The (Staggering) Siege of Haarlem 1572/73 | Eighty Years' War

[Music] on the 11th of december in 1572 a spanish army under the command of fadrique alvarez de toledo arrived at the dutch town of harlem this marked the beginning of a siege characterized by subterranean warfare cruelties on both sides a sea battle on the har le mermail and the arming of citizens to defend their town most famous of all a woman called k-now siemens dr hasselar the siege of harlem was one of the most discussed and most vividly remembered sieges of the 80 years war there is a 2014 movie called kinau various stage plays historical novels and even a siege-themed escape room in modern day this is our contemporary historiography tells the story of the staggering siege of harlem in 1572 the iron duke fernando alvarez de toledo duke of alba and governor of the spanish netherlands launched a campaign in the name of the catholic spanish crown to cut off the protestant dutch rebels from france one of the main areas of protestantism he first took valencian and then advanced to moss according to christopher duffy an expert on siege warfare it was in the siege of moz that for the first time a system of two trenches was used in the early modern period one called circumvallation to enclose the attacked town and one contravelation to keep relief armies off these siege lines were created by the engineer chiapino vitelli and they would become crucial for siege warfare for the next couple of centuries on the 19th of september most capitulated the army of the rebels dissolved and alba met little resistance when he advanced to punish the rebellious towns of the northern provinces the spaniards made a dreadful example of the cities of machilin zutfin and norden by plundering and by massacring many of the towns inhabitants this caused several terrified rebel cities all over the netherlands to open their gates to them and the town of harlem came within a whisker to do so as well harlem is situated in the heart of modern day holland it held moderate views on religious affairs and had managed to escape the reformed iconoclasm that took place in 1566 apart from the fear instilled by the spanish bloodshed many of the city's administrators didn't favor to rise in open revolt against the king of spain philip ii so that they sent four men to amsterdam to negotiate surrender with don fadrique the son of the duke of alba however the commander of harlem's defenses vicbot van riperda strongly disapproved of these negotiations he convinced the city guard to stay loyal to willem of orange the leader of the dutch revolt who subsequently ordered the city's administration to be replaced by people adhering to his cause as soon as the four delegates returned they were convicted as traitors and beheaded harlem would fight don fadrique arrived at harlem on the 11th of december 1572. the defenses of the city were not particularly favorable their main means of defense a wall 20 foot high set with round and low towers and surrounded by a wet ditch was in bad shape there was only a single modern outwork a reveling before the cruise port according to christopher duffy this outwork posed many problems to the spanish and it was one of the first instances where the value of such outworks was proven this outwork prevented a direct bombardment on the city gate however the surrounding area could not be flooded and offered the enemy many places to set up camp and earthworks because of this don fadrique thought of the town more as an administrative than a military problem in mid-december willem of orange attacked the spanish positions in order to relieve the city from the siege however he was unsuccessful and shortly after the spaniards canoninated the wall near the cruise port for three days on the 20th of december they launched a head-on attack on the damaged wall this was somewhat rushed and unusual because storm assaults without careful preparation were usually not successful during this time so after fierce fighting the hasty spanish assault was repulsed by the defenders by the beginning of 1573 the eyes of both the duke of alba and willem of orange were fixed on the struggle for harlem meanwhile don fadrique was well aware that encircling the city entirely was impossible because of the size of the town and the river sparnel it led to the nearby harlemermere a massive lake and allowed for food and man to be brought to and from the city in winter over the ice by sledge in summer by ship it also allowed the defenders of harlem to communicate with the towns of southern holland and to bring reinforcements and supplies to the city on the 8th of january don fadrica reported to king phillip quote the town is very large and there is nothing we can do to stop the enemy coming in and going out as they please that is what makes them put up such a firm defense end quote the spaniards numbered 17 000 to 18 000 men accompanied by a lot of artillery however the continuous fighting the cold winter and the pervasive diseases shrank these numbers to less than half at some points in time the numbers were always subject to change because of the fresh troops arriving at the city the spanish faced the garrison of 4 000 soldiers assisted