Sack of Antwerp

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Sack of Antwerp
Part of the Eighty Years' War
Anonymous contemporary depiction of the "Spanish Fury" in Antwerp (Museum Aan de Stroom)
Date 4 November 1576 Location Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium) Result Dutch rebels unite against Spanish crown Decline of Antwerp as commercial hub
Belligerents
Mutinying Spanish Tercios (Army of Flanders)	People of Antwerp German and Walloon troops
Commanders and leaders
Sancho d'Avila Julian Romero Juan del Águila	Count Eberstein † Governor Compagny Marquis d’Havré
Strength
6,000	20,000 (civilians included)
Casualties and losses
Unknown	7,000–18,000[1][2]

The sack of Antwerp, often known as the Spanish Fury at Antwerp, was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. It is the greatest massacre in the history of the Low Countries.^{[citation needed]}

On 4 November 1576, mutinying Spanish tercios of the Army of Flanders began the sack of Antwerp, leading to three days of horror among the population of the city, which was the cultural, economic and financial center of the Low Countries. The savagery of the sack led the provinces of the Low Countries to unite against the Spanish crown. The devastation also caused Antwerp's decline as the leading city in the region and paved the way for Amsterdam's rise.