Dutch Defiance: The (Staggering) Siege of Breda 1624/25
An army commanded by the famous Italian strategist Ambrogio Spinola, sent by the Spanish crown, arrived at the Dutch town of Breda on 27th August in 1624. Spinola came to stay and he began a siege characterized by supply shortages, a tight encirclement of the city, and various attempts to supply and relief the town. The siege of Breda is considered Spinola's greatest success and one of the last major Spanish victories in the Eighty Years’ War. It is also one of only few early modern sieges that made it on TV, namely in the historical fictional movie Alatriste, starring Viggo Mortensen. This is how contemporary historiography tells the story of the staggering siege of Breda.
Patreon (thank you): / sandrhomanhistory
Bibliography:
Duffy, C., The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494-1660, London 1979.
J.P.M. ROOZE en C.W.A.M. EIMERMANN, De belegering van Breda door Spinola 1624-1625 Alphen aan den Rijn, Canaletto 2005.
These detailed siege videos are a passion project of ours and are pretty time-consuming to create but they don't do very well with a broader audience. We like to make them, so we probably won't stop covering the Eighty Years War and the like, but it seems that not as many people are interested in this time period. This is probably because most viewers don't know what names like Breda, Geertruidenberg, Haarlem or Antwerp (or Lützen & Breitenfeld) actually refer to. It would probably be much easier to get clicks by covering WWI (we won't change the focus of the channel, don't worry). Anyways, if you think our coverage is worth a coffee a month, then please do check out our Patreon account. It is simply the easiest way to make sure that we can continue doing videos that we like doing for the sake of it instead of optimizing for a more general viewership or whatever the KZhead-algorithm demands. Patreon-link: www.patreon.com/sandrhomanhistory Further explanation: As you probably already know KZhead doesn't really favor your channel when you publish content that doesn't do as well as other videos; for us this means we would do much better if we would just do things like Keelhauling or general overview videos that appeal to many viewers. In general, we lose a lot of traffic by covering things like the Eighty Years War and thus some other videos might never gain momentum. This also means agencies will pay you significantly less money for sponsorings because your average view count is not very high. Consequently, they're hesitant to invest in you in general. Anyways, thanks for the support to everybody who sticks around week after week; also, thanks for all the comments and suggestions as well (we do read most of them but answering everything is a Herculean task...)!
There is actually another movie depicting a siege of the 80 years war, although I have mot seen the movie itself yet, and as far as thumbnails are a thing to go by, it won't be much good. Anyhow, the movie is about Kenau Siemonsdochter Hasselear, (The movie itself is called "Kenau") a woman who (according to legend), raised an army of women from the wotn to aid the otherwise all-male defenders, during the siege of Haarlem of 1573-4, it may be a good siege for you to have a look at. I'll be sure to get around to your patreon if you find the 80 and 30 year wars interesting enough (ans important enough) to pay this sort of attention to! It is much needed, as most of the English speaking world appears to kow relatively little about them. On another note: Your pronounciations of various names are avout as good as I could possibly hope for someone not having learnt Dutch as their native language. Excellent work indeed! Two other very interesting siege to have a look at is the 1627 Siege of Grol(le), modern day Groenlo, in the east of the country. It is also the largest 17th century reenactment battle of Europe- or, as it claims: The largest 17th cenrurey reenactment battle of the world. With between 1400 and 1600 combatants total. And the 1590 attack on Breda by Maurits, which a ruse with a boat with turf (Dried bog-ground used a fuel, the English name is currently loat on me), to sneak in about 70 men. Two interesting field battles of the 80 years war, would be the battle of Mookerheide (At the time spelled as Mookerheyde), where a numerically superior Dutch force was butchered by a Spanish force. And the battle of/near Nieuwpoort, in 1600. Where Maurits tried to attack the Pirate nest (Nieuwpoort), and ran into a Spanish army en-route.
These detailed sieges are, definitely my favourite part of the channel! I appreciate you allow the passion to lead you in the creation, even despite youtube not favouring it.
Although the early modern period isn't as sought out as the middle ages or the world wars, the people that are interested in early modern Europe cherish this channel like a hidden gem. Keep on fighting the good fight :D
Thanks for making these videos. I am of Dutch descent but I don't know anything about Dutch history because it's not taught much in the U.S. 👍
youre pretty much the only place on youtube where I find videos about this period. Love your content
Keep up the awesome work man. You're literally one of the only youtubers covering this time period and the fact you do it with such detail and passion is quite simply astonishing.
See this part of history isn't super well taught because the official story is that all wars are fought for religion and most of these wars were fought for political power. So remember that the next time someone is scapegoating religion and saying the State should have more power
@@Bosscheesemo relogion and the state are more often then not the same thing
@@kaasmaster8892 Sometimes but most of the time nah they're separate things and religion gets blamed for half the stuff that the state does
I will have to second this comment with high praise for great work with the research team and writing of the script. The voice is steller as most Americans enjoy, what is to us, a foreign accent.
