The Low-Countries wars

Abstract

Abstract The English and Scots volunteers who fought in the Dutch army during the Eighty Years War were conscious of participating in a Protestant crusade as well as countering Spanish power in the Low Countries. They assimilated the neo-Stoic values of constancy, devotion to military duties, and the acceptance of perpetual warfare while serving an apprenticeship in the most advanced school of war in Europe under the tutelage of Maurice of Nassau. While these gentlemen volunteers learned much about modern siege warfare and were exposed to a martial culture based upon technical expertise and merit, their commanders, such as the earl of Leicester and the third earl of Essex, were chosen on the basis of noble rank and tended to pursue individual honour and glory rather than rational military and political objectives. Catholic Irish volunteers learned the theory and practice of modern warfare in the opposing Spanish Army of Flanders.