Frederick Henry's Meuse campaign

The Meuse campaign was a major operation during the Dutch Revolt lead by Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange in which he took the cities of Venlo, Roermond, Sittard and Maastricht.

Background
In 1572, 6 years after the revolt broke out, the Geuzen who backed the Prince of Orange, captured a lot of cities in the Netherlands. Including the cities which were key locations for this campaign. The aftermath of this being that the Union of Utrecht was proclaimed in 1579.



Shortly after, Philip II sent the Duke of Parma to the Netherlands as governor and reconquered large parts of the Netherlands previously occupied and captured by the Rebels, including the cities that were captured during the campaign, the most notable one being Parma's siege of Maastricht.

Later in 1588, Maurice, Frederick's half-brother. Became the Prince of Orange and after his military reforms, conquered large parts of the territories previously captured by Parma, except for the cities that would be captured  during this campaign.



In 1629, a few years before the initial campaign, Frederick Henry besieged and captured 's-Hertogenbosch, this would be known as his greatest achievement. The city of 's-Hertogenbosch was the last city that was in Spanish hands before Frederick could initiate his campaign. So the capture of 's-Hertogenbosch allowed Frederick Henry to launch his campaign.

Siege of Venlo
The Siege of Venlo was the first major action of the campaign. This siege lasted from the 1st of June until the 4th of June when the garrison in Venlo was forced to capitulate.

Siege of Roermond


The Siege of Roermond occurred on the 2nd of June until the 5th of June when a Dutch force of 20,000 men took on a Spanish garrison of around 300 men and forced the garrison to capitulate. Even though the Dutch Army successfully took the city of Roermond, the Dutch still suffered a heavy loss due to the death of Ernest Casimir when he got shot when inspecting a nearby trench.

Siege of Maastricht


The siege of Maastricht was the last and most major military action during the campaign. The siege itself lasted from the 9th of June until the 22nd of August, the siege was fought between the Dutch States Army lead by Frederick and Horace Vere and the combined forces of the Spanish and Imperial armies. After the outnumbered Dutch forces successfully besieged the city, the city was left in Dutch hands.

Aftermath
Even though the campaign was a success for the Dutch, the cities of Venlo and Roermond would be recaptured by Spanish forces under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand during his counter-offensive in the summer of 1637. The Cardinal-Infante would also fully cut off Maastricht through doing so and prevent any further Dutch attacks from the Meuse in the future.