The Surrender of Breda was the seat of the Orange family, who had a castle there. In 1624, the suspension of hostilities in Germany enabled the Spanish to concentrate their forces towards Breda. Although attacking such a formidable fortress was widely considered to be unwise, Ambrogio Spinola made the bewildering executive decision to march on Breda, accompanied by the Marquis de Leganés and Carlos Coloma. Spinola had made a military reputation for himself in 1604 and been rewarded with the Order of the Golden Fleece for conquering Ostend in Flanders. Consequently, the siege of Breda was not only a clash between the Netherlands and
Siege of Breda (1624) thereafter. The siege of 1624 captured the attention of European princes and, along with other battles like White Mountain (1620), played a part in the Spanish army regaining the formidable reputation it had held throughout the previous century. In the latter stages of the combined Eighty and Thirty Years' wars that had greatly strained Spanish resources, Breda was lost to the Dutch under Frederick Henry after a four-month siege. In the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thirty and Eighty Years' wars, it was ceded to the Dutch Republic. There were several motives for Spinola's siege of Breda. Because