Siege of Leuven

Siege of Leuven
Part of the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659)
Relief of Louvain. Oil on canvas by Peter Snayers.
Date 24 June – 4 July 1635 Location Leuven, Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium) 50°53′N 4°42′E / 50.883°N 4.700°E / 50.883; 4.700 Result Imperial-Spanish victory Franco-Dutch invasion of the Spanish Netherlands defeated[1]
Belligerents
Spain  Holy Roman Empire	United Provinces  Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Anthonie Schetz Ottavio Piccolomini	Prince Frederick Henry Marquis de Brézé Maréchal de Châtillon
Strength
Garrison: 4,000[2][3][4] Relief force: 11,000[5]	50,000[2] 30,000 Dutch 20,000 French
Casualties and losses
700	At least 12,000 casualties[6][a]
Leuven class=notpageimage| Location within Belgium

The siege of Leuven (24 June – 4 July 1635) was an important siege in the Thirty Years' War in which a Franco-Dutch army under Frederick Henry of Orange and the French Marshals Urbain de Maillé-Brezé and Gaspard III de Coligny, who had invaded the Spanish Netherlands from two sides, laid siege to the city of Leuven, defended by a force of 4,000 comprising local citizen and student militias with Walloons, Germans, Spanish and Irish of the Army of Flanders under Anthonie Schetz, Baron of Grobbendonck.^[4] Poor organization and logistics and the spread of sickness among the French, along with the appearance of an Imperial-Spanish relief army of 11,000 under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and Ottavio Piccolomini, forced the invading army to lift the siege.^[7][8] This failure allowed the Spanish forces to take the initiative and soon the invaders were forced into a headlong retreat.^[1]

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