Siege of Oudewater (1575)
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| Siege of Oudewater (1575) | |||||||
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| Part of the Eighty Years' War | |||||||
 Depiction of the siege of Oudewater | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Dutch Rebels |
 Spain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Gillis van Berlaymont | |||||||
The siege of Oudewater was an event during the Eighty Years' War that took place in the Dutch town of Oudewater, culminating in the Oudewater Massacre ((in Dutch) Oudewaterse moord).[1][2] The siege by Spanish troops started on 19 July 1575 and ended on 7 August 1575, when the town was taken by storm and plundered.[3]
Background
[edit]In 1568 a garrison of the Spanish Army was stationed in Oudewater. On 19 June 1572 Adriaen van Swieten, a nobleman and deputy of William of Orange, entered the town with a small number of troops and convinced it to join the Dutch Revolt against Philip II of Spain.[4][5]
Siege and massacre
[edit]The siege by Spanish troops under command of stadtholder Gillis van Berlaymont started on 19 July 1575 and ended in a bloodbath on 7 August 1575. Many of the inhabitants were put to the sword, and some citizens set their own houses on fire to spite looters, leading to a major conflagration. In total, as many as half the inhabitants of the town may have died.[6]
Commemoration
[edit]In 1615 the States of Holland authorised pensions to the 300 survivors of the massacre then still living, the last payments on which were made in 1664.[7] An annual commemoration of the massacre was instituted in 1608. It is now held each year on the first Sunday on or after 7 August.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ Kuijpers, Erika; Pollmann, Judith; Müller, Johannes; et al., eds. (2013). Memory Before Modernity : Practices of Memory in early modern Europe. Leiden: Brill. pp. 191–192. ISBN 9789004261242.
- ^ Duffy, Christopher (1996). Siege Warfare : The Fortress in the early modern World 1494–1660 (New ed.). London: Routledge. p. 72. ISBN 978-0415146494.
- ^ "Oudewater". www.dutchrevolt.leiden.edu. Universiteit Leiden.
- ^ Bangs, Carl (1998). Arminius : A Study in the Dutch Reformation. Eugene, Or.: Wipf & Stock. pp. 39–42. ISBN 978-1579101503.
- ^ Tracy, James D. (2008). The Founding of the Dutch Republic : War, Finance, and Politics in Holland, 1572–1588 (1. publ. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 60, 99–100. ISBN 978-0199209118.
- ^ Nettie Stoppelenburg, Oudewaterse Moord Archived 2015-07-05 at the Wayback Machine, Geschiedkundige Vereniging Oudewater. Accessed 2 April 2016.
- ^ Eekhout, Marianne (2014). "Furies in beeld. Herinneringen aan gewelddadige innames van steden tijdens de Nederlandse Opstand op zeventiende-eeuwse schilderijen". De Zeventiende Eeuw. Cultuur in de Nederlanden in Interdisciplinair Perspectief. 30 (2): 243. doi:10.18352/dze.9937.
- ^ Oudewaterse Moord wordt herdacht Archived 2016-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, Zenderstreeknieuws, Nieuws uit Montfoort/Oudewater, 24 July 2015. Accessed 2 April 2016.
External links
[edit]- Marcel Tettero, Het Bloedbad van Oudewater 1575
- Ronald de Graaf, Oorlog mijn arme schapen
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