Several of Federico Spinola’s galleys had been…

Several of Federico Spinola’s galleys had been destroyed by English warships on his way up the Channel; he himself had been slain in an action with the Dutch on May 24, 1603.

Ambrogio Spinola had meanwhile marched overland to Flanders in 1602 with the men he had raised at his own expense.

During the first months of his stay in Flanders the Spanish government had played with schemes for employing him on an invasion of England, which had come to nothing.

At the close of the year he had returned to Italy for more men.

His experience as a soldier does not begin until, as general, and at the age of thirty-four, he undertakes to continue the siege of Ostend on September 29, 1603.

Ostend’s strategic position on the North Sea coast has major advantages for the Flemish city as a harbor but has also proved to be a source of trouble.

The city has been frequently taken, ravaged, ransacked and destroyed by conquering armies.

The most important of these events is the three-year Siege of Ostend that had begun in 1601.

In their fight against the Spanish Empire during the Eighty Years' War, the Dutch rebels, the Geuzen, had occupied the city.

The Archdukes had decided that before taking on the Republic, it was important to subdue the last Protestant enclave on the Flemish coast, the port of Ostend.