The fortified town of Rheinberg, which had been in the possession of the Electorate of Cologne, had been garrisoned by the Spanish for seven years after the place was finally taken by Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld on 3 February 1590 after a four-year siege. In mid 1597, the government at The Hague with improved funding ordered a new campaign for Maurice of Orange, the commander of the Dutch and English troops, to oust the Spanish in Twente while they had been preoccupied with the siege of Amiens. Maurice's objective was to march along the Rhine and take the towns of Rheinberg and Meurs along the river, then head directly through the east of the Netherlands, where Grol and Oldenzaal being the strongest cities. The conquest of Rheinberg was important for Gelderland as it would increase the isolation of Spanish bases in the rest of Overijssel.