Siege of Breda (1624–1625): Spínola and Velázquez's Painting

The siege of Breda was a nine-month Spanish blockade of the Dutch fortress town of Breda, lasting from 28 August 1624 until the garrison marched out on 5 June 1625. Commanded by the Genoese general Ambrogio Spínola, it was one of the most celebrated sieges of the age and a major prestige victory for Spain in its long war against the Dutch Republic. A decade later Diego Velázquez immortalised the surrender in one of the most famous paintings of the Spanish Golden Age.

Background: the war resumes

The northern provinces of the Netherlands had rebelled against Spanish rule in the 1560s and 1570s, beginning the Dutch Revolt, also called the Eighty Years’ War. In 1609 Spain and the Dutch Republic agreed the Twelve Years’ Truce, which expired in April 1621.

When war resumed, it became tied to the wider struggle of the Thirty Years’ War. Spain’s Army of Flanders, led by Spínola, sought a success that would force the Dutch to negotiate on better terms. After a failed attempt on Bergen-op-Zoom in 1622, Spínola chose Breda.

Breda was a walled town in the Duchy of Brabant surrounded by modern bastioned fortifications. It was also a family seat of the House of Orange-Nassau, whose princes led the Dutch Republic, giving it symbolic as well as military value. Its governor was Justin of Nassau, an illegitimate son of William the Silent.

The siege

Spínola’s army arrived in late August 1624. Rather than risk heavy losses in assaults, he decided to starve the town into submission. His troops built a ring of entrenchments and forts around Breda, facing both inwards against the garrison and outwards against relief armies, and they controlled the surrounding waterways.

Inside, the garrison of several thousand soldiers and the townspeople faced growing shortages. The defenders raided the siege lines, while the besiegers suffered from the cold, wet winter and from disease. Large numbers of Spanish soldiers died or deserted, and the cost of the siege strained Spain’s finances.

The Dutch made several attempts at relief. An English army raised under Ernst von Mansfeld early in 1625 was ravaged by disease and achieved little. Maurice of Nassau, the Dutch commander-in-chief, fell ill and died on 23 April 1625. His half-brother Frederick Henry succeeded him and tried to break through the Spanish lines in May, but the attack failed.

The surrender

With food running out and no prospect of relief, Justin of Nassau agreed terms in early June 1625. Spínola, anxious to end a costly siege and conscious of Spanish reputation, offered generous conditions. The garrison was allowed to march out with its arms, flags flying, and civilians were protected.

On 5 June 1625 the Dutch troops left the town, and Justin of Nassau formally handed over the keys to Spínola. The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, who governed the Spanish Netherlands, had visited the siege lines and later came to Breda. News of the victory was celebrated in Madrid, Brussels and Rome.

Accounts and images of the siege

The siege attracted unusual attention from writers and artists. The Jesuit Herman Hugo, who was present in the Spanish camp, published a detailed Latin account, Obsidio Bredana, in 1626. The French printmaker Jacques Callot produced a huge etched map-view of the siege, crowded with tiny figures, on commission from the Infanta.

In Spain the playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca wrote the drama El sitio de Bredá soon after the victory. The play ends with Spínola receiving the keys courteously from Justin, a scene that seems to have influenced later images of the surrender.

Velázquez’s The Surrender of Breda

Around 1634–35 Diego Velázquez painted The Surrender of Breda for the Hall of Realms in the new Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, a hall decorated with scenes of recent Spanish victories. The large canvas, more than three metres high, is now in the Museo del Prado.

Velázquez shows Justin of Nassau bowing as he hands over the key, while Spínola, dismounted, places a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from kneeling. Dutch soldiers stand on the left; on the right, Spanish troops hold their lances upright against the sky, which gives the painting its Spanish nickname, Las Lanzas.

The scene is imagined rather than witnessed. Velázquez had never been to Breda, and Spínola had died in 1630. But the painting’s message of dignity and magnanimity between soldiers, rather than triumph over a beaten enemy, made it one of the most admired history paintings in Western art. Some scholars think the figure at the far right edge may be a self-portrait of the artist, though this is not certain.

Consequences

The capture of Breda was Spain’s greatest success in the Netherlands in the 1620s, but it did not change the course of the war. The siege had been so expensive that Madrid afterwards turned to a more defensive strategy, while the Dutch, under Frederick Henry, regained the initiative from 1629 with the capture of ’s-Hertogenbosch.

For Spain, Breda became a symbol of what its armies could still achieve, celebrated in plays, prints and sermons. For the Dutch, its loss was a painful but temporary setback that encouraged reform of the Republic’s defences and finances under Frederick Henry.

In 1637 Frederick Henry besieged Breda himself and retook it in October after several months. The town remained Dutch, and the Peace of Westphalia settlements of 1648, including Spain’s Peace of Münster with the Republic, confirmed Dutch independence.

Key people

• Ambrogio Spínola (1569–1630): Genoese banker and soldier who commanded the Army of Flanders and led the siege.
• Justin of Nassau (1559–1631): illegitimate son of William the Silent, Dutch admiral and governor of Breda during the siege.
• Maurice of Nassau (1567–1625): Prince of Orange and the Republic’s military leader, who died while the siege was under way.
• Frederick Henry (1584–1647): Maurice’s half-brother and successor, who failed to relieve Breda in 1625 but retook it in 1637.
• Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633): daughter of Philip II and governor of the Spanish Netherlands, who visited the siege.
• Diego Velázquez (1599–1660): court painter to Philip IV and creator of The Surrender of Breda.

Myths and facts

Myth: Velázquez painted what he saw. He was in Spain throughout the siege and painted the scene about a decade later, drawing on prints, written accounts and his own imagination.

Myth: Breda fell to a great assault. The town was taken by blockade and hunger, not by storm. Spínola avoided costly attacks and waited for the garrison’s supplies to run out.

Fact: the generous terms were real. The garrison was granted the honours of war, a common courtesy of the period that allowed defeated troops to leave with their weapons and colours.

Timeline

• 1609, April: Spain and the Dutch Republic agree the Twelve Years’ Truce.
• 1621, April: The truce expires and war resumes.
• 1624, 28 August: Spínola’s army begins the siege of Breda.
• 1625, 23 April: Maurice of Nassau dies during the siege.
• 1625, May: Frederick Henry’s relief attempt fails.
• 1625, 5 June: The Dutch garrison marches out and Breda surrenders.
• c. 1634–1635: Velázquez paints The Surrender of Breda.
• 1637, October: Frederick Henry recaptures Breda for the Dutch Republic.

Why it matters

The siege of Breda showed both the strength and the limits of Spanish military power during the Eighty Years’ War: a famous victory that cost so much it changed Spanish strategy. Through Velázquez’s painting, it also became a lasting image of chivalry in war, studied and admired far beyond the history of the Netherlands.