page_title: Siege of Aachen (1614)
section_title: Spanish intervention
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Aachen (1614) / Spanish intervention
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Portret van Ambrogio Spinola, opperbevelhebber der Spaanse troepen in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden. Heupstuk, staande in wapenrusting bij een tafel waarop de helm met pluimen staat. Commandostaf in de rechterhand, de linkerhand op het gevest van zijn degen. Aan een ketting om de hals het embleem van de Orde van het Gulden Vlies.
context_page_description: The Siege of Aachen took place in late August 1614, when the Spanish Army of Flanders, led by Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquis of the Balbases, marched from Maastricht to Germany to support Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, during the War of the Jülich Succession. Despite its status as a free imperial city, Aachen was under the protection of John Sigismund of Brandenburg, Neunburg's ally, and then rival, in the battle for the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. In 1611, the Protestant population of Aachen had revolted against the Catholic city council and had seized power. When the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, observing the Peace of Augsburg, had ordered the previous state to be restored, the Protestants had allied themselves with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The unexpected arrival of a Spanish army at the gates of the city, however, caused the Protestants to lose courage and surrender Aachen to Spinola. A Catholic garrison was installed and a process of re-Catholicization began.
context_section_description: Rudolf II ordered the princes of Brandenburg and Palatinate-Neuburg to restore the previous religious and political situation of Aachen under the menace of a ban. The Protestants, however, ignored the command and seriously wounded an Imperial commissary sent to implement the Emperor's edict. In May 1612, elections were held and Calvinists took the control of the town council. In 1613, as disputes over the Jülich succession continued, one of the claimants, Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, converted to Catholicism and gained the support of Spain and of the Catholic League of Germany. On 20 February 1614, Emperor Matthias ordered the restoration of Catholic rule in Aachen, allowing the Spanish Army of Flanders under Ambrogio Spinola to intervene. Fearing an attack, the town council requested help from the Elector of Brandenburg, who sent several hundred soldiers under general Georg von Pulitz to reinforce the local militia. The city gates were manned and partly walled-up.
  The Spanish preparations to intervene in the succession dispute alarmed the Dutch statholder Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, who supported John Sigismund of Brandenburg, and knew that the Spanish intervention would destabilize the course of succession. In the middle of June, William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg warned Prince Maurice that the Spaniards already had 9,800 men ready for field service, and that they would soon be joined by a further force of 13,200 men. With the imminent Spanish threat, Maurice strongly reinforced the garrison of Jülich with seven infantry companies, and an additional force of 2,000 men, for a possible siege. The situation was tense for the two sides. Maurice, with additional troops from towns that were not under serious threat, expected to be able to raise an army of 20,000 men, composed of 136 infantry companies and 40 cavalry companies. Meanwhile, Ambrogio Spinola was ready to start the campaign. His first movement was upon Aachen:
  Before we think of the Affairs of Juliers, the vicinity of Aachen ought to engage us to make on that side the first efforts of our army to punish the heretics of that city, and to execute the Imperial Mandate discerned against them, of which the Archduke and the Elector of Cologne are Bearers. Every one knows with what boldness and with what contempt for the Imperial Mandates, the heretic citizens have dar'd usurp the government of Aachen, which belong'd formerly to the Catholics only. Thus an infinity of reasons oblige us to repress by force so unjust an usurpation. 
  — Ambrogio Spinola to his army, Maastricht, 1614
  In August 1614, Spinola advanced to Maastricht and its surroundings and established his camp with an army of 18,000 infantry, 2,500 cavalry and 11 artillery pieces. From Maastricht, Spinola's army entered the Rhineland accompanied by Guido Bentivoglio, the papal nuncio at Brussels, and two Imperial commissaries. Luis de Velasco, general of the cavalry, opened the way with 600 cavalry, followed by four battalions of foot: one of Spaniards, one of Germans and Burgundians and two of Walloons. 600 other horses closed the march. To prevent Aachen from being relieved by the Dutch from Jülich, Spinola detached what remained of his cavalry to block the road between the two cities. Two hours after its departure from Maastricht, the Spanish army appeared before Aachen. The city lacked modern fortifications and was surrounded by a single medieval wall. The Spanish troops took the hills which commanded the city, within musket-shot of the walls, and erected a battery to threaten the inhabitants and the 600-man Brandenburgian garrison. After several days of negotiations, and with little hope of reinforcements, the defenders surrendered the city to the Spanish army, to the great regret of Maurice, who could not arrive on time for relief.
caption: Spanish General Ambrogio Spinola by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt.
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