Dutch Defiance: The (Staggering) Siege of Breda 1624/25

An army commanded by the famous Italian strategist Ambrogio Spinola, sent by the Spanish crown, arrived at the Dutch town of Breda on 27th August in 1624. Spinola came to stay and he began a siege characterized by supply shortages, a tight encirclement of the city, and various attempts to supply and relief the town. The siege of Breda is considered Spinola's greatest success and one of the last major Spanish victories in the Eighty Years’ War. It is also one of only few early modern sieges that made it on TV, namely in the historical fictional movie Alatriste, starring Viggo Mortensen. This is how contemporary historiography tells the story of the staggering siege of Breda.

Bibliography:
Duffy, C., The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494-1660, London 1979.
J.P.M. ROOZE en C.W.A.M. EIMERMANN, De belegering van Breda door Spinola 1624–1625 Alphen aan den Rijn, Canaletto 2005.

[SandRhomanHistory]

Further explanation: As you probably already know YouTube doesn't really favor your channel when you publish content that doesn't do as well as other videos; for us this means we would do much better if we would just do things like Keelhauling or general overview videos that appeal to many viewers. In general, we lose a lot of traffic by covering things like the Eighty Years War and thus some other videos might never gain momentum. This also means agencies will pay you significantly less money for sponsorings because your average view count is not very high. Consequently, they're hesitant to invest in you in general.

Anyways, thanks for the support to everybody who sticks around week after week; also, thanks for all the comments and suggestions as well (we do read most of them but answering everything is a Herculean task...)!

[edelachtbare]

I study in Breda and can confirm the people there look exactly like you depicted them here. Great work!

[AwesomeLookingGamer]

Keep up the awesome work man. You're literally one of the only youtubers covering this time period and the fact you do it with such detail and passion is quite simply astonishing.

[kimwit]

As a native of Breda I approve of this video. Fun fact: between Breda and Terheijden there still is an earthwork that is known as the Spinolaschans.

[martinan]

SandRhoman brings his own narrative, style, attitude. He creates something noone else does.

[emilioglz.carrillodealborn]

As a Spanish fan of your channel I can’t thank you enough for the quality of your channel, your valuable military analysis and personally also how you treat Spain in this period, unlike most other history channels in English
I would definitely become a patron if it was a bit cheaper and I could allow it, now I can only support you with likes

[OneRedKraken]

Where did you learn to do your animations? From the little vignettes with animated soldiers, to the maps and their various overviews. They are all amazing.

[AsukaLangleyS]

I've been up for 30 hours or so that I thought the thumbnail and title was an actual game where you have to keep a siege alive to starve out the city, and I was hyped!

[Contractor]

My favorite history channel on YouTube. Thanks so much man.

[Ardunafeth]

I kind of expected you to cover the siege of 1590 as well since that siege is really famous for it's famous 'Trojan Horse' strategy in the form of a peat barge.

[robertmosher]

You have a good voice for ancient and medieval warfare histories. You are very good at pronouncing the names of the people involved, cities/towns, army/naval units, and of the fortresses. It appears you speak more than a couple European languages and you can tell by your enthusiasm that you enjoy bringing the historical battles of long ago to the hundreds of thousands of subscribers who view your work.
Being an American veteran of the war in Iraq and fan of military history I enjoy your stories immensely. Most Americans find, what to us are foreign accents, interesting to listen to and you definitely have a European accent and the way you say the proper names of the above listed subjects, sounds to at least this listener, must be the correct in that specific country's language and with the correct inflections and accent.
You keep making them and I will keep watching them.
Thanks for all your hard work

[napoleonibonaparte]

Spinola Alesia-d his way through... for a year.

[TimDutch]

I must say i am very impressed how you are able to pronunciate all the Dutch place names. Good job!

[Zadlo]

I don't know why but your vids about sieges during 80 Years' War are undoubtedly the best. Maybe try to make some vids about War of Spanish Succession sieges or some sieges during colonial wars in North America.

[guycalabrese]

I love this channel!. I can't find a single thing to complain about. And your animations! Very, very good. No, excellent!

[sarahsidney]

Best history channel on youtube. Thanks for your amazing work!!

[willemvanoranje]

Your channel is such a gem mate, I wish my dutch school would have teached this, these battles are SO amazing!

[killerkid]

Thank you for this great video! I have been waiting for the Siege of Breda for a long time. Also great that you mention Allatriste, sad that the siege was only briefly covered (although with brutal scenes in the mines). Please keep up the good work!

[deteon]

These videos are fantastically made. It’s great to see something new that most channels won’t cover. Keep up the great work!

A suggestion is to make a video about how army logistics worked during this time period. I feel like it’s an important thing that is rarely presented in depth.

[Gerrie_de_B.]

As a real Bredanaar I can say this is an amazing piece of art! Really nice to see the history of my home town.