Siege of Venlo (1637)

Siege of Venlo
	Part of the Eighty Years' War
	; Map of Venlo in 1652, by Joan Blaeu.
Date	20 – 25 August 1637
Location	Venlo (present-day the Netherlands)51°22′N 6°10′E / 51.367°N 6.167°E
Result	Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	United Provinces
Commanders and leaders
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand	Nicolaas van Brederode
Strength
17,000 soldiers	1,200 soldiers; Unknown number of burghers
Casualties and losses
Minor	1,200 (mostly prisoners)
	class=notpageimage\| Location within Netherlands Siege of Venlo (1637) (North Sea)

The siege of Venlo was an important siege in the Eighty Years' War that lasted from 20 to 25 August 1637. The Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, retook the city of Venlo from the United Provinces, which had taken control of it in 1632 during the offensive of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange against Maastricht. The capture of Venlo and Roermond, which was surrendered to the Cardinal-Infante a week later, effectively cut Maastricht from the Dutch Republic, thus preventing further attacks on the Spanish Netherlands from the east.^[4]^[5] In the southern front Ferdinand lost the towns of La Capelle, Landrecies, and Damvillers to the French, but then he forced them to retreat south of Maubeuge.^[6]

^ ^a ^b Kagan/Elliott/Parker, p. 386
^ ^a ^b Guthrie, p. 190
^ ^a ^b Israel, p. 81
^ Van Nimwegen, Olaf: The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588-1688. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2010. ISBN 9781843835752, pp. 254–255.
^ 't Hart, Marjolein: The Dutch Wars of Independence: Warfare and Commerce in the Netherlands 1570-1680. Oxon: Routledge, 2014. ISBN 9781317812548, p. 27.
^ Thion, Stéphane: French Armies of the Thirty Years' War. Auzielle: LRT Editions, 2008. ISBN 9782917747018, p. 23.