Fall of Antwerp (1584-1585)

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For the siege of Antwerp in 1914, during World War I, see siege of Antwerp

Siege of Antwerp

Date	July 1584 - August 17, 1585
Location	Antwerp, Netherlands (present-day Belgium)
Result	Spanish victory

Belligerents

Antwerp Calvinist Republic

Spain

Commanders

Philips van Marnix van Sint-Aldegonde

Duke of Parma

Strength

80,000 inhabitants

Unknown

Casualties and losses

8,000 KIA

Unknown

Dutch Revolt

Oosterweel – Rheindalen – Heiligerlee – Jemmingen – Jodoigne – Brielle – Haarlem – Flushing – Borsele – Zuiderzee – Alkmaar – Leiden – Reimerswaal – Mookerheyde – Gembloux – Maastricht – 1st Breda – Antwerp – Boksum – Zutphen – 1st Bergen op Zoom – Gravelines – 2nd Breda – Turnhout – Nieuwpoort – Ostend – Sluys – Gibraltar – 2nd Bergen op Zoom –3rd Breda – Groenlo - Bay of Matanzas – 's-Hertogenbosch – Maastricht – 4th Breda – Kallo – The Downs – Hulst – Puerto de Cavite

The Siege of Antwerp took place during the Eighty Years' War from July 1584 until August 1585. At the time Antwerp was not only the largest Dutch city but was also the cultural, economic and financial centre of the Seventeen Provinces and of north-western Europe. On November 4, 1576, the Spanish soldiery plundered the city during what was called the Spanish Fury. Thousands of citizens were massacred and hundreds of houses were burnt down. Antwerp became even more engaged in the rebellion. The city joined the Union of Utrecht (1579) and became the capital of the Dutch revolt, which no longer was merely a Protestant rebellion but had become a revolt of all Dutch provinces.

Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, sent by Philip II of Spain to restore peace and orthodoxy, had already recaptured Brussels and most of the cities of Flanders as the siege of Antwerp began. Parma's forces constructed a 730-meter-long bridge on the river Scheldt to isolate the town from the Dutch fleet. Some say that Antwerp was betrayed by the Northern provinces by keeping Queen Elizabeth I of England waiting for too long, preventing her sending troops to help Antwerp.

On August 17, 1585, the city surrendered. Protestant rebels were forced to leave the town, before the Spanish army entered, ten days later. After the siege, the Dutch fleet on the river Scheldt was kept there, blocking the city's access to the sea and cutting it off from international trade. The majority of the city's population fled to the north. Of the pre-siege population of 100,000 people, only 40,000 remained at the end, ending what had been a golden century for Antwerp.

The blockage of the Scheldt to shipping crippled the city's economy. It was maintained for the next two centuries (see Scheldt#History) and is an important and traumatic element in the history of relations between the Netherlands and (what was to become) Belgium.