Siege of Breda (1637) Siege of Breda (1637) The Fifth Siege of Breda (21 July – 11 October 1637) was an important siege in the Eighty Years' War in which stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange retook the city of Breda, which had last changed hands in 1625 when the Spanish general Ambrogio Spinola conquered it for the Spanish Habsburgs. Hereafter, the city would remain in the hands of the Dutch Republic until the end of the war. In 1635 France and the Dutch Republic formed an alliance against Spain with the objective of conquering and partitioning the Spanish Netherlands. They invaded on two
Capture of Breda (1590) the Italian soldiers garrisoning the city; the attackers killed forty defenders without any loss. So surprised were the Italians and Spanish that they dispersed into a total rout into the streets of the city. Before dawn, Count Hohenlohe arrived at the doors of Breda with the Dutch cavalry and after him Maurice of Nassau with the main body of the army; Count Solms, and Francis Vere being among them. By then the men of Heraugiere had already taken control of most the city. With the Breda garrison completely surrounded and in total confusion Paolo Lanzavecchia negotiated with the attackers the