Siege of Breda (1624)

Siege Of Breda (1624)

The Siege of Breda of 1624-25 was a siege in which the Dutch fortress city of Breda fell to the Army of Flanders under Ambrogio Spinola in 1625 as part of the Eighty Years' War.

Under Spinola's orders, the King of Spain's army laid siege to Breda in August 1624, contrary to the wishes of the king. The city was heavily fortified and defended by a garrison of 7,000. Spinola rapidly blockaded its defences and hurled back a Dutch relief army under Maurice of Nassau who were attempting to cut his supplies. The defenders held on. In February 1625, a second relief force, consisting of 7,000 Englishmen under Horace Vere and Ernst von Mansfeld, was also driven off. When Justin of Nassau surrendered Breda in June 1625 after a costly eleven-month siege, only 3,500 Dutchmen and fewer than 600 Englishmen had survived.

The Siege of Breda was Spinola's greatest success and one of Spain's last major victories in the Eighty Years' War. It was part of a plan to isolate the Republic from its hinterland.

Spain's efforts in the Netherlands continued thereafter though political infighting hindered Spinola's freedom of movement. Yet the siege of 1624 captured the attention of the princes of Europe and, for a while longer, Spanish armies recaptured the formidable reputation they had held in the previous century.

In 1629, however, after Piet Heyn's capture of a Spanish treasure fleet, Stadtholder Frederick Henry was able to capture the fortress city of 's-Hertogenbosch, breaking the land blockade. In 1637 Breda was recaptured by Frederick Henry after a four-month siege, and in 1648 it was finally ceded to the Dutch Republic by the Treaty of Westphalia.

The 1624-5 siege is best known as the subject of Diego Velázquez's 1635 canvas, The Surrender of Breda (illustrated, to the right).