Staggering*
I study in Breda and can confirm the people there look exactly like you depicted them here. Great work!
As a native of Breda I approve of this video. Fun fact: between Breda and Terheijden there still is an earthwork that is known as the Spinolaschans.
SandRhoman brings his own narrative, style, attitude. He creates something noone else does.
So true
And it's good stuff
I like how he uses human figures. It remembers us they were not units, but individuals.
As a Spanish fan of your channel I can’t thank you enough for the quality of your channel,your valuable military analysis and personally also how you treat Spain in this period,unlike most other history channels in English I would definitely become a patron if it was a bit cheaper and I could allow it,now I can only support you with likes
Hey, thanks for the nice comment. And no worries at all! Likes and comments help a ton!
Yeah, quite a relief to see the Spanish not threaten as "The evil ones" or the ones "mocked" for once. Real history goes beyond that.
@@markknoop6283 you mean Holland
@@Alejojojo6 it's interesting cause while you are the antagonists in our history books, I never thought of you as evil (maybe Alva or Philips II at most, but overall I really came just to dislike Jan van Maurits lol)
@iamhere6893 until very recent, as in modern internet era the academia of Protestant countries dedicated themselves to shitting on the Spanish speaking world when it came to everything save probably football. The Inquisition is a perfect example where there were literally some 300 deaths in over 300 years of the existence of said courts, in English history books it is depicted as if it were like a Genocide. This what in Spanish history and literature is denominated the "Black Legend," because Spain and its empire was deemed caricaturisly evil by highly religious protestants. For reference, anti catholic violence in The Netherlands killed more people than the inquisition. And unlike Dutch or English colonies, Spain integrated a lot of the natives in the colonies. There were entire cities up to the independence war made of natives who have become Spanish citizens including the city of Pasto which used to be the 4rth largest city in Viceroy of New Granada. Meanwhile natives were living in segregated reservations in Canada at this time.
Spinola Alesia-d his way through... for a year.
I've been up for 30 hours or so that I thought the thumbnail and title was an actual game where you have to keep a siege alive to starve out the city, and I was hyped!
siege survival on steam
*Kaptain Alatriste flashbacks intensify*
I watched the entire movie without subtitles without speaking Spanish and I still quite liked it
I kind of expected you to cover the siege of 1590 as well since that siege is really famous for it's famous 'Trojan Horse' strategy in the form of a peat barge.
Hellenic civilizations: we want a giant wooden statue of our cities symbol, the stallion, something we all love, desire, and admire Dutch: give us a big pile of swamp goo
@@arthas640 To be honest, if they had tried to use a giant wooden horse instead of a big pile of swamp goo in 1590 they might have been discovered ;)
@@bettiegabrsek741 lol
This battle arguably caused the present day split between Belgium and the Netherlands. Obviously, this would actually only manifest itself in the 1830s. But the split in the 1830s was possible because of differences that both sides had accumulated uptil then. (Belgium in the 1830s perhaps didn't proactively aspired independence, but many Belgian people had a clear notion that they didn't want to be part of France, Prussia or the Netherlands, and so independence was preferable.) The siege of Breda was the most clear exacerbation of differences between north and south: the Dutch simply couldn't beat the Spanish or retake the south, while the Spanish Habsburgs could no longer financially pay for their victories. The Dutch would focus more on colonial warfare, while the Spanish became increasingly drawn into the Thirty Years' War. The result was that the once wealthy Duchy of Brabant, an important medieval harbinger of Dutch language and music, was essentially split in two, with many of it's catholic inhabitants basically becoming second class citizens without representation in the Dutch Republic. Those 200 years of differences couldn't simply be swept aside after the Napoleonic wars. This might or might not have been a definitive cause, but it certainly reinforced the Belgian idea of being different.
Interesting analysis! I've always wondered why you are apparently different from us, because to me the differences between a Fries and a Limburger are bigger than between a Hagenees and Belg but this explanation would make sense
Maybe the split was protestantism. Isn't it schism a synonym for separation and division?? Amazing luminaries.
My favorite history channel on KZhead. Thanks so much man.
Greetings from Breda! :D
Where did you learn to do your animations? From the little vignettes with animated soldiers, to the maps and their various overviews. They are all amazing.
