Battle of Rijmenam
1578 battle
The Battle of Rijmenam was fought in the early stages of the Eighty Years' War between the forces of the States-General of the Netherlands and those of the Spanish Governor-General of the Habsburg Netherlands, Don Juan de Austria, on 31 July 1578, near Rijmenam in present-day Belgium. The Spanish forces were dealt a strategic defeat.
Background
After the Pacification of Ghent the entire Habsburg Netherlands had risen against Philip II of Spain. When the new Governor-General, Philip's half-brother Don Juan, arrived in the country in November 1576, he initially feigned readiness to cooperate with the States-General, but soon there was a rupture, and the war was resumed. From January 1578 on, the reinforcements that were sent to Don Juan by way of the Spanish Road had made him strong enough to go on the offensive. Almost immediately, he gained a stunning victory in the Battle of Gembloux. This motivated foreign powers to intervene on behalf of the States-General. Queen Elizabeth of England sent money and troops, as did the Duke of Anjou. These reinforcements formed the backbone of a reconstituted States Army that took up formation in a reinforced encampment at Rijmenam during July 1578. The nominal commander of this force was the Count of Boussu.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Rijmenam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.