page_title: Battle of Noordhorn
section_title: Order of battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Noordhorn / Order of battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Warprogression in het Eighty Years' War: 1581. Dutch version Nederlands: Krijgsbewegingen in de Tachtigjarige Oorlog: 1581. Nederlandse versie
context_page_description: The Battle of Noordhorn, fought on 30 September 1581, was a pitched battle of the Dutch Revolt, fought between a Spanish army commanded by Colonel Francisco Verdugo – consisting of Walloon, German, Spanish, and Albanian soldiers – and a Dutch States rebel army under the Englishman John Norreys – comprising English, Scottish, Dutch, and Walloon troops – in the province of Friesland. In 1580, the Dutch stadtholder of Friesland, George van Lalaing, Count of Rennenberg, had shifted its allegiance from the Dutch to the Spanish side. This opened a new front at the back door of the Dutch Republic, forcing the States-General to dispatch forces to the north. That year the Dutch, under the leadership of John Norreys, succeeded in relieving the town of Steenwijk. In July 1581, Rennenberg died and was replaced by the Spaniard Francisco Verdugo, whose arrival in Friesland with reinforcements changed the situation. On 30 September Verdugo forced Norreys to give battle using a strategy of attrition.
  The battle was fought on a rough, marshy ground very favorable to the Spanish army.
context_section_description: The Spanish army, led by Francisco Verdugo, with Lieutenant-Colonel Johann Baptista von Taxis as second in command, was deployed before the village of Noordhorn and behind broken ground with only one access point that was covered by a wide ravine and flanked on its left by a series of muddy ditches. Aiming to create a trap for Norreys' army, the Spanish had smoothed the ground on their right in order to funnel English units and draw Norrey's troops into an engagement area where a crossfire effect could be created. Verdugo himself drove two stakes into the ground to mark the point that his cavalry was to charge upon the English vanguard.
  The Spanish army was organized into three infantry battalions with two cavalry companies at each wing: the right wing was taken by the Walloon mounted harquebusiers under Monsieur de Villers and Verdugo's Spanish lances under Corporal Alonso Mendo, plus a battalion formed by half of Verdugo's Walloon foot regiment. 200 arquebusiers were detached later in a house nearby. The centre was made up by one battalion formed by the German foot regiments of Rennenberg, under Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume de Monceau, and of Caspar de Robles, who was serving Farnese and had left the command to Lieutenant Colonel Johann Baptista von Taxis. The left consisted of two cavalry companies (Famiano Strada names German reiters under Wolfgang Prengier, while Alonso Vázquez mentions Albanian horse under Captain Tomas Frate and Walloons under Baron de Bievres) plus a battalion formed by the second half of Verdugo's foot regiment. Verdugo also deployed a forlorn hope of 200 musketeers and arquebusiers into a ditch covering the way, 300 steps ahead of his three foot battalions.
  The Anglo-Dutch army under John Norreys and Count William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg was formed by 30 companies of foot  – 11 English and Scottish flags from the regiments of Norreys and Colonel Thomas Morgan, and 19 Dutch, Frisian and Walloon flags – plus four cavalry companies under Captains Hendrik van Eck, Goor, Elleborn and Roger Williams, the latter of English cuirassiers. There existed a certain hostility between Norreys and Morgan, as Prince William of Orange favored Norreys despite Morgan's longer experience in the Netherlands, having served since 1572. When Queen Elizabeth's secretary and advisor Francis Walsingham requested Orange appoint Morgan as a colonel, he refused, and Morgan attributed this to Norreys' "hard dealings".
caption: Battles and operation of the Eighty Years' War in 1581
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