The Great Religious War: The Netherlands and the Americas
Aside from France, England-Scotland and Savoy declaring war against Spain, 1625, brought a new development to the United Provinces, the death of Stadholder Maurice of Nassau on April 23. Maurice had dominated the United Provinces since 1618 with the help of the local aristocrats and Counter-Remonstrants (staunch Calvinists) although because this was a small oligarchy, it was unable to rule effectively at the local level, a necessary must in a very decentralized country such as the United Provinces.
Frederick Henry, Maurice’s half-brother, succeeded him as Prince of Orange and Captain-General of the United Provinces but was unable to immediately replace him as Stadholder in the various Provinces. Since 1620, when William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg died, the Provinces of the United Provinces were administrated either by Maurice (Drenthe, Groningen, Guelders, Overijssel, Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht) or Ernest Casimir of Nassau-Dietz (Frisia).
Thus, Frederick Henry was elected Stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel and Ernest Casimir was elected to Drenthe and Groningen. Thus, the northeast of the country, less populous and less rich, was under Ernest Casimir while the rest of the country was under Frederick Henry. Both had to make concessions to the Provinces and swear to not try to control them as Maurice did.
The Spanish Netherlands were also suffering from a lack of political leadership as the Duke of Osuna died on November 16, 1624, and Madrid was unsure of who to send and such Ambrogio Spinola became an Interim Governor. Philip IV again considered nominating his aunt Isabella Clara Eugenia, Queen of Portugal, to the position as a mediator or a way to drag the Portuguese into the conflict, but after thanking the consideration given to her, the Queen refused yet again and her husband did not need to say a thing though his opinion was implicitly known.
After much consideration, Philip chose to nominate one of his younger brothers Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand who was still young and inexperienced and so Olivares advised him to choose Francisco III de la Cueva, Duke of Albuquerque until Ferdinand was sixteen. The arrangement would allow the young Cardinal to acquire experience as an apprentice of the Duke and get used to the Netherlands. As with Osuna, Spinola remained the Supreme Commander of the Army of Flanders but his power, influence and prestige were waning.
Maurice’s death allowed for the moderate Calvinists (the Remonstrants) who had been persecuted by him to return to the scene and the Booteigenarens’s (those who preferred investing in Portugal’s mercantile companies and cooperating with the country) strength increased, especially in the wealthiest Province of Holland. Frederick Henry preferred to take a fully neutral stance in the disputes between religious and economic factions and act as a mediator. This provided him with power and influence but also ensured tolerance and political stability which was much needed.
With the help they received from France and England, the United Provinces were able to increase their army without straining their economy too much. 10 000 French soldiers under the Marquis of Souvré and the Viscount of Aubeterre invaded the County of Artois on May 7, 1625, distracting the Army of Flanders though not for long because Spinola sent his deputy, Carlos Coloma with almost 20 000 soldiers to push the French away and he did so without a fight. While the French Marshals intended on making another push, Louis XIII replaced them with Charles de Créquy and Gaspard de Coligny.
By July, the two Marshals had mustered 15 000 soldiers to fight and the Dutch had received 10 000 English and Scottish troops, with more promised to arrive in the following years, and the Dutch States Army under Frederick Henry was thus able to match the Army of Flanders in numbers. Deeply concerned, Spinola asked for more support from Spain but the Crown was unable to meet his pleads because of the blockade of the Spanish Road in the Alps.
At this point, Spinola realized the miscalculation that his investment in the conquest of Breda that finished on June 5, 1625, brought. If the Anti-Habsburg Alliance did not declare war on the Habsburgs, it was likely that Breda could have been the start of a sizable offensive, however, with two armies pressuring the Spanish positions from north and south, the best they could do was to go on the defensive. They succeeded in foiling a second French attempt to conquer Artois by defeating them at Bapaume, on August 23, which cost the French many men and forced them to retreat. On September 18, Albuquerque and Prince Ferdinand of Spain arrived to take control of the situation but the men and funds they brought were nearly insignificant.
The Dutch, however, were unsure of where to attack. The majority of the Dutch wanted the focus to be on the east, where the Spanish had made significant gains in the previous years and were able to raid the Republic’s poorer eastern provinces but because the French were attacking Artois and would focus their forces there, the option of recovering the wealthier Flanders was very tempting. Negotiations were made between the Nassaus and their commanders and in the end, the Dutch agreed to split the army in two, Ernest Casimir, Stadholder of the eastern Provinces would focus on the east and kick the Spanish away from the important positions of Oldenzaal and Groenlo while Frederick Henry would focus on Flanders and try to put an end to the Dunkirk pirates that plagued the Dutch coast.
