Battle of Dahlen

Battle of Dahlen

Part of: Eighty Years War

Depiction of the battle on an engraving by Frans Hogenberg

date	April 25, 1568
place	Dahlen , Duchy of Jülich
Casus Belli	Spanish-Dutch War; The Dutch fought for independence from the Spanish crown
output	Victory of the Spanish Army

Parties to the conflict
Geusen	Spain
Commander
Joost de Soete	Sancho d'Avila Sancho de Londoño
Troop strength
3000	1600
losses
1,100–1700 dead or wounded	635 dead or wounded

Location of the Dahlener Heide northeast of Rheindahlen

The Battle of Dahlen took place on April 25, 1568 between Dutch rebels under the command of Joost de Soete and Spanish troops under Sancho d'Avila , governor of Philip II and Sancho de Londoño on the Dahlener Heide northeast of today's Rhine Dahlen and ended with a devastating victory of the Spaniards over the army raised by William of Orange. This event is considered to be the beginning of the Eighty Years War .

prehistory

Joost de Soete, military commander of Wilhelm des Schweigers , crossed the border of the Duchy of Jülich on April 20, 1568 with his 3000-strong army . With the Dutch refugees and German mercenaries known as Geusen , he intended to conquer a strategically important location as the base for future military operations. Moving further north, he finally reached Roermond on April 23, 1568 . Since the city refused to surrender, de Soete began the siege.

The governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba reacted promptly when he heard of the invasion and set Sancho d'Avila and Sancho de Londoño with infantry, cavalry and 300 pikemen , a troop of around 1,600 soldiers, on the march towards Roermond . Before the opponents could come together, Joost de Soete decided to abandon the siege of the city and withdraw to the east in the direction of Erkelenz .

battle

Finally the opponents clashed northeast of Dahlen and battle broke out. The rebels lost between 1,100 and 1,700 men, including the entire cavalry . De Soete managed to find refuge at Dahlen with the rest of the troops and to reorganize the men.

Sancho de Londoño reached the city of Dahlen with 600 infantrymen around 4 p.m. and completely wiped out the enemy in just half an hour. De Soete, who initially found refuge in the city of Dahlen, was later captured.

The Duchy of Jülich-Berg , on whose territory the battle took place, had previously declared itself neutral. There was no reason for the victorious Spaniards to forego billeting soldiers in the city, requisitioning horses or looting the surrounding towns. In Gladbach and Dahlen damage was caused by the "Spanish war people". In Dahlen alone, 1,431 thalers of damage had to be repaired.

literature

• Bernardino de Mendoza: Comentarios de lo sucedido en las guerras de los Paises-Bajos, desde el año de 1567-1577 . Madrid 1853.
• Geoffrey Parker: The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659 . Cambridge University Press, 1972.
• The Rhine province of the Prussian monarchy, or description of the systematic division into administrative districts, counties, mayors and Honnschaften as the cities, towns, villages, individual establishments, indicating the population, commercial, interests, institutions, & c . A historical = geographical = statistical manual for the use of all stands. Taken from the latest sources and compiled by several scholars. I. Volume. Düsseldorf 1833, p. 109 ( page in digitized version of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Wolfgang Löhr: Small Mönchengladbach city history . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2226-9 , pp. 83 .
2. ^ Ernst Brasse: History of the City and Abbey of Gladbach . tape 2 . Commission publisher Fritz Kerlé, Mönchengladbach 1922, p. 330 ff .
3. ^ Jean Charles François Baron de Ladoucette: Journey in 1813 and 1814 through the country between the Meuse and the Rhine . Ed .: Birgit Gerlach. 1st edition. Antiquariat Am St. Vith, Mönchengladbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028810-4 , p. 191 ff .
4. ^ Norbert Becker: Loca Desiderata, Mönchengladbacher Stadtgeschichte . Ed .: Wolfgang Löhr with the support of the Sparkasse Foundation for Art and Science, the Reiners Foundation GmbH and the Josef and Hilde Wilberz Foundation. tape 1 . Rhineland publishing and operating company of the Rhineland Regional Association, Brauweiler Abbey, Pulheim 1994, ISBN 3-7927-1375-6 , p. 355 .