Battle of Dahlen

Battle of Dahlen
Part of Eighty Years' War
The siege before Dalen, july 22 1568 (engraving) by Frans Hogenberg.
Date 25 April, 1568 Location Rheindahlen, Bishopric of Liège (present-day Germany) Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Dutch Rebels	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Joost de Soete	Sancho d'Avila
Strength
3,000	1,600
Casualties and losses
~2,000 killed	Very few

The Battle of Dahlen was fought on April 23, 1568, between a Dutch rebel army led by Joost de Soete, Lord of Villers, and a Spanish army commanded by Sancho Dávila y Daza. As a part of William of Orange's planned invasion, the Dutch rebels were trying to conquer the town of Roermond when the arrival of the Spanish force compelled them to withdraw. Dávila pursued the retreating force and inflicted Villers a defeat near the small town of Dahlen (today known as Rheindahlen). The survivors of this encounter sought refuge under the walls of Dahlen, where the Spanish infantry finally defeated them. This battle is sometimes considered the official start of the Eighty Years' War.

Background

In 1568, William I of Orange, stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, and other noblemen dissatisfied with the Spanish rule in the Netherlands, the Geuzen, were determined to expel Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, and his Spanish troops from the country. William, based in Dillenburg, designed a triple attack upon the Netherlands by his rebel followers and foreign mercenary forces. An army of Huguenots and Netherlander refugees would attack Artois across the French border; another, under William's brother Louis, would try to raise the province of Friesland in arms against the Spanish; and a third one, under Antoine II de Lalaing, Count of Hoogstraten, would operate in the Meuse-Rhin area.

The first force to be put in arms was that of Hoogstraten, though he had to be replaced by Joost de Soete, Lord of Villers, who crossed the frontier of the Jülich-Cleves County on 20 April in charge of about 3,000 men, both cavalry and infantry. He was expected to raise the country and to take and important city to serve as a base for a large offensive. The city selected was Roermond, a fortified town of considerable size situated at the confluence of the Meuse and Rur rivers.

Prelude

Alba organized an improvised army to secure Maastricht and prevent the junction of the rebels from Friesland with his French fellows. He ordered the maestre de campo don Sancho de Londoño to move his tercio from the village of Lier up to Maastricht and its neighborhood. To blockade the route linking the northern France with the valley of the Meuse, the Duke detached most of the cavalry under his illegitimate cousin, the Prior Hernando, which sent his men from Tournai up to the neutral Bishopric of Liège under the command of his lieutenant, don Lope de Acuña.

Alba ordered to the captain of his guard, don Sancho Dávila y Daza, to go after the rebel army with his own company of Spanish demi-lancers and those of Albanese lancers under captain Nicolò Basta, and of horse arquebusiers under Pedro Montañés; 300 horse in all, which were later reinforced with the tercio of Londoño, Lope's cavalry, and 4 companies of German pikemen, numbering 300 men, from Colonel's Count of Eberstein regiment in Maastricht. In all the small Spanish army numbered about 1,600 men.

While being searched by the Spanish, Villers and his army abandoned Eijsden and advanced upon Roermond. There, they tried to enter the town pretending to be soldiers of the King of Spain, but the town's inhabitants were not fooled. Then the rebels resorted to their weapons and attempted to seize on the town's gates, only to be driven off. Fearing to be caught by the Spanish, Villers decided to withdraw, taking the road to the Guelders exclave of Erkelenz.

Battle

Excerpt of the manuscript atlas by Christian Sgrothen showing the area in where the battle was fought.

Sancho Dávila go ahead with his cavalry and was informed by his scouts that the rebels were close to the village of Erkelenz. There Villers found his path cut off because a nearby bridge over the Rur river had been demolished. He decided to take the road to Dahlen, a small walled town in the Bishopric of Liège, while Dávila followed him and soon discovered the rebel army on the road between the two towns.

Villers deployed his troops for the battle on a plain with some groves behind and a hollow way covering one of his flanks, and dispatched his baggage towards Dahlen as soon learned of Dávila's nearby presence. To distract the Spanish general, he sent against him some of his cavalry, but Dávila dispersed it and made his way throughout the hollow way.

After a brief reconnaissance, Dávila, together with the Count of Eberstein and the companies under don Alonso de Vargas and Nicolò Basta, charged across the plain and frontally lunged over the rebel squadrons, which they broke. Villers lost most of his cavalry and two flags. He and some 1,300 men retreated in some order with part of the baggage and managed to reach Dahlen, under whose walls they entrenched in order to withstand a second attack.

Villers covered his men behind a ravelin of the wall, which had also a moat, and reinforced his weak flank with some baggage wagons. Sancho Dávila was unable to reach such positions with his cavalry due to the rough groves, so he called Sancho de Londoño to come rapidly with the infantry. By early afternoon, the 300 German pikemen were detached behind the ravelin to prevent any attempt of flight, while 600 Spaniards, organized in 5 flags and under the personal leadership of Londoño, were ready to make a frontal attack over the fort, which they did.

The fight lasted half a hour, after which the Spaniards took the ravelin. Just a few rebels succeded in escaping and sought refuge in Dahlen, climbing through scales; the others were butchered.

Aftermath

Joost de Soete was amongst those who escaped inside Dahlen, but was afterwards handed to the Spanish. The count of Hoogstraten and the Lord of Lumey, on the other hand, evaded capture. All their baggage, seven flags, a large number corslets, pikes, harquebuses, other weapons and munitions were seized by the victors. Some 2,000 rebels, most of whom were French, were killed, as opposed to light Spanish casualties. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish army was split up. Dávila went to Brussels with the foremost captives to execute them, the Count of Eberstein returned to Maastricht with his German pikemen, and Sancho de Londoño lodged his men at Roermond, where he ordered several prisioners natives of the place to be hanged.