So, How much Fortification you need? 16th Century IRON FIST: YESSSSS
You have a good voice for ancient and medieval warfare histories. You are very good at pronouncing the names of the people involved, cities/towns, army/naval units, and of the fortresses. It appears you speak more than a couple European languages and you can tell by your enthusiasm that you enjoy bringing the historical battles of long ago to the hundreds of thousands of subscribers who view your work. Being an American veteran of the war in Iraq and fan of military history I enjoy your stories immensely. Most Americans find, what to us are foreign accents, interesting to listen to and you definitely have a European accent and the way you say the proper names of the above listed subjects, sounds to at least this listener, must be the correct in that specific country's language and with the correct inflections and accent. You keep making them and I will keep watching them. Thanks for all your hard work
This video and your others on the same war are absolutely my favourite corner of youtube, thank you so much for making them!!!
Thank you for this great video! I have been waiting for the Siege of Breda for a long time. Also great that you mention Allatriste, sad that the siege was only briefly covered (although with brutal scenes in the mines). Please keep up the good work!
As a real Bredanaar I can say this is an amazing piece of art! Really nice to see the history of my home town.
I love this channel!. I can't find a single thing to complain about. And your animations! Very, very good. No, excellent!
I´m a spanish totally hooked to your channel. You don't know how GLAD I am to see you don't depict us as evil, bloodthirsty thiefs. Beyond that, I´m grateful, just grateful. Is incredibly difficult to find a quality history channel in english that does not ridiculize us or look down to our deeds. You are a great teacher and I´m sure a great man.
Amazing work as usual. Always excited to see a new video pop up.
I don't know why but your vids about sieges during 80 Years' War are undoubtedly the best. Maybe try to make some vids about War of Spanish Succession sieges or some sieges during colonial wars in North America.
Yes, there were some fascinating sieges during the War of 1812, the Battle of Fort Detroit for example. Only a few history channels have a video or two on that conflict. Strange, because if British North America had lost that conflict, Canada wouldn't exist and the entire upper half of North America would be the United States of America!
Thank you for covering this war. It is really great that these events have there own videos on youtube
Best history channel on youtube. Thanks for your amazing work!!
Your channel is such a gem mate, I wish my dutch school would have teached this, these battles are SO amazing!
thanks for the work you've done
Just went on patreon to say thank you. Keep up the good work
you are quickly becoming one of my favourite channels on the internet. Thanks for a lot of nice content, keep up the good work !
Ah yes, My greatest victory ever.
I'm gonna do what's called an Alesia!
I would say Pavia is the one or Nördlingen.
@@Sealdeam Small nitpick: Pavia wouldn't necessarily be a Tercio victory because the Tercios were created in 1534.
@@jvp1286 I guess so, you are right, still wonder if from Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba's reforms onwards their army can be considered as Tercios even if not formally.
@@jvp1286 Pavia is more Landsknchete victory
I love these documentaries. All your troop analysis, sieges are so detailed and good to follow. These sieges are extra interesting as I didn't know much of it. Thanks do much for sharing!
I must say i am very impressed how you are able to pronunciate all the Dutch place names. Good job!
Incredible quality. Well done.
My favourite history channel. Looking forward to see this video.
I love the graphics you use, not overly confident or expensive but they give tons of information and add flair to the videos
3:04 Berg' op Zoom! So this is the town that is citated in the song Unser Liebe Fraue!
Just beautiful graphics! I really think your presentation is among the very best I have ever seen on YT. Salut!
Great job ! i really love your style man :D
Great video as always
Absolutely staggering! Great video, as always.
its so awsome to hear a story once thought in school in such depth, thank you for maiing these amazing videos.
Your videos are so good man keep up the good work
learnt about it from Alatriste, good you finally made the Breda vid, i really hoped you would do
Finally! I wanted to see this for soooooo long!
oh yesss, this is gonna be good!!!
I was wondering if you would ever do a talk on communication in historical armies; how did commanders coordinate their units on the battlefield to execute their tactics? Was it simply flags somehow, colored to indicate certain movements? Really interesting as always!
I'm wondering this as well!
Mostly by messengers who brought orders to unit commanders. And when something really needed to be done and done right, the more hands-on commanders would ride up and lead key units themselves.
@@anderskorsback4104 ah, right!! being that runners were still used in ww2, that does make sense! it would be interesting to see the historical precedents though!
Finally more 80 years war sieges. Keep up the great work!
I am glad you included the masterpiece by Velazquez, La Rendicion de Breda. I have studied this seige a good bit, read a couple of books about it. I learned more in your 25 minute video, and it was more entertaining!
Very cool to see this. Especially because it’s in my area and I was teaches this at school when I was a kid. You did a great refresher!
Your 80 years war content is phenomenal!
Awesome content men 👏 !
Really nicely narrated end of the video. Well done 👏
Thank you for making this vid! I live near Breda and I'm well aware of the historic value of all the routes and surroundings.
Thanks for letting this period of history shine!
I love these, watched every one of them
This is an amazing channel.
