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.
Relief efforts and surrender
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]
Aftermath
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]
^N Williams, Elizabeth I, Queen of England (London 1971) p. 294
^G Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Penguin [1959]) p. 189
References
Martin, Colin./Parker, Geoffrey. The Spanish Armada: Revised Edition. Published 1989 by Penguin Books. ISBN1-901341-14-3
C. Duffy. Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494–1660. Volumen 1. London. ISBN0-7100-8871-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 ISBN0-241-10149-2
Van Nimwegen, Olaf. The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions 1588–1688. First published 2010. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN978-1-84383-575-2
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. ISBN0-521-01941-9.
Further reading
L van der Essen, Alexandre Farnese Vol 3 (Brussels 1937)