The Ten Years (Dutch: Tien jaren) were a period in the Eighty Years' War spanning the years 1588 to 1598. During this period, the forces of the Dutch Republic under stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, his cousin William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, the stadtholder of Friesland, and the English general Francis Vere won a series of campaigns against the Spanish Empire. These campaigns brought much of the north and east of the Habsburg Netherlands under Republican control.
Beginning with the relief of Bergen op Zoom in 1588, Maurice and William Louis subsequently captured Breda in 1590; Zutphen, Deventer, Delfzijl, and Nijmegen in 1591; Steenwijk and Coevorden in 1592; Geertruidenberg in 1593; Groningen in 1594; and Grol, Enschede, Ootmarsum, and Oldenzaal in 1597. Many of these territories had been previously lost to the Spanish in the 1580s.
Historians have also associated Maurice's campaigns during this period with reforms in siege warfare and military organisation, and with the consolidation of the Republic's position in the northern Netherlands.
Historiography
The term "Ten Years" was coined in 1857 or 1858 by Robert Fruin, the first professor of Dutch national history (Dutch: Vaderlandsche Geschiedenis) at Leiden University, through his book Tien jaren uit den Tachtigjarigen Oorlog. 1588–1598 ("Ten Years from the Eighty Years' War. 1588–1598"). In the work, he wanted to show how the situation in the Netherlands changed completely between 1588 ("when the cause of the Dutch revolt seemed all but lost") and 1598 (when "the northern provinces, the glorious Seven, are liberated for good, prosperous on land and sea ... But Spain, which had falsely believed itself to have already mastered the rebellious provinces, is tired and exhausted of fighting"). In these years, Maurice's military achievements, as well as the young Republic's political conflicts and diplomatic missions, enabled the Netherlands to make their decisive step towards independence, and Holland and Zeeland to seize a leading role in global trade. Praising the enterprising spirit and independence of the small new state, Fruin also emphasised that this breakthrough would have been impossible without the bulk of the Spanish army under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma being tied up in France. The book became a great success, "one of the classics of 19th-century historiography", and was reprinted five times while Fruin was still alive.
British historian of Dutch history Jonathan Israel (1989) essentially agreed with Fruin's economic conclusions, writing that the emergence of Dutch dominance in global commerce was not a gradual process, but a rather sudden boom from 1590 to 1609, while Dutch (Hollandic) trade had still been stagnant in the 1580s. Gelderblom (2000) conceded that the Hollandic merchants did not gain a foothold in Russia, the Mediterranean and outside Europe until the 1590s, but pointed out that economic developments in the first half of the 16th century already laid an important foundation for later success (which both Fruin and Israel agreed on), and challenged them by arguing that in the 10-year period following the Alteratie (1578–1588), the city of Amsterdam already began flourishing, in part due to the influx of merchants and artisans fleeing from the Southern Netherlands, especially after the 1585 Fall of Antwerp (a point supported by other historians). Anton van der Lem (2019) concurred with Fruin that the Ten Years were militarily 'crucial', although it had more to do with the absence of Parma than the brilliance of the Republic's war efforts and economics.
Background
The new republic strongly increased its trade and wealth from 1585 onwards, with Amsterdam replacing Antwerp as the main port of north-west Europe (see #Economics and demographic changes in the Netherlands).
After several failed attempts at finding a suitable regent to replace Philip II (Matthias of Austria 1577–1581, Francis of Anjou 1581–1583, William "the Silent" of Orange 1583–1584), the Dutch revolutionaries sought to establish an alliance with England by inviting Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester in December 1585. Within a year of his arrival, Leicester had lost much of his public support by banning trade with the Southern Netherlands, siding with the radical Calvinists and banning moderates from Utrecht, who turned to the regenten in Holland. Leicester returned to England in December 1586, making a brief but unpopular reappearance from June to December 1587, during which he staged a failed coup d'état by occupying several Hollandic towns. Meanwhile, the States of Holland and Zeeland had appointed Maurice of Nassau (William of Orange's son) as stadtholder in on his 18th birthday November 1585. In March 1587, he was also appointed commander of the Hollandic and Zeelandic troops. (see #Politics of the Dutch Republic).
Under the two stadtholders, Maurice and William Louis, the Dutch army was in a short time thoroughly reformed from an ill-disciplined, ill-paid rabble of mercenary companies from all over Protestant Europe, to a well-disciplined, well-paid professional army, with many soldiers, skilled in the use of modern fire-arms, like arquebuses, and soon the more modern muskets. The use of these fire-arms required tactical innovations like the counter-march of files of musketeers to enable rapid volley fire by ranks; such complicated manoevres had to be instilled by constant drilling. These reforms were later emulated by other European armies in the 17th century (see #Dutch military reforms).
Military operations
1588: The Spanish Armada
Externally, the preparations Philip was making for an invasion of England were all too evident. This growing threat prompted Elizabeth to take a more neutral