Qualla: Battle of Jemmingen

Battle of Jemmingen: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Ems took most of them. Of the roughly 6,000 men in Louis of Nassau's army who did not survive 21 July 1568, many did not fall to a sword or a bullet - they drowned, weighed down by armour, trying to swim flooded canals and the open river as Spanish arquebusiers fired into the water from the banks. Louis himself - brother of William the Silent, the man whose name now belongs to the Dutch national anthem - tore off his own armour, disguised himself, and swam for his life. The Battle of Jemmingen lasted hours. The killing went on for an entire day after.

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Battle of Jemmingen: Before the Slaughter

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two months earlier, at Heiligerlee, Louis of Nassau had won the first real victory of what would become the Dutch Revolt. His brother Adolf had been killed in that battle, but the rebels had bloodied a Spanish army and given the Low Countries something to hope for. Louis had pres...

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Battle of Jemmingen: The Trap at the Bridge

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Alba did not commit his whole army. Only 3,500 Spanish troops crossed the flooded fields, water up to their knees, aiming for a single bridge over a lock that controlled the rebel position. Captains Marcos de Toledo, Diego Enríquez and Hernando de Añasco led the assault with pike...

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Battle of Jemmingen: Drowning in the Ems

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What followed was not a battle anymore. The retreating mercenaries ran for the rivers and the canals, and the Spanish followed them, killing for hours. Six thousand men died on the Dutch side that day. Many of them did not die fighting; they died trying to cross water in armour, ...

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Battle of Jemmingen: What the Statue Meant

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Antwerp statue lasted six years. After the Sack of Antwerp in 1576, when Spanish soldiers mutinied and slaughtered thousands of civilians, the city joined the revolt it had been keeping at arm's length. In 1577, a crowd pulled down the bronze Duke of Alba - cast from the cann...

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