The tiny new state of the United Provinces of the Netherlands won its independence from the mighty Spanish empire by fighting and winning the Eighty Years' War, from 1568 and 1648. In this long conflict, warfare on water played a much bigger role in determining the ultimate victor. On the high seas the fleet carved out a new empire, growing national income to such levels that it could continue the costly war for independence. Yet it was in coastal and inland waters that the most decisive battles were fought. Arguably the most decisive Spanish siege (Leiden, 1574) was broken by a fleet sailing to the rescue across flooded polders, and the battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600, the largest successful invasion fleet before World War II, was one of the most decisive battle in western history. Using detailed full colour artwork, this book shows how the Dutch navies fought worldwide in their war of independence, from Brazil to Indonesia, and from the Low Countries to Angola.

The tiny new state of the United Provinces of the Netherlands won its independence from the mighty Spanish empire by fighting and winning the Eighty Years' War, from 1568 and 1648. In this long conflict, warfare on water played a much bigger role in determining the ultimate victor. On the high seas the fleet carved out a new empire, growing national income to such levels that it could continue the costly war for independence. Yet it was in coastal and inland waters that the most decisive battles were fought. Arguably the most decisive Spanish siege (Leiden, 1574) was broken by a fleet sailing to the rescue across flooded polders, and the battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600, the largest successful invasion fleet before World War II, was one of the most decisive battle in western history. Using detailed full colour artwork, this book shows how the Dutch navies fought worldwide in their war of independence, from Brazil to Indonesia, and from the Low Countries to Angola.

Throughout the 16th Century, the Spanish had an aura of invincibility. They controlled a vast colonial empire that stretched across the Americas and the Pacific, and held considerable territories in Europe, centring on the so-called 'Spanish Road'. The Dutch War of Independence (also known as the 80 Years' War) was a major challenge to their dominance. The Dutch army created by Maurice of Nassau used innovative new tactics and training to take the fight to Spain and in so doing created a model that would be followed by European armies for generations to come. The second in a two-part series on the Dutch armies of the 80 Years' War, focuses on the cavalry, artillery and engineers of the evolving armies created by Maurice of Nassau. Using specially commissioned artwork and photographs of historical artefacts, it shows how the Dutch cavalry arm, artillery, and conduct of siege warfare contributed to the long struggle against the might of the Spanish Empire.

The 80 Years' War (also known as the Dutch War of Independence) was the foundation of Dutch nationhood, and during the course of the conflict one of its main leaders – Maurice of Orange-Nassau – created an army and a tactical system that became a model throughout Europe. This study, the first of a two-part series, focuses on the Dutch infantry. It examines how Maurice of Orange-Nassau attracted volunteers and students from across Europe, introduced innovative new training methods such as common drill movements, and standardised the organisation and payment system of the army to make it more than a match for the occupying Spanish. His successes inspired officers and generals across the continent to copy his methods, including many English officers who went on to fight in the English Civil Wars. Featuring full-colour artwork and rare period illustrations, this book examines how the Dutch infantry was transformed into a fighting force able to defeat the might of Imperial Spain.

The Eighty Years War follows the history of how the mightiest European power of the sixteenth century was finally brought to defeat. In 1648 the Spanish empire agreed to a peace treaty that ended decades of fighting and resulted in the division of the Low Countries and the creation of the Dutch Republic. From the outset, the conflict between the Dutch insurgents and their Spanish sovereign lord captured the imagination. Through eighty years of warfare, the provincial states and the Calvinists gained the upper hand in the north and the Spanish rulers and the Catholic church rose in the south. Against all expectations, Philip II and his successors failed to win a conclusive victory over their rebellious Dutch subjects, and Spain was compelled to admit military defeat at the negotiating table in M nster and recognize the breakaway Dutch provinces as a sovereign state. The birth of the new state was to no small degree determined by the balance of military power on land and at sea, and this book, illustrated in color throughout, offers insight the military factors at play in the creation of the Dutch Republic. Filling a gap in the current scholarship, The Eighty Years War investigates the relationship between maritime and land-based developments in the fields of weapons technology, tactics, and organization in the period from 1568 to 1648.

During the 17th century England and Holland found themselves at war three times, in a clash for economic and naval supremacy, fought out in the cold waters of the North Sea and the English Channel. The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54) pitted the Dutch against Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth Navy, which proved as successful at sea as his New Model Army had been on land. Following the Restoration of 1660 the two maritime powers clashed again, and in the Second Dutch War (1665-67) it was the Dutch who had the upper hand. They humiliated the English by burning their fleet in the Medway (1667), forcing Charles II to sue for peace. This peace proved temporary, and the Third Dutch War (1672-74) proved a well-balanced and bitterly-fought naval contest. The Royal Navy eventually emerged triumphant, establishing a tradition of naval dominance that would last for two centuries. This was a revolutionary era in several key areas - warship design, armament and in naval tactics. In effect the ships and fleets that began the conflict in 1652 were by-products of an earlier age - warships designed to fight chivalrous duels with their enemy counterparts. By the close of the Third Dutch War these warships had evolved into fully-fledged ships-of-the-line - the warships that would dominate the age of fighting sail until the advent of steam. This book traces the development of these warships during this critical evolutionary period in naval history, and shows that while both sides evolved their own doctrines of warship design and armament, it was the English notion who created a battle-winning navy of sailing ships-of-war.