July 2nd, 1600 - The Battle of Nieuwport (or the Dunes)

Conflict: Dutch War of Independence (Eighty Years' War)

Combatants: Dutch vs. Spanish

Location: Belgium

Outcome: Dutch victory

After losing a detachment to Spanish forces in a race to the Leffingham Bridge, Maurice of Nassau marched his 11,000 Dutchmen along the beach to meet the Albert, the Archduke of Austria, and his Spanish army of about equal size. A rising tide drove both armies inland where each exchanged artillery fire and cavalry charges. Exhausted from the race to seize the bridge, the Spanish at last collapsed under a Dutch counterattack. The Spanish lost around 3,500 men; Dutch losses were about 2,000.

Battle Scene from the Eighty Years' War by David Temiers the Younger

Points of Interest:

• Nieuwport was the largest battle of Maurice of Nassau's ten-year campaign against the Spanish.

• Not to be confused with the Battle of the Dunes fought in France fifty-eight years later between Anglo-French and Spanish forces.

Maurice of Nassau by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt

Albert, Archduke of Austria by Otto van Veen

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Sources:

Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, & Bongard, David L. (1992). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books (HarperCollins).

Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.

Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.