Siege of Ostend 1604
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 20 September 1604 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1604 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Belgium | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Eighty Years' War, Eighty Years' War, 1599–1609 | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Dutch Republic, Habsburg Spain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 51.2170, 2.9000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Ostend was a three-year siege of the city of Ostend during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War. A Spanish force under Archduke Albrecht besieged the fortress being held initially by a Dutch force which was reinforced by English troops under Francis Vere, who became the town's governor. It was said "the Spanish assailed the unassailable; the Dutch defended the indefensible." The commitment of both sides in the dispute over the only Dutch-ruled area in the province of Flanders made the campaign continue for longer than any other during the war. This resulted in one of the longest and bloodiest sieges in world history: more than 100,000 people were killed, wounded, or succumbed to disease during the siege.
Ostend was resupplied via the sea and, as a result, held out for three years. A garrison did a tour of duty before being replaced by fresh troops, normally 3,000 at a time keeping casualties and disease to a minimum. The siege included a number of assaults by the Spanish, including an unsuccessful assault by 10,000 Spanish infantry in January 1602 when governed by Vere.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Ostend (revision 1374175777), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Ostend (1745) 1745 · 3 km
- Battle of Nieuwpoort 1600 · 13 km
- Battle of the Yser 1914 · 14 km
- Battle of Wijnendale 1708 · 18 km
- Capitulation of Diksmuide 1695 · 21 km
- Battle of Furnes 1297 · 23 km
Other battles of the Eighty Years' War
- Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch (1601) 1601
- Siege of Rheinberg (1601) 1601
- Battle of the Narrow Seas 1602
- Siege of Grave (1602) 1602
- Battle of Sluis (1603) 1603
- Siege of Sluis (1604) 1604
- Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1606) 1606
- Battle of Gibraltar (1607) 1607
- Battle of Playa Honda 1617
- Battle of Gibraltar (1621) 1621
All 110 battles of the Eighty Years' War →
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