by 2 000 armed citizens amongst these was the famous kenau siemens dr hasselar who commanded the company of women defending the walls of harlem with swords and pikes cooking oil burning pitch as well as bricks and rocks kena was about 47 years old when the siege began and successfully ran her late husband's shipyard however it seems she wasn't particularly popular because she was involved in numerous lawsuits against her fellow citizens she is often characterized as a plum pulking woman with male characteristics and up to this day a particularly masculine female is described as vaticana in some parts of the netherlands after the failure to storm the city in december the spanish set about a formal siege the spanish trenches slowly wormed towards the reveling which was abandoned by the defenders on the 15th of january without resistance don fadrique ordered another assault on the town on the 31st of january it was repelled in an even bloodier massacre than the one in december christopher duffy notes that the spanish commanders learned the hard way that it was not advisable to try storming a somewhat decently defended position in the famous words of sebastian le prestre de vomon probably the most famous siege engineer of the 17th century quote haste during his siege does not accelerate the conquest end quote that being not enough the spaniards made the unpleasant discovery that the people of harlem had pulled down a series of houses behind the walls to completely entrench the town with a newly constructed resilient bastion system one downcast spanish captain desperately noted who would believe that we are no further forward than on the first day of the siege end quote because the work of the past three weeks was absolutely fruitless morale in the badly frustrated spanish camp had reached its low and some officers even spoke in favor of abandoning the siege however alba was determined to get hold of the city and nipped the discussion in the pod also rage against the townspeople of harlem ran high amongst the troops many lurked for revenge and accepted the toll of the exhausting fight as a price for their vendetta the war had become so cruel that there was no question of either side taking a man alive once again the spaniards had no choice but to return to the slow and laborious systematic siege despite several sorties of the defenders they slowly dug their approach trenches and steps towards the new build ramparts above the ground while their miners fought a subterranean fight against the rebel miners when they detected an enemy tunnel they fought a bloody and messy fight in the dark narrow and muddy corridors of earth in the meantime both sides tried to lower the morale of the other while the spaniards executed prisoners in plain sight of the city walls the defenders placed catholic statues on the walls and threw some of their lost bread over the walls to mock the hungry attackers this struggle continued until spring harlem remained undiminished on the 28th of may the people of harlem received bad news the town was completely cut off a spanish flotilla coming from the sudersea to the harlemere had defeated the rebel ships in a sea battle and seized fort fueke a stronghold controlling the entrance to the harlemere this changed the situation drastically the high numbers of defenders turned into a disadvantage as they began to exhaust the stock of the city's granaries hunger became the citizens worst enemy soon food had to be rationed many people began to chew the ladder of their shoes and eventually starve to death on the 9th of july the spaniards repulsed the last attempt to relieve harlem four days later the city surrendered unconditionally it was spared from plundering but it had to pay a ransom of 240 000 guilders although most of the citizens were spared the spaniards executed 1735 men of the garrison and the leading rebel citizens after the first few hundred were beheaded by five executioners who worked until they could lift their arms no more the rest of the condemned men were bound to gather back to back and thrown into the river spartan where they drowned meanwhile kenau was able to flee the fall of harlem gave the spaniards a strategic advantage rebel-held holland was now disconnected as it was cut in a northern and southern part however according to historian peter gale quote the long duration of the siege was almost as serious for the spaniards as failure would have been end quote the delay gave other cities time to prepare themselves and the spanish losses made it clear to all rebels that the spaniards were far from being [Applause] [Music] invincible you

Channel: SandRhoman History

Views: 260,390

Keywords: siege of haarlem 1572, siege warfare, staggering sieges, sandrhoman, education, educational, documentary, dutch history, history, siege of harlem 1573, haarlem, siege of haarlem 1573, eighty years war, eighty years' war, don fadrique, dutch revolt, dutch republic, kenau simonsdochter hasselaer, kenau movie 2014, the fall of holland 1572, bazbattles, kingsandgenerals, historymarche, epic history tv, armchair historian, military history, 80 years war

Id: BZh8XPIvAlQ

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 19 2020