The Berenbergs were one of 130 Dutch families that had become Lutheran during the Reformation. During the Eighty Years' War, the family fled Lier and settled in the nearby city of Antwerp (Stade). The family left Antwerp in 1585 as a result of the Fall of Antwerp, when the city was conquered by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. The strongly fortified city, Europe's leading commercial centre at the time, was defended with resolute determination and courage by its citizens, but ultimately fell, and around 60% of the city's pre-siege population fled the city, fearing Spanish massacres or forced conversion to Catholicism.