Destruction of Neuss The Destruction of Neuss occurred in July 1586 , during the Cologne War . Alexander Farnese , Duke of Parma ' s troops surrounded the city of Neuss , an important Protestant garrison in the Electorate of Cologne . After the city refused to capitulate , Parma ' s army reduced the city to rubble , through a combination of artillery fire , destructive house to house fighting , plundering ; during the battle , a fire started that destroyed most of the rest of the city . In total , approximately 3000 civilians died , of a population of approximately 4500 , and the entire garrison was killed . Situation in 1586 . Neuss had been seized by supporters of the Protestant Prince - Elector , Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg supporters in February 1586 . Adolf Count of Moers and Neuenahr reinforced and supplied the city and took most of his troops north , to Moers and Venlo , leaving the young Friedrich Cloedt in command of the city . Cloedt had a garrison of 1600 men , mostly Germans and Dutch soldiers ; some had military experience , but many were recent recruits . One hundred years earlier it had resisted a lengthy siege by Charles the Bold of Burgundy , and for its efforts , the emperor had granted Neuss the right to mint its own coins and to incorporate the imperial arms in its own coat of arms . In June , the Duke of Parma approached the city , and surrounded its landed fortifications ; he was supported by Karl von Mansfeld , Francisco Verdugo , and Salentin VII of Isenburg - Grenzau . Parma had an impressive force at his command ; in addition Mansfeld ' s 2000 troops , he had another 6000 or so foot and Tercio s , plus 2000 mounted , experienced Italian , Spanish and some German soldiers , plus some 45 cannons , which Parma distributed on the redoubt across the river , and on the heights some short distance from the city walls . Prior to the cannonade , Parma requested the capitulation of the city , which was declined , officially with great politeness , but as Parma ' s emissary returned to the Spanish camp , he was followed by jeers and insults from the townsmen . The next day , being the feast of St . James , and the patron day for the Spanish , the battle was not joined , however reports circulated in the Spanish camp that two soldiers , captured in the previous days ' sorties , had been roasted alive in the market square to desecrate the Holy day . Battle . Once the cannonade began , Parma ' s 45 artillery pounded at the walls for 30 hours with iron cannonballs weighing 30 to 50 pounds , in total 2700 rounds . The Spanish made several attacks , each repelled . With the ninth assault , the outer wall was breached , and soldiers poured into the city , the Italians from one end , and the Spanish from the other . They met in the marketplace in the middle ( see map of the city — above ) . Cloedt , gravely injured ( his leg was reportedly nearly ripped off and he had five other serious wounds ) , had been carried into the town . The Spanish and Italian forces entered the town from opposing ends , and met in the middle . Parma was reportedly inclined to honor the garrison commander ; Ernst demanded his blood . Soldiers found Cloedt and the dying man was hanged from the window , along with several dozen others in his force . Italian and Spanish soldiers , on their rampage through the city , slaughtered the rest of the garrison , even the men who tried to surrender . Women , who had taken refuge in some of the churches , were initially spared , but when the fire started , they were forced into the street . Contemporary accounts refer to children , women , and old men , their clothes in sparks or flames , trying to escape the conflagration , only to be trapped by the enraged soldiers ; if they escaped the flames and the Spanish , they still had to elude the Italians . Parma wrote to the king ( of Spain ) that over 4000 lay dead in the ditches . English observers confirmed this report , and elaborated that only 8 buildings remained standing . Aftermath . Although Parma had taken the city , his Protestant opponents took some comfort in the fact that the city had been destroyed in the process and was of no use as a garrison . Yet this was in no way a Pyrrhic victory ; Parma had lost fewer than 500 of his own force , and the Protestant rebels had lost a significant geographical and militarily strategic point , and one of their more intrepid young commanders in Cloedt . Parma had nearly unfettered access to the Electorate ' s northern regions , called the " Niederstift " , from which he could mount an attack on the rebellious provinces of the Netherlands . Gebhard renounced of the Electorate in 1588 . Despite Ernst of Bavaria ' s unchallenged possession , Parma continued to acquire and fortify towns throughout the region .