Contributing to this outcome was the fear that the French could obtain too many territorial gains if not checked and thus the Spanish “oppressors” would be replaced by the French which would have a far easier time defending the territory. After all, the sentiment of freeing all of the Seventeen Provinces from the Habsburgs was still the final goal, although Frederick Henry and Ernest Casimir were willing to give France the Provinces that had joined the Union of Arras/Artois namely Artois, Hainaut, the cities of Lille, Douai and Orchies as well as the Provinces of Namur and Luxemburg but not more.
At the start of 1626, Ernest Casimir laid siege to Oldenzaal in the Province of Overijssel which had been taken by Spinola in 1605. It was a good target for the Dutch because it was isolated from the main Spanish possessions in the Netherlands and could not be easily relieved. It started officially on May 14 with Dutch pioneers digging siege lines with trenches and placing their artillery pieces in position. After the English troops took control of the nearby castle of Broeckhuise, Ernest Casimir ordered the bombardment of the sluice gates that controlled the city’s canals and drained them and leaving them even more vulnerable. It took only twelve more days for the city to surrender to Ernest Casimir who then made a triumphal entrance into the city.
In the southwest, the French made a renewed attempt at Artois this time focusing on the town of Gravelines with some naval support from England and the United Provinces. After cutting the town’s supply lines, it surrendered on August 4 granting Coligny and Créquy a much-needed victory. However, their advance was checked by Spinola who laid siege to the town to recover it but was not able to cut the supply lines entirely because of English and Dutch naval superiority.
Without the Spanish in sight, Ernest Casimir turned to Groenlo which like Oldenzaal had been conquered by Spinola before the Twelve Years’ Truce. Despite the attack being so easy to predict, as it was the last Spanish garrison in the Northern Netherlands, the Spanish garrison received no help since the start of the siege on September 10, the only thing that helped them was the Autumn weather which only delayed the inevitable outcome. The Spanish commander, Hendrik van den Bergh, a first cousin to Frederick Henry, and one of the Spanish’s highest native officers could do little except conduct night raids until he was forced to surrender on December 18 when the difficult weather proved too much to bare to his soldiers.
Frederick William left with as many as 30 000 men from Sluis in Dutch-held Flanders intending to take Bruges which was very close to the front lines. While the city was no longer in its golden age, it was still a valuable asset on the Dutch side and a question of prestige for both sides. The siege started on April 22 with the Dutch building a circumvallation around the walls, anticipating a Spanish relief force. Spinola and Albuquerque were placed in a precarious position and were forced to ease the pressure on Gravellines to send their army northwards.
The Dutch were concerned about losing the battle and having their planned offensive go to waste and many of Frederick Henry’s deputies pressured him to call it off but he refused much to their dismay. In Paris, Luynes was pressured by Louis XIII for more results and his wish to replace the Marshals yet again, so he sent Duke Henry II of Rohan with 6 000 troops to relieve the French at Gravelines and exert more pressure on the Spanish. His nomination was also done to keep him as far away as possible from the Huguenots which were getting more active again.
Rohan and the other French Marshals succeeded in relieving Gravelines and pushed to occupy Artois once more taking advantage of the Spanish moving northwards. Spinola had hoped that Frederick Henry’s huge army would not be willing to engage, his basis being the conduct of the deceased Maurice who was far more aggressive than Frederick but when the new Captain-General of the Dutch Army refused to leave, Spinola was forced to engage and in bad terms because although he had a slight numerical superiority, the Dutch had chosen the field and mounted defenses against a relief force.
The Battle of Bruges of May 7 lasted nearly a week with the Spanish trying to overrun the Dutch positions in a series of skirmishes. They broke through two positions but were unable to force a capitulation of the Dutch, moreover, their casualties were building and without means to replenish them, Spinola gave the victory to Dutch after he lost as many as 5 000 men, against 7 000 Dutch, deciding it best to fight for another day and drain the Dutch away.
