Qualla: Siege of Zutphen (1591)

Siege of Zutphen (1591): Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pieterverberne, Public domain. They walked up to the Spanish fort selling cheese. A handful of English soldiers, drilled in advance by Sir Francis Vere, dressed as Dutch farmers heading to market. A few wore women's clothes. They carried baskets of butter, cheese, and eggs and they let the Spanish guards open the gates and rummage through the goods, while a sham cavalry charge appeared on the horizon to make their flight to the walls convincing. By the time the order was given, the disguised English were inside the sconce. By the time the Spanish realised what was happening, the gates were open and Maurice of Nassau's cavalry was thundering across the field. Eleven days later, on the last day of May 1591, Zutphen was Dutch again.

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Image: Pieterverberne | Public domain

Siege of Zutphen (1591): A Hanseatic City With a Bloody Memory

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit North_Sea_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Zutphen had been a prize for centuries before Maurice came for it. The city sat on the east bank of the IJssel, prosperous from Hanseatic trade, and it controlled river traffic in a way that made it strategically essential. It had also been the scene of one of the Dutch Revolt's ...

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Image: North_Sea_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Zutphen (1591): The Young Stadtholder's Method

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain. Maurice of Nassau, son of the murdered William the Silent, was 23 years old and changing the way Europeans fought. He had taken Breda in 1590 by hiding troops in a peat barge, a stunt that gave his army a forward base and gave the Republic a template: speed, deception, and overwh...

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Image: AnonymousUnknown author | Public domain

Siege of Zutphen (1591): The Ruse

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Agnes Monkelbaan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Vere brought his English troops to Doesburg and rehearsed the trick. On the appointed morning his disguised men walked toward the sconce, baskets in hand, while a pretend Dutch cavalry patrol appeared in the distance, sabres drawn. The disguised soldiers ran for the gate as if se...

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Image: Agnes Monkelbaan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Zutphen (1591): Eleven Days

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CrazyPhunk, Public domain. Once the bridge was secured and Count William Louis arrived with his Frisian companies, Maurice could conduct a proper siege. The barges came up the river and disgorged their cannon, and the Dutch gunners positioned thirty pieces at three points around the city, ready to bombard ...

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Image: CrazyPhunk | Public domain

Siege of Zutphen (1591): The Fox and the Gibbet

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stefan Flöper, CC BY-SA 4.0. Vere earned a nickname that day: 'the fox.' He earned something else too. Rowland York had died in 1588, but Vere had not forgotten his betrayal of the sconce in 1587. He had York's body exhumed, hanged, and gibbeted - a brutal piece of theatre meant to remind every traitor that ...

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Image: Stefan Flöper | CC BY-SA 4.0