Great job on the pronunciation of all these names!
I really enjoy your videos
Always love your videos on the Dutch Revolt; keep it up!
I am a proud Bredanaar, born and raised! So cool to see the town names. Because of that i can actually imagine where the spanish armies would've been. Amazing video, thank you.
And now your city is almost Muslim 😂
Your videos are so Incredible, i am Dutch, this is the story of my people, and no one ever tells it like you do.
Excellent watch, very interesting!
amazing video as always. but is a video about the siege of groenlo in the pipeline? last semester i needed to make a poster about the history and archeological finds near groenlo and it would have been a lot easier if i could have had your video an sources to help out. keep up the amzing work dude.
Great video, thanks!
Amazing Work! Shame that it doesn’t get as many viewers. Extremely High Production Value!
I read your comment en symphatize with your struggle. I hope you find a way to keep making these videos while also growing your channel. Maybe try experiment with combining more general info content and then practical real world examples from this part of history, thereby drawing in a bigger audience while still being able to go deeper into actual situations where these concepts you explained will be shown. Good luck and thank you for the great content you provide! I personally love these detailed siege videos, and the open battle videos you make, the most.
Very interesting. Thanks
Oh! Alatriste is in top 3 of my all time favorite movies that I have forgotten and remembered like 20 times! Now I need to watch it once more..! :)
These videos are fantastically made. It’s great to see something new that most channels won’t cover. Keep up the great work! A suggestion is to make a video about how army logistics worked during this time period. I feel like it’s an important thing that is rarely presented in depth.
10:46 In other words: “Hey, bro, I heard you like forts so I put forts on your forts.”
God I love those videos! This channel made me interested in a time period that I was only vague aware of. Too bad I don't have any free money, but I hope atleast comment will amount for something.
I've lived in Breda for my entire life. Very nice to see some of the history of my city on youtube.
Okay, that Dutch (Spanish?) chef is my new favorite bit of Sandrhoman art.
According to my account your channel is the best history channel
thank you for bringing light to some of the Dutch History (even though it is a strategic loss). I was once part of the Royal Military Academy, which is situated in the "Castle of Breda", We heard about the history that it had in the 80 years war and were part of that history, because we were right on the site of it. The way you bring history to live is commemorated!!
Amazing videos
Great video
I’m from Breda and never had such a clear history class of my own city. Thanks for all this great detailed information.
Another great one ! Greetings from Antwerpen !
I live in Breda. It's cool to hear so in depth about the struggles and fights here centuries ago. Adds a whole new dimension to the city (which now seems so peacefully and small haha.
Geweldige video weer !
Today Ginneken is merely a small neighbourhood of Breda. Pity that only a small section of the wall still remains.
Good as always.
alatriste is a wondeerful film. Thanks for mentioning it
I love these videos
Great video. I am spanish and loved how accurate it was.
Hi SandRohmanHistory! I really liked your video on the polish Hussars. Could you do a video on the Zaporozhian Cossacks, becouse in my opinion their fighting force had as big of an inpact as the spanish Tercio, Landsknechte and Winged Hussars. It would be awesome from your side!
I was pretty surprised how few of the defenders were left after the siege.
When I heard 30-40% I reacted opposite to that, that is actually quite low compared to other sieges in the Southern Netherlands during the war. When you look at Oostende or Maastricht the surviving percentage is in single digits.
Nice video. Was about time someone cover the 80 year war.
The algorithm is a cruel mistress for not bringing me here sooner.
When I hear about Breda, my mind immediately goes to the city's liberation in 1944 by the successors of the winged hussars. It's definitely interesting to learn about the earlier history of the city.
I think of the 'excellent' Breda 30, the machingun
Oh my, polishness really has no limits.
Learned something new about Dutch history today🤯😊
Great video, got a thumbs up from me 👍
When in the military I was based at Grave. Great video. 👍
very cool, i have never been tought the importance of breda when we learned about the 80 years war, also could you do a in depth video on the defensive architecture, especially what they call the "spanjaardsgat" the spaniardshole ( love your video's btw)
You make staggering my favorite world in the english language Tank you
I have such respect for how you make a conscious effort to correctly pronounce foreign names. You get it pretty much spot on every time as far as I can tell. But even if you didn't it's the effort that I care about. Nobody expects anyone to be able to perfectly pronounce things in languages that aren't theirs, but I think it shows a lack of respect when youtubers are not prepared to spend 30 seconds to at least get a rough idea about how certain words are supposed to sound.
the polish pronunciations are not always right! It‘s hard to find good resources for that tbh.
Excited
Really cool video! Love to learn about my second home town
Awesome to see this covered, you should do a video on the liberation of Breda as well. With adriaan van Bergen en het turfschip.