Spinola stayed on the outskirts of Bruges, more specifically between the city and Ostend which he judged to be the next destination for the Dutch. He intended to either force the Dutch to face him on better terms or make them take a different path which could allow him to try and recover Bruges. Because the siege lasted for quite a while, Spinola was able to perform various raids against the Dutch that were efficient in weakening them further and preventing them from continuing their offensive even if they took Bruges.
The French pushed further into Flanders by laying siege to Dunkirk on June 4, their objective was to link with the Dutch further north. Albuquerque demanded troops from Spinola and with 15 000 men he defeated the French at Dunkirk on June 23, a battle where young Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, proved his worth by leading a Terço. Albuquerque sought to pressure the French but was defeated by Rohan and Coligny at the Second Battle of Gravelines on July 3.
With Spinola weakened by having to supply Albuquerque with more men, Frederick Henry chose a different approach and sent an emissary to the defenders of Bruges promising that they could keep their Catholic faith if they surrendered and no extra taxes would be forced upon them. The garrison refused the terms but the city itself, worried, decided after much deliberation to open the gates to Frederick Henry on July 9. True to his word, the Stadholder did not sack the city and confirmed his promises but still had to face the Spanish garrison which only surrendered on August 20.
The loss of the city was a major blow to the Spanish, as expected, and a huge boost to the Dutch who could not continue the offensive due to the casualties Spinola inflicted on them. The Spanish were in no better position with 20 000-25 000 being the number of troops they could use in fighting as the bulk of the Army of Flanders was in garrison duty. Still, despite facing three enemies they were holding their own in the County of Flanders which served to save face after they lost the Northern Provinces for good.
Throughout the winter period of 1626-1627, the Dutch were progressively getting into a better position. With the entirety of the Northern Provinces under their control, Ernest Casimir was able to move his sizable army to the south to reinforce Frederick Henry’s weakened one. Thus the Dutch Army had 40 000 troops ready to resume the Flanders Offensive while the Spanish were still praying that the Spanish Road opened again.
Outnumbered, Spinola could do little but concentrate his efforts on a guerilla campaign. To make matters worse, the French Northern Army had increased to as many as 20 000 men and were ready to resume their own offensive. The administration in Brussels did not know what to do but plead for Philip IV to send more resources which the King did not have even if he wanted to help. Furthermore, the nobility in the Spanish Netherlands, like many of its other counterparts in the Spanish Empire grew increasingly disappointed with Madrid.
This last aspect was caught by the Dutch spies who transmitted it to Frederick Henry and Ernest Casimir who despite their grievances with Catholicism, as they both were banned by the Emperor from their ancestral lands, saw the pragmatic need to guarantee the rights of the Southern Dutch Catholics, as they did with Bruges so that their war effort would be eased. Despite the opposition from the Counter-Remonstrants, the Stadholders wanted to focus on promoting a Dutch culture versus a non-Dutch culture as opposed to Calvinists versus Catholics and for this, they enjoyed the support from the Remonstrants and Booteigenarens to carry this intent forward.
With favorable weather conditions and favorable numbers, the Stadholders made their way towards Ostend in coordination with a French attack against Dunkirk. The Spanish recognized that they had to do a very hard choice between both settlements and in the end, they decided to focus on defending Ostend. There were many reasons for it, peer amongst them was that Ostend had cost so many men and resources to the Spanish that losing it would be a very severe blow to the country’s prestige and honor not to mention one of the best harbors the Spanish had in the region.
First, Spinola weaken the Dutch with his guerilla tactics and then forced a fight on his terms in the outskirts of the town. The Dutch faltered and debated whether or not to give battle since there was a high risk of losing and badly but the members of the House of Nassau decided to go through it after coming up with a plan that would combine the strengths of the Army and Navy.
Battle of Ostend/Second Siege of Ostend
After much hesitation and much scouting the Dutch chose to attack the northeastern corner of the town close to the sea where their Navy started bombing the town without stopping on March 13. Spinola was quick to recognize the Dutch’s plan: they were trying to nullify his advantages by starting a siege and building their own defensive positions to withstand his attack. In other words, the Dutch were trying to take the town without fighting the Spanish or fighting them in their own conditions which included naval support. They also had numerical superiority.
The Genoese commander was thus forced to attack the Dutch positions but under heavy fire from both the Dutch Navy and Army which caused many casualties in his ranks. Nevertheless, after more than a month of fighting the Spanish were close to taking two Dutch trenches though on the night of April 14, the Dutch finally broke the town’s defenses and assaulted the city during the night.
