Battle of the Mooker Heath

Battle of the Mooker Heath

Part of: Eighty Years War

Engraving by Frans Hogenberg

date	April 14, 1574
place	Mook en Middelaar
output	Victory of the Spanish Army

Parties to the conflict
Geusen	Spain
Commander
Ludwig von Nassau † Heinrich von Nassau †	Sancho d'Avila Bernardino de Mendoza
Troop strength
5500 infantry 2600 cavalry	5000 infantry 0800 cavalry
losses
3000, including both commanders	150

The battle on the Mooker Heide took place on April 14, 1574 between the Spanish army under Sancho d'Avila and Bernardino de Mendoza on the one hand and a mercenary army under Ludwig and Heinrich von Nassau-Dillenburg on the other.

course

Ludwig's army consisted of 5500 foot soldiers and 2600 horsemen. The Spanish army had 5,000 infantry and 800 cavalry .

The battle was fought in the moor near the village of Mook on the Maas River . In the 16th century, the Mooker Heide extended over a larger area than today, south of Nijmegen .

Ludwig and Heinrich wanted to lead their troops along the east bank across from the Betuwe , where their brother Wilhelm of Orange was staying. The Spanish broke off the siege of Leyden to prevent the troops from invading Holland . On April 13, 1574, the troops from Nassau arrived in Mook. They were not aware that the Spanish troops had already crossed the Maas at Grave via a pontoon bridge . The Spaniards then camped in Heumen and Overasselt .

There was a confrontation between the cavalry divisions that ended in favor of the two brothers' cavalry. But Ludwig and Heinrich overestimated the Spanish troops and the terrain. So they decided not to move the tired troops and to open the battle early in the morning the next day. Although Ludwig and Heinrich organized the fight with their troops favorably at the beginning, the course of the battle changed due to Spanish reinforcements. The bulwarks were destroyed and the riders fought the decisive battle.

The survivors fled towards Gennep , but got stuck in a swamp .

The two commanders Ludwig and Heinrich von Nassau were killed along with about 3,000 men from their army. Only about 150 men were killed on the Spanish side. How Ludwig and Heinrich died is unknown. It is likely that their bodies are in a mass grave or that the two were sunk in the swamp. A memorial stone for her was unveiled on April 14, 1891 in the church of Heumen .

There is also a Lady Chapel on Mooker Heide. A locally known Roman Catholic legend reports that after the battle, many lights wandered around on the Mooker Heide. It was the souls of the dead who could not find rest. After the Lady Chapel was built, the lights disappeared.

consequences

Luis de Requesens , governor of the Netherlands, could not take advantage of this victory, which left the insurgent provinces practically without defense, as the Spanish troops mutinied after the battle due to lack of pay. For the House of Nassau and Allied Houses, the battle was a fiasco. In addition to the two Nassau brothers, Christoph von der Pfalz , son of Friedrich III. von der Pfalz , and two brothers of those von Donop 's life. To the Count of Lippe , Simon VI. , who actually wanted to go into battle, was previously forbidden because he was the only son and successor of his father.

literature

Primary sources

• Bernardino de Mendoza: Comentarios de lo sucedido en las guerras de los Paises-Bajos, desde el año de 1567-1577 (1592) . Madrid 1853

Secondary literature

• Geoffrey Parker: The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659 . Cambridge University Press 1972.
• Olaf Mörke : Wilhelm von Oranien (1533-1584). Prince and "father" of the republic. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007.