Sea battle on the Slaak
The naval battle on the Slaak was a naval battle between the Netherlands and Spain during the Eighty Years' War on September 12 and 13, 1631 , which ended in a complete victory for the Dutch.
Western Europe
Oosterweel - Dahlen - Heiligerlee - Jemgum - Jodoigne - Le Quesnoy - Brielle - Mons - Goes - 1. Mechelen - Naarden - Middelburg - Haarlem - Alkmaar - Geertruidenberg - Leiden - Delft - Valkenburg - Mooker Heide - Schoonhoven - Zierikzee - 1. Antwerp - Gembloux - Rijmenam - 1. Deventer - Borgerhout - 1. Maastricht - 2. Mechelen - 1. Steenwijk - Kollum - 1. Breda - Noordhorn - Niezijl - Lochem - Lier - Eindhoven - Steenbergen - Ghent - Aalst - 2. Antwerp - IJsseloord - Empel - Boksum - 1. Grave - 1. Venlo - Axel - Neuss - 1. Rheinberg - Zutphen - 1. Sluis - 1. Bergen op Zoom - 2. Geertruidenberg - 2. Breda - 2. Zutphen - 2. Deventer - Delfzijl - Knodsenburg - 1. Hulst - Nijmegen - Rouen - Caudebec - 2. Steenwijk - 1. Coevorden - 3. Geertruidenberg - 2. Coevorden - Groningen - Huy - 1. Groenlo - Lippe - Calais - 2. Hulst - Turnhout - 2. Rheinberg - 1. Moers - 2. Groenlo - Bredevoort - Enschede - Ootmarsum - 1. Oldenzaal - 1. Lingen - 1. Schenckenschans - Zaltbommel - Rees - San Andreas - Nieuwpoort - 3. Rheinberg - Ostend - 1. 's-Hertogenbosch - 2. Grave - Hoogstraten - 3. Sluis
Twelve Years Peace
2. Lingen - 3. Groenlo - Aachen - Jülich - 2. Bergen-op-Zoom - Fleurus - 3. Breda - 2. Oldenzaal - 4. Groenlo - 2. 's-Hertogenbosch - Slaak - 2. Maastricht - Leuven - 2. Schenkenschans - 4. Breda - 2. Venlo - Kallo - 3. Hulst
European waters
Vlissingen - Borsele - Haarlemmermeer - Zuiderzee - Scheldt - Lillo - Ponta Delgada - Bayona Islands - Gulf of Almería - 1st Cadiz - Azores - Strait of Dover - 2nd Sluis - 1st Cape St. Vincent - 1st Gibraltar - 2nd Gibraltar - 2nd Cadiz - Lizard Point - Dunkirk - Calais - Downs - 2nd Cape St. Vincent - 2nd St. Martin
America
Bahia - Matanzas - St. Martin - San Juan - Abrolhos - Pernambuco - South Chile
East Indies
Playa Honda - 1st San Salvador - 2nd San Salvador - La Naval de Manila - Puerto de Cavite
prehistory
The Dutch were after the conquest of the Spanish treasure fleet by Piet Pieterszoon Hein well prepared financially in 1628 to go on the offensive in the war against Spain. In 1631 they had tried in vain under Friedrich Heinrich von Orange to take Dunkirk , which was the starting point for many Spanish pirate trips. At the end of 1631 the Spaniards, under Isabella Clara Eugenia, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, decided to launch a counterattack. They intended to separate the southern provinces of the Netherlands ( Zeeland ) from Holland and the other provinces in order to rule the Scheldt , on which the important port of Antwerp was located. For this purpose, the conquest of the island Goeree-Overflakkee was planned, which was separated from the mainland by the Volkerak , on which opposite the island was the fortress Willemstad , which was also to be conquered. If successful, the important Dutch port of Hellevoetsluis on the Haringvliet could also be blocked.
The name of the battle on the Slaak came from another passage, which at that time was located between Sint Philipsland and the mainland (North Brabant) before the dyke and merged into the Volkerak. Today the Scheldt-Rhine Canal runs there , at that time there was a 3.5 km wide waterway.
course
A fleet of over 90 mostly smaller cannon-equipped transport ships with 5500 men ran from Antwerp. The command was formally Francisco de Moncada (1586-1635), Marquis of Aytona, but in fact Johann von Nassau-Siegen , a nephew of the Dutch governor Wilhelm I in Spanish service. The Dutch had found out about the Spanish plans and expected the Spaniards to have their own fleet of 50 mostly smaller ships and some larger Vliebooten under the command of the Vice Admiral of Zeeland Marinus Hollaer van Valckenisse (1575–1637) in the Oosterschelde . Van Valckenisse had been in command of the Zeeland fleet since 1629 and had experience, among other things, from the Battle of Gibraltar (1607) against Spain. Since the way for the Spaniards was now blocked, they turned against the island of Tholen , but were repulsed by 2000 English and Scottish mercenaries under Colonel Thomas Morgan (1604–1679), who came from Steenbergen to Tholen at low tide.
The Spaniards then tried to slip past the Dutch fleet over the Slaak and Volkerak with their fleet at night and in fog. The Dutch, previously prevented from attacking by adverse wind and tide conditions, initially let them through and then attacked from behind. Her better knowledge of the fairway made itself felt in the Slaak. Most of the Spanish ships were sunk or captured, around 1,500 of the crew and troops fell or drowned and 4,000 were captured after they had escaped ashore. Johann von Nassau-Siegen and the Marquis von Aytona escaped with a few ships to Antwerp, whereby the escape over the Schlick Nassau-Siegen earned the Dutch the nickname Jan de Mosselvanger . Numerous cannons and ammunition fell into the hands of the Dutch.
The Admiralty in Amsterdam wanted to throw the prisoners into the sea as was customary at the time, but the governor Friedrich Heinrich von Orange forbade that. The following year the Dutch took the initiative and threatened Antwerp and besieged Maastricht, which fell in August despite the support of the Spaniards by imperial troops under Pappenheim. Thereafter, the governor of the Netherlands, Isabella, began peace negotiations, which were broken off after the advance of the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War suffered a setback due to the death of Gustav Adolf near Lützen in November 1632.
The Eighty Years War then turned into the larger Thirty Years War raging in Central Europe and ended like this only in 1648 with the Peace Treaty of Münster .
literature
- George Edmundson: Frederick Henry, prince of Orange , in The Cambridge Modern History , Volume 4, p. 695
- Michael Georg Boer: De slag op het Slaak, 1631 , 1911