Siege of Sluis (1587)

Siege of Sluis (1587)
Part of the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)
Engraving Siege of Sluis of 1587 by Frans Hogenberg. Collection Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Date 12 June – 4 August 1587 Location Sluis, Zeeland, Low Countries (present-day the Netherlands) 51°21'0.00"N, 3°30'0.00"E Result Spanish victory[1][2]
Belligerents
United Provinces  England	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Robert Dudley Roger Williams	Alexander Farnese
Casualties and losses
700 killed and 400 wounded[3]	92 killed and 243 wounded[3]

The siege of Sluis of 1587 took place between 12 June and 4 August 1587, as part of the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).^[1][2] Its capture by the Spanish formed a significant advance towards the Enterprise of England.

June 1587 saw Don Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma (Spanish: Alejandro Farnesio), Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands, and commander-in-chief of the Army of Flanders, set his sights on the two remaining rebel ports in Flanders, Ostend and Sluis. The latter had once been a strategic deep-water port, and was still (despite silting) a key to the inland waterways of the Flanders coast, and thus to any potential invasion of Britain.^[4] After an initial sortie against Ostend, Parma invested Sluis on 12 June 1587, but not in time to prevent a body of four companies of English foot-soldiers reaching the town from Ostend under the command of Sir Roger Williams.^[5] On 24 June, the bombardment of the town began.

A relief effort was organised by a fleet of English and Dutch troops under Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Governor-General of the United Provinces.^[2][6][7] Leicester landed a force of 4000 foot, 400 horse at Ostend, to cut Parma’s communications, but called his men back to the fleet before coming to grips with any Spaniards; while a sea-borne attempt to force the channel and relieve the town was similarly aborted: Garrett Mattingly concluded that “The chief effect of this fortnight of imbecile manoeuvres was on the morale of the beleaguered garrison”.^[8] On 4 August, after of 13 days of constant fighting around the walls, the garrison surrendered with full honours of war.^[9]

The loss of the English-held port of Sluis revealed the inability of Leicester to assert his authority over the Dutch allies, who failed to cooperate successfully in relieving the town,^[10] and led to recriminations between the governor-general and the States of Holland.^[6][11]

In the following months, the Earl of Leicester launched a series of unsuccessful attacks against the Spaniards.^[12] In September 1587, Leicester attempted to capture Leiden, but failed,^[12] and his plans to capture Enkhuizen and Hoorn, two important ports of West Friesland, also failed.^[13] Notable English soldiers under Leicester's command were Sir Thomas Baskerville and Sir Francis Vere.^[13] On 16 December 1587, Leicester returned to England,^[13] where the privy council tried in vain to hold him to account for his failures, protected as he was by the favour of the Queen.^[14]

By contrast, Parma had gained a strategic prize that enabled him to move barges by inland waterways from the Scheldt to Dunkirk, preparatory to the coming of the Spanish Armada.^[15]

• Battle of Zutphen
• Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom (1588)
• Dutch Revolt
• List of governors of the Spanish Netherlands

• Martin, Colin./Parker, Geoffrey. The Spanish Armada: Revised Edition. Published 1989 by Penguin Books. ISBN 1-901341-14-3
• C. Duffy. Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494–1660. Volumen 1. London. ISBN 0-7100-8871-X
• Tracy, James. The Founding of the Dutch Republic: War, Finance, and Politics in Holland 1572–1588. Oxford University Press. First published 2008.
• Wilson, Derek (1981). Sweet Robin: A Biography of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester 1533–1588. Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0-241-10149-2
• Van Nimwegen, Olaf. The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions 1588–1688. First published 2010. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1-84383-575-2
• Hammer, P.E.J. (1999). The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585–1597. Cambridge University Press. Great Britain. ISBN 0-521-01941-9.

• L van der Essen, Alexandre Farnese Vol 3 (Brussels 1937)

• The Eighty Years War (1568–1648)
• The Founding of the Dutch Republic: War, Finance, and Politics in Holland 1572–1588