Qualla: Assault on Nijmegen

Assault on Nijmegen: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Waal was running high on the night of 10 August 1589. Heavy summer rains had pushed the river past its normal August stage, closer to spring flood than to the lazy late-summer flow Maarten Schenck van Nydeggen had counted on. He had 20 barges and roughly 200 soldiers, a clever plan involving open windows and scaling hooks, and a reputation for brutality that preceded him into every town he approached. By morning Schenck was dead in the river, his men were scattered, and the people of Nijmegen were telling and retelling the story of a mercenary defeated by a wedding party. It was the second-to-last action of the Cologne War.

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Assault on Nijmegen: Why Nijmegen Mattered

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Nijmegen sits where the Waal and Rhine come close to one another, at the inland gateway between the Dutch provinces and the German Electorate of Cologne. Whoever held it controlled river traffic on two of northern Europe's main commercial arteries and the only easy land approach ...

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Assault on Nijmegen: The Plan

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Schenck's scheme had the kind of theatrical simplicity that works in stories and rarely in practice. Twenty barges of soldiers would drift quietly down the Waal in the dark. A small advance team would find a house with its windows open, climb in using scaling hooks and ropes, sec...

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Assault on Nijmegen: The Wedding Party

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The house Schenck picked happened to belong to a man hosting a wedding. The windows were open because of summer heat, the guests were awake, many were armed - this was a frontier town in wartime, and people did not go to evening gatherings unarmed - and the celebration was in ful...

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Assault on Nijmegen: The River Won

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Meanwhile the rest of the barges - the ones carrying more than half of Schenck's men - had failed to make the landing at all. The strong Waal current had swept them past both the chosen entry point and the gate they were supposed to attack. Their crews struggled to bring them bac...

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Assault on Nijmegen: A Public Relations Blessing

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Schenck had built his career on raw fear. In Westphalia, in Neuss, in Bonn, in Godesburg, he and his men had done such damage that the political cause they nominally served - the Calvinist Elector of Cologne's claim to his see - was poisoned by association. Allies dreaded his arr...

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