After almost an hour, Spinola learned of the event and sent part of his army inside the town. April 15 was such a bloody day that it till nowadays it’s still remembered as such, as the Spanish unwilling to let the town fall decided to fight to the death which caused a brutal engagement in the streets of Ostend and also in the trenches. The civilian population that remained tried their best to leave but many were caught in the line of fire and died.
Despite the sacrifice of dozens of Spanish Companies, many others who had not gotten their pay started retreating once it was clear just how bloody the battle was being so that when the night came and the battles finally stopped when it was impossible to see and everyone was utterly exhausted, Spinola reformed his army and saw that he had lost as some historians say 10 000 soldiers while the Dutch had lost 13 000.
After analyzing the situation, he concluded that the Dutch controlled most of the town and most of his men were unwilling to fight, especially without payment. Judging that the Dutch were unable to continue their campaign if their losses were as big as his, Spinola, angrily decided to abandon Ostend and resume his strategy to harass the Dutch.
Adding the two sieges of Ostend, as many as 60 000 Dutch and 80 000 Spanish troops lost their lives in the engagements making it one of the deadliest battles in human history. The town is known today as “Bloedig Oostend” in Dutch and “Ostenda Sangrienta” in Castilian both meaning Bloody Ostend. There is also the very famous Castilian slang “Vete a la P*ta de Ostenda” used to send unwanted people to “death”.
As expected, Madrid was not happy with the results, it is known that Olivares was both jealous and worried about Spinola and the fall of Ostend gave him a reason to try getting rid of the Genoese but Philip IV refused thanks to the writings of his brother Ferdinand, who knowing well the catastrophic situation in the Netherlands, advised on keeping Spinola in the command at least for some more time until they could be sure they could work without him.
The King’s decision proved fruitful because Spinola defeated the French at the Third Battle of Dunkirk on May 9, 1627, and with it, stumped their projects once more. No further worthy military engagements occurred aside from the Dutch occupying, with great cost, positions around Ostend and Bruges to expand the bridgehead in Flanders while preparing for a larger campaign against Nieuwpoort and Dunkirk for the following year as they still had more men than the Spanish.
Mutinies grew in number as the Spanish soldiers still had not received monthly wages for a long time. Albuquerque was deeply concerned with an army coup of unpaid troops so he turned to different sources of credit without the official authorization of Madrid to pay the wages. These sources included loans from New Christians and even German Jews and although the results were way below the expected, they eased the tensions a bit.
As it was only a temporary solution, Albuquerque was forced to convene the States General of the Spanish Netherlands with the intent of increasing taxes to pay the expenses but doing so increased the States General’s influence at the expense of his own. Despite the disapproval from most of the representatives of the people, the situation was so dire that the Duke secured loans from the merchants and cities as well as an increase in taxes that allowed the mutinous troops to be paid nearly everything they were due.
As the frontlines were mostly stabilized, Frederick Henry received secret envoys from his cousin Hendrik van den Bergh, a Spanish Commander who proposed to him an interesting plan: a union between the United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands under the condition that the Catholic Provinces were allowed to keep their creed unmolested. He also spoke of fusion between both Estates General, armies and navies as necessary outcomes of such union.
The Nassaus were interested as this was their intent as explained earlier, however, both they and Van den Bergh recognized that it was nearly impossible to execute this plan in the short term so Van den Bergh was tasked with facilitating it in the medium or long term though he wasn’t in a hurry to do it. The application of the Treaty of Vienna of 1627 brought peace to the Alps, re-opened the Spanish Road and 6 000 soldiers arrived in Brussels by April 1628, it was such a letdown that the cheering that Albuquerque wanted to give the upcoming troops to boost his propaganda was canceled.
It seemed like things were not going to improve for Spain but they and the Dutch were surprised when the French invaded the Prince-Bishopric of Cambrai swiftly and occupied the territory, except for Cambrai, with minimum opposition. The city however forced them to lay a three-month siege that began on March 18 and ended on June 21. Albuquerque tried to relieve the siege multiple times but was unable due to the lack of troops.
While Créquy wanted to consolidate the gains and support the Dutch on the coast, Rohan managed to convince Coligny in pushing to Douai. They took control of the western part of the Province of Hainaut and entered Flanders from the southeast laying siege to Douai on July 24. Again, the Spanish were beaten by Rohan’s aggressive cavalry charges once they tried to relieve the city and the siege continued for months as the town was well garrisoned and the French campaign stalled much to their dismay.
