Siege of Ostend

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Siege of Ostend
partof=the Eighty Years' War


caption=
date=July 5, 1601 – September 16, 1604
place=Ostend, present-day Belgium
result=Spanish victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=Francis Vere
commander2=Archduke Albrecht
Ambrosio Spinola
strength1=40.000 infantry9.500 cavalry
strength2=68.500 infantry12.000 cavalry
casualties1=30,000 dead or wounded
15,000 captured
casualties2=55,000 dead or wounded

The Siege of Ostend was a three-year siege that resulted in a Spanish victory. It is remembered as the bloodiest battle of the Eighty Years' War and one of the longest sieges in history: It is said "the Spanish assailed the unassailable; the Dutch defended the indefensible."Fact|date=February 2007

In 1603, General Spinola assumed command of the Spanish forces. Under his able leadership, the Spanish tore Ostend's outer defenses from the exhausted Dutch and put what remained of the city under the muzzles of their guns, compelling the Dutch to surrender. By that point the Spanish had lost almost 60,000 men in the blasted trenches and dugouts surrounding the ruined city.

The ruin and devastation of the siege led to negotiations that produced a twelve-year truce (1609-1621) between Spain and the United Provinces.

External links

* [http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/mar2004.html Siege of Ostend Journal at Glasgow University]