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Rare map showing the siege of Bergen op-Zoom in in October 1622.
The map shows siege of Bergen op Zoom (1622) was a siege during the Eighty Years' War that took place from July 18 to October 2, 1622. The Spanish general Ambrosio Spinola laid siege to the Dutch city of Bergen op Zoom.
Spinola tried a feigned maneuver by sending a part of his army under Hendrik van den Bergh to Cleves, and another part under Luis de Velasco to Steenbergen, which was consequently conquered by Velasco.
But the city did not fall because it was supplied by sea. Furthermore, the Dutch Navy regularly bombarded the Spanish, causing many casualties. The young Michiel de Ruyter was one of these gunners.
The Dutch called on the German mercenary armies of Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick to relieve the city. The Spanish sent their Palatine Army under Córdoba to intercept them, resulting in the Battle of Fleurus, Belgium on August 22, 1622.
In September 1622, when Spinola and Velasco seized Steenbergen, they moved to besiege to Bergen op Zoom. Prince Maurice sent Sir Robert Henderson to both reinforce and command the garrison in Bergen op Zoom. Henderson, according to a chronicler at the battle, led a massive move of three or four thousand men from the garrison, with the Scots and English in the vanguard, the Dutch in the middle, and the French in the rear. In the battle, which "lasted a night and a whole morning," Henderson was killed.
The Spanish ended the siege in October, as a result of the arrival of an army under the Dutch Stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and Ernst von Mansfeld.
Rarity
The map is very rare. We note the examples at the BNF.