The Dutch, irritated by the change in French plans kept their going as they planned. 25 000 men left Ostend and made their way to Nieuwport where they arrived on March 22. The Spanish kept raiding their positions but the Dutch were adapting by not only having their troops always expecting a raid but also moving most of the supplies through the sea rather than land.
The Spanish had strengthened the defenses by increasing the garrison to 1 500 troops so the siege continued for months until on May 17, the guards made a mistake in their patrolling patterns and the Dutch were able to sneak into the walls thanks to the use of ladders. By the time the Spanish found the problem, the Dutch were already pouring into the town. There was an engagement, however, the garrison was completely outnumbered and most were forced to surrender.
Things couldn’t have gone better for Frederick Henry and Ernest Casimir. They had expected a lengthy siege and to an extent, it was lengthy, however, because they captured the town in May and they suffered fewer casualties than anticipated they pushed towards Dunkirk before the Spanish could further fortify the city. Spinola was furious with how Nieuwport fell but immediately tried to counter the problem by continuing his raids.
Siege and Fourth Battle of Dunkirk
On May 28, the Dutch laid siege to Dunkirk with almost 20 000 men and although the town was heavily fortified after the many attempts made by the French to take it. The Dutch and English Navy blocked the harbor and started bombing the town from the sea just as they had done with Nieuwport to soften the garrison. Both Spinola and Albuquerque decided to meet the Dutch in a pitched battle as they both had decided to resign from their positions after the battle.
On June 17, 1628, the two armies met and exchanged blows for two hours as the Spanish positioned themselves in the field to surround the Dutch and press them against the sea just as they attempted at Bruges. A Dutch cavalry charge commanded by Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, who had left Danish service after Christian IV’s multiple failures, surprisingly left the Spanish right flank in jeopardy and the Stadholders decided to press on it.
After two hours, the Spanish right flank collapsed and the Dutch were able to start enveloping the Spanish center from that side of the battlefield. Nevertheless, the Spanish Tercios in the center kept holding on as Albuquerque went around to reorganize the routed Spanish Tercios of the right flank.
At sunset, the Spanish were exhausted and the Dutch were barely better than them when hostilities paused for the day. During the night multiple raids were made with the Dutch suffering the bulk of their effect but the Dutch did not give up and kept going. At sunrise, the Spanish attempted to push the Dutch back out of their right flank and were succeeding in doing so until the Dutch cavalry engaged them enough for the Dutch to compose themselves and launch another attack. The battle raged on for hours until the Dutch finally enveloped the center of the Spanish forces on all sides but their left. Rather than risk being surrounded, Albuquerque ordered a retreat with the sanction of Spinola.
The Dutch were victorious but as in all their campaigns in Flanders, they had many casualties, and this made the siege much harder. The French did not provide them reinforcements immediately, some say Louis XIII was bitter that the Dutch were close to capturing a town he had failed multiple times to take and so hoping they would fail and give him another try, he didn’t send reinforcements but this claim is mostly dismissed because the French garrison at Gravelines sent 250 men, arguably not much, to support the Dutch in their attempt to take Dunkirk.
At this point, the Dutch were committed to taking the town and were recruiting men in their provinces and outside, using even political refugees from the defeated Protestants of the Empire like Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and the Spanish kept conducting raids against the supply chains while making raids against Nieuwport and Ostend to try and make the Dutch retreat but they were committed to taking Dunkirk. Meanwhile, both Spinola and Albuquerque resigned their positions, the former being particularly slandered by Olivares and his faction.
The Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand was installed as Governor and Supreme Commander of the Army Flanders and kept the strategies of his predecessors, preferring to not make any large battles before his army was reformed. At this point, the number of soldiers coming through the Spanish Road was slowly increasing though not at the levels before France and England declared war on Spain.
He was thus unable to prevent the inevitable fall of Dunkirk that happened during the night of September 9 when the Dutch forces were finally able to breach the walls and take control of the streets leaving only Fort Leon on the western half of the town resisting for almost two more months before they were finally allowed to surrender by the Cardinal Ferdinand.
