Battle of Wattrelos

Battle of Wattrelos
Part of the Eighty Years’ War
Date 27 December 1566[1] Location Wattrelos, County of Flanders, Spanish Netherlands (present-day France) 50°42′N 3°13′E / 50.700°N 3.217°E / 50.700; 3.217 Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Dutch rebels	Spanish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Jan Denys	Maximilian Vilain
Strength
200 infantry[2]	150 infantry[2] 50 cavalry[2]

The Battle of Wattrelos^[1] at the Flemish (now French) town of Wattrelos on 27 December 1566 between a Calvinist rebel army^[3] (sometimes described as "Geuzen"^[1]) and troops of the Spanish Netherlands government. It is sometimes considered as one of the first battles of the Eighty Years' War.^[4]

The rebel army was composed of about 200 men from the sayetterie centre of Hondschoote and its surroundings in West Flanders.^[2] They were Calvinists,^[3] and their goal was to intervene in the Siege of Valenciennes,^[1] where their fellow Calvinists were beleaguered by governmental troops under Philip of Noircarmes.^[3]

Maximilian Vilain, baron of Rassenghien and since 1 June 1566 stadtholder of Walloon Flanders,^[5] learned that the rebels had arrived at Wattrelos, about fifteen kilometres northeast of Lille.^[2] He sent 50 light cavalry and 150 infantry in response.^[2] On 27 December, these governmental forces surprised the rebels.^[2] The rebels fled into a parish church, which Rassenghien's forces set on fire, so that many rebels burnt to death.^[2]

Two days later, on 29 December 1566, Noircarmes defeated another rebel force in the Battle of Lannoy, also north of Lille.^[1] In the night of 1 to 2 January 1567, Noircarmes' troops occupied Tournai and expelled the Calvinists there.^[6]

• DuPlessis, Robert S. (2002). Lille and the Dutch Revolt: Urban Stability in an Era of Revolution, 1500–1582. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 392. ISBN 9780521894173. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
• Anton van der Lem. "Wattrelos". dutchrevolt.leiden.edu (in Dutch). Universiteit Leiden. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
• Van der Wee, Herman (1969). "De economie als factor bij het begin van de opstand in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden door Herman van der Wee". BMGN: Low Countries Historical Review (in Dutch). 83. Royal Netherlands Historical Society: 15–32. Retrieved 31 July 2022.