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The series in itself is rather clever and quite fun, but in their characterisation of Spinola the writers have somewhat dropped the ball. In his own historical period, he was already accustomed to having to defer to a woman’s decisions, since the head of the Brussels government to which he was answerable was Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria, and (perhaps most importantly) Duchess of Brabant.
Isabella in Hugo’s Obsidio Bredana
Isabella was the heroine of Herman Hugo’s Obsidio Bredana, the full title of which reads: Obsidio Bredana armis Philippi IIII auspiciis Isabellae ductu Ambr. Spinolae perfecta, ‘The Siege of Breda achieved by the arms of Philip IV under the auspices of Isabella and the command of Ambrogio Spinola’. The work was also dedicated to her, in an epistle that calls her the ‘Mother of the Camp’ (an epithet borrowed from Roman empresses) and quotes St Ambrose’s fourth-century treatise On Widows regarding the biblical prophetess Deborah (whose story is in chapters 4-5 of the Book of Judges): ‘A widow rules the people, a widow commands armies, a widow chooses generals, a widow directs the war’.
The climax of Hugo’s history of the siege is not the failure of the final attempt to break through the siegeworks on 15 May, nor the departure of the defeated garrison on 5 June, important though both these are, but Isabella’s arrival on 12 June to take possession of the town with a formal triumphant entry. This was a miniature replay of the Joyous Entries into Leuven, Brussels and Antwerp with which she and her husband, Albert, had been installed as rulers in 1599. Since being widowed in 1621, Isabella had no longer been ruling in her own right but on behalf of her nephew, Philip IV, King of Spain. In widowhood she had also adopted the rule of life of the Third Order of St Francis: the most powerful woman in the Low Countries was a ‘klopzuster’, and this was how Rubens depicted her in a portrait that was painted in Antwerp on her return journey from Breda. It was reproduced as a print for wide distribution to commemorate the occasion.
Supporting the siege
Isabella had not been present at the front during the siege, but she had taken a keen interest in its progress, and had been central to securing the finances needed to keep the army in the field. Twice over the course of the siege, Philip IV had written to her, asking her to reconsider whether it was really worth the expense, but deferring to her insistence that it should be continued. Spinola had quickly realised that a siege on this scale would, in time, come to require more men than he currently had under his command, and two ways were pursued to augment the number of soldiers available for patrols and convoys in the supply corridor, and to man and maintain the fieldworks that secured both the besieging army and its supply lines. The first was to borrow men from Emperor Ferdinand II and the Duke of Bavaria, since a lull in the Thirty Years’ War meant that they had troops to spare. It was Isabella who managed the diplomatic overtures that made this possible. She also gave orders to raise the infantry and cavalry militias of the Southern Low Countries, the ‘keurlings’ and ‘bands of ordonance’, to provide the manpower needed.
Hugo was convinced that it was Isabella’s prestige (as well as the Count of Hennin’s skilled lobbying) that had made it possible to secure extraordinary levies from the States of Brabant to pay for the transport of supplies, to be covered by temporarily raising tariffs on wine and taxes on baked goods. The bulk of the royal Army of Flanders was paid with New World silver, which was shipped to Genoa to reimburse the Genoese bankers who supplied the cash in Antwerp. When money was short, it was Isabella who negotiated with the Genoese bankers in Antwerp, anticipating the remittances from Spain to secure immediate cash. When the threat of a French invasion of Italy created a credit crunch, spooking the Genoans’ sources of funds in Antwerp, Isabella convinced Philip IV to authorise her to alienate crown lands, so that she could mortgage them to meet the army’s immediate financial needs. When she travelled to Breda to make her triumphant entry, she brought with her enough cash to pay the soldiers, who during the siege had seldom received their wages.
Isabella’s triumphal entry
Accounts of Isabella’s entry into Breda were printed in Spain and Italy, Germany and the Southern Netherlands. The tone and content of all these reports is somewhat varied. Oddly, no account of the event survives in the Antwerp newspaper printed by Abraham Verhoeven, which had no fixed title but is now generally known as the Nieuwe Tijdinghen. Issue 56, printed between 13 and 18 June, does not survive, but almost certainly contained his account of Isabella’s triumph. In all likelihood, the account of the event printed in that lost issue of the Nieuwe Tijdinghen will have been similar to the version that Verhoeven printed in French, in a pamphlet entitled ‘Joy at the Taking of Breda, completed by the arrival of Her Most Serene Highness’: Allegresse de la Prinse de Breda, Accomplie par l’arrivee de son Altesse Serenissime (Antwerp, Abraham Verhoeven, 1625). A copy of this survives in the Town Archives of Breda, and the text, a fine example of Baroque journalism, runs:
“Heaven, favourable to the crown of Spain, has finally granted what she has so long desired for the relief of her subjects of the Duchy of Brabant. And although the princes allied to the rebels of Holland assisted them with so many men and so much money, embarking soldiery, both foot and horse, in the harbours of Denmark, England and France at great and inexpressible cost, all the clouds that seemed to wish to obscure the radiance of His Catholic Majesty and to conspire to make his generous designs wither and die have now dissipated, and this evil influence has at a blow been annihilated by a burst of the divinity that recognizes the justness of the quarrel of his said Majesty’s arms. His enemies approached his camp at Breda, and viewing it from afar, dared not draw near the shining brightness of the ringing arms of so many valiant and noble champions and generous soldiers who made up the camp was, but like screech owls and children of the shadows fled from the flaming light of this second Mars, armed for the quarrel of God and of the Catholic King. At their flight, Breda in distress casts down her arms and throws herself at the feet of the mercy of her legitimate King, who receives her with benignity.
“Accordingly, the Most Serene Infanta, Archduchess of Brabant, was not content simply to render and have thanks given to God by all the cities of her obedience, and have bonfires erected at all the crossroads as a sign of rejoicing, magnificence and triumph: this Princess, rather, who surpasses all others of our times in piety and clemency, having a particular care for the salvation of the souls of the inhabitants of Breda, also to benevolently care for her soldiers, exhausted by such a long siege, brought with her to the said camp the money to pay them, which her magnanimity wished to see done in her presence, thanking them for the good performance of their duty. Her liberality towards them is such as to advance them a month’s wages and accommodate those most in need of linen.
“Then she entered Breda with the noblest of her court, leading with her some Reverend Capuchin Fathers to instruct and catechise the people ignorant of the Holy Catholic Faith. At the entrance to the town Her Highness was received by the inhabitants in all submission and humility, making bonfires in all the places and squares of the town to show their contentment and joy at being freed from the yoke of servitude to the tyranny of heretic rebels.
“Let us pray to God that all the towns in the country that are rebellious to his Majesty may follow Breda’s example, and acknowledge him, so that they may be inseparably united, by a bond more indissoluble than the Gordian knot and by a friendship better cemented than the Babylonian walls founded by Semiramis, all for the increase of the glory of God, the exaltation of His holy name, and the increase of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church.”