The Dutch rejoiced as they finally captured the final and main base of the famous Dunkirkers who after the fall of Dunkirk had to flee to Spain or surrender and thus their menace ended at last. At the end of 1628 the Spanish had lost the entirety of the Flemish Coast which was a huge blow to them though because of guerilla strategy, Cardinal Ferdinand seemed to have shifted the flow of the battle in his favor as the Dutch were pretty much spent and incapable of going into the offensive for a long time unless they coordinated one with the French.
The Dutch-Spanish Conflict Overseas:
At the beginning of 1625, the Dutch controlled nearly all of the Spanish Province of New Andalusia all the way to Surinam with roughly 6 000 troops but many of these did not want to stay in such a hostile environment as they were not used to it and wanted to return home at the first opportunity. The Spanish were determined to recover their lost territory and Olivares approved the transfer of the Provinces of Venezuela, New Andalusia and Margarita from the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo to the Real Audiencia of Santa Fé de Bogotá and thus to the authority of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
The measure was aimed to simplify the administration as well as provide better defenses to the Provinces and thus discourage foreigners from trying their luck at conquering them. Olivares also imposed the Ordenança system of the Portuguese in the entire Real Audiencia of Santa Fé, thus making it the guinea pig for a wider military reformation that he wanted to reproduce throughout all of Spain in the upcoming years. As such, all men between 16 and 60 in the Audiencia were required to have military training for two full days a week.
Fadrique de Toledo Osorio, a scion of the powerful Álvares de Toledo family was commissioned with the recovery of the lost territories and granted a force of 3 000 soldiers and 15 ships for the task. Fadrique sailed to the Araya Peninsula which he reached by May 12, 1625, and promptly blocked the city of Cumaná before sending word to the Spanish Governors to attack the town by land. The President of the Royal Audience of Santa Fé, Juan de Borja y Armendia, led 7 000 men organized in the Terço system and besieged Cumaná not long after.
The Dutch had made preparations for the eventual siege and were able to keep the supply lines open as the Spanish forces were a little too small to prevent it. The Dutch ships anchored at Cumaná improved the firepower of the town by adding their own but the main problem was in the land. Admiral Jacob Willekens mustered his forces and made a night raid against the Spanish which was so successful it turned into a full-out battle that ended with the rout of the Spanish at the expense of many Dutch casualties.
The victory allowed Cumaná to be supplied by land and Willekens finally renamed the city Mauritsstad in honor of Maurice of Nassau who had died nearly two months earlier and he hoped to boost the Dutch morale to defend it. The WIC sent Lodewijk Lint with 20 ships and 3 000 soldiers with orders to establish a Dutch administration in the occupied area and help its defense, he arrived by May 23 but was unable to land at Cumaná/Mauritsstad due to Fadrique’s fleet still being around the area and a storm.
Lint decided to sail eastwards and establish a provisionary seat elsewhere. He chose an isthmus to the east of the Araya Peninsula and founded New Sluis (OTL Chacopata), ordering the creation of a fort and a warehouse and that the ships were used as a provisionary fort. Then with 2 000, he left for Cumaná/Mauritsstad. Their arrival was much cheered by the Dutch garrison.
The problem was that after the failure of the land assault and the defeat in the seas, Toledo Osorio disembark his troops to the west of the town and took personal control over the Spanish forces. On June 28, with 9 000 troops he laid another siege on Cumaná and drilled the troops while doing so. The Dutch did not give up, taking advantage of the inverted seasons in their favor while keeping the land supply chains working thanks to night raids against Spanish positions, however, when the days began getting hot with the arrival of September, the Dutch started struggling.
Elsewhere, on September 24, 17 Dutch ships led by Boudewijn Hendricksz arrived at San Juan on the island of Puerto Rico whose Captain-General, Juan de Haro y Sanvitores had been in office for less than a month, hence why the attack was made there, the first against Spanish holdings in the Caribbean showcasing that the Dutch were getting bolder.
Haro y Sanvitores and his predecessor, Juan de Vargas, who was still at San Juan, hastily prepared the defenses of the island and while they did it, Hendricksz came up with a bold plan of attack, using the cover of the night, his fleet forced their way through the harbor and passed the Spanish defensive fort of El Morro with insignificant casualties, however, the shoals prevented an immediate disembark of troops which allowed the Spanish to adjust to the situation and evacuate San Juan.
