Pounded by effective musket fire and intimidated by the Spanish cavalry, the advance turned into a general retreat towards the river
Ems.
Aftermath
On 19 May 1571 a statue of the Duke, cast from one of the captured bronze cannons, was placed in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
In ...
. After the
Sack of Antwerp
The Sack of Antwerp, often known as the Spanish Fury at Antwerp, was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. It is the greatest massacre in the history of the Low Countries.
On 4 November 1576, mutinying Spain, Spanish tercios of the Army of Flande ...
in 1576, the city joined the
Dutch Revolt
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...
and in 1577 the statue was destroyed by an angry crowd.
Notes
References
* Laffin, John, ''Brassey's Dictionary of Battles'', Barnes & Noble, 1995.
External links
The Battle of Jemmingen
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1568 in Europe
Jemmingen 1568
Jemmingen
Jemmingen
History of East Frisia
Eighty Years' War (1566–1609)