The Siege of Roermond

May 1501

After the Guelders campaign in Oversticht in 1500, the Duke of Burgundy was finished with the rebel duchy. Philip the Good had long tolerated first the reign of Duke Charles in Guelders, but after his arrest in Augsburg and the continued recognition of Charles by the Quarter Estates of Guelders, he decided to take action against them. This he did through funding the Lord of IJsselstein, a vassal of the Bishop of Utrecht and a friend of his father Maximilian. However, Lord Frederik van Egmont of IJsselstein was defeated by the forces of Guelders, and the lands and cities of Oversticht were taken from the Bishop of Utrecht by the army from Guelders.

The Estates of Guelders did expeect retribution. They had taken Oversticht to secure their northern border, but they were happy to abandon it as soon as the news reached them of a Burgundian army gathering to their south. Their objective was to win the coming fight, make Philip reconsider, and maintain their independence. Philip, however, wanted to turn his legal claim to Guelders into de facto control over the duchy. This time, he did more than fund a small army for the Bishop of Utrecht.

An army of 10,000 landsknechts and the cavalry to support them descended upon the city of Roermond. It was the capital of Guelders’ southern exclave, cut off from the rest of Guelders. However, that did not mean the forces of Guelders were going to hunker down in the three contiguous quarters of their duchy. They marched down to Roermond, ready for a battle before the siege would properly get underway.

The Battle of Venlo

June 1501

Leaving Roermond behind, the Burgundian army wanted nothing more than to defeat Guelders in a straight-laced battle. On open fields to the east of the town of Venlo and the Meuse River, the two sides deployed their armies. The Burgundians outnumbered Guelders almost two to one, and half of the Guelders infantry were levies. Against the largest regiment of landsknechts north of the Alps, the odds of Guelders were dwindling rapidly. On their flanks were a thousand heavily-armoured knights in an almost French fashion, opposing more modestly armed German mercenaries on horseback, who also outnumbered the knights two to one. These knights had won Guelders the battle against Utrecht, but not only represented the strongest part of their army, but also a significant political force. All of these knights were (represented by) voices in the Quarter Estates and Landdag to rebel.

Jan III van Egmont, lord of Egmont, led the Burgundian army. They had expected more reinforcements, especially from Cologne, but no men had come, and neither had news of the supposed East-Frisian moves in the north. Only Henri de Croÿ from Aarschot had arrived. Although his forces were negligible, he would command the Burgundian left flank. Artillery was deployed behind the right flank, on a slight incline, and mirrored the lesser Guelders guns. The battle began evenly in the late morning. It was a warm and a dry day. Cannons roared and Burgundy delivered a barrage three times more powerful than their enemies. Tearing into the lines, Guelders shook and wavered until the guns silenced. Only for the landsknechts to begin their push. The infantry from Guelders, which held for a while, expecting only to have to last until their knights would come into the landsknechts from behind.

The knights did assail the Burgundian cavalry on either side, which was pushed back by the noble horse of Guelders. However, it was a bloody advance, and a slow one. Meanwhile, the infantry had already been mauled by shot, and was now pushed methodically by a force much greater, more skilled and also determined. The infantry broke before the Burgundian horse even wavered. No generals of note may have perished on that day, but on the field lay the many arms of the knightly manors that dotted Guelders. As the army perished, the knights fell, and so collapsed the political fist of the rebellion.

The Occupation of Guelders

News of the Battle of Venlo reached Roermond, which now saw the war as a fait accompli. It surrendered. With no leader to rally Guelders - Charles still languished in an Austrian prison – all returned to their own holds, manors and cities. One by one they fell to Burgundian arms. Arnhem offered the biggest resistance, having scraped together funding from an unknown source to hire a mercenary company. As Jan III van Egmont invested Arnhem, he split his forces to besiege Zutphen and Nijmegen as well. The cities fell before the end of summer.

In late September, Harderwijk and the coastline of Guelders had been occupied. With a gathered army, Jan III van Egmont aimed his cannons at Arnhem, assaulted the city, and did not attempt to stop the landsknechts in their sack. By October 1501, Guelders had been fully occupied.

Results

• Oversticht no longer occupied by Guelders.
• Guelders is occupied by the Duke of Burgundy (Austria).
• Resistance in Guelders is effectively broken.

Losses

• Guelders: everything
• Burgundy: 1500 landsknechts, 800 mercenary cavalry.

Occupation