On September 26, Hendricksz led 800 men ashore and occupied the town without resistance. The problem came when he needed to take El Morro to allow more ships to enter the town as de Haro y Sanvitores had barricaded inside the fort with 330 men. A twenty-one-day artillery duel began between the Dutch and Spanish while the Militias managed to negate most of the Dutch victories.
The siege of El Morro continued for almost a month and the Dutch grew impatient and started burning San Juan but the Spanish did not give in and in one of the many sorties, they were able to drive the Dutch away from their trenches back to their ships. On November 2, the attackers finally left Puerto Rico in defeat and some of them went to South America to help the war effort there.
As for the Dutch garrison at Cumaná, when November arrived, water was getting harder to find inside the town walls and the Spanish blockade kept improving its efficiency making it harder to resupply nevertheless, the Spanish despite many attempts were unable to fully breach the walls as disease also did its toll on them. Eventually, however, the Dutch commanders decided their conditions were unbearable and on November 18, they evacuated Cumaná during nighttime.
Upon learning this, Toledo Osorio entered Cumaná in victory, being well received by the few Spanish peasants that had been under Dutch rule since the previous year. He sought to pursue the Dutch to New Sluis but two things prevented him, one was the fever epidemic on his troops and the other was that his vanguard was soundly beaten by the Dutch.
By 1626, neither army was in condition to resume offensives, tropical diseases were taking a heavy toll, especially on the Spanish but the Dutch were not much better and a great deal of them wanted to return home. Lint was left with only 2 000 soldiers to defend a huge portion of the territory that the Dutch West Indies Company was claiming so he wrote to the Company’s Board to supply him more means either with men or something else worthy.
The board however had difficulty in recruiting people given the war and the better prospects that the East had when compared to an area that was barely populated and whose economic prospects were dim despite the rumors of the El Dorado still lingering around. The board decided to create land grants similar to the English and Portuguese models dividing the area into two Captaincies, New Zeeland (from the Araya Peninsula to the mouth of the River Waini/Guaini and from there to the mouth of the Suriname River was the Captaincy of New Holland.
While New Zeeland remained under the administration of de Lint as a Director, New Holland was granted to Jan van Peere and his son Abraham van Peere who were subordinates to Lint. They founded New Vlissingen on April 28, 1626, at the mouth of the River Demerara and benefit from the lack of Spanish and Portuguese presence to start sugar plantations in peace. Some Dutch settlers were brought and by 1630 the colony had 68 Europeans and at least the same number of Black slaves working in the plantations.
In New Zeeland, things were more difficult as the Spanish under Osorio tried to recover the entirety of their lost territory but were unable to launch anything larger than minor skirmishes. Eventually, by June 1626, Osorio got seriously ill and had to cease the whole operation. He survived and Olivares recalled him to Spain where Philip IV rewarded him for the recovery of Cumaná despite Olivares’ criticism of his inability to recover New Andalusia and Guyana. His abilities as a naval commander were, however, indispensable for Spain.
The new Captain-General of the Province of Venezuela, Juan de Meneses y Padilla, Marquis of Marianela, was also named Captain-General of New Andalusia and Guyana and was tasked with recovering the lost territories. Despite having considerable forces raised from the militias he was unable to recover more than the Araya Peninsula before he was soundly defeated on March 13, 1627, by Lint with Indian allies at New Sluis.
Despite the victory, Lint was convinced that New Sluis was in a dangerous position so while he did not abandon the town to the Spanish, he relocated the administration of the Captaincy to the Paria Peninsula to the east where he founded New Rotterdam. His Indian allies were used to garrison the area. Another Spanish attempt to take New Sluis failed because of a joint Dutch-Indian ambush.
In 1628, Piet Hein who had participated in the Dutch Expedition to New Andalusia led a large Dutch fleet that ambushed part of the Spanish Golden Fleet off the Bay of Matanzas in the island of Cuba which ended up with five Spanish galleons were captured and with it a colossal sum of 11 509 524 Guilders in loot. This was the WIC’s greatest victory so far and not only did it boost the Dutch economy by financing the Dutch Army for eight months but also forced Spain to near bankruptcy in 1629.
I have some good news: I have the War Updates all finished for the reign of John IV, they just need to be polished, meaning that I will likely be able to publish a Chapter every week for three weeks, perhaps four if I finish the European Updates in the meantime. I'm confident about being able to finish with John IV's reign by July and let the man that never existed rest in peace and give his son his time.
Not much else to say, I hope everyone has a nice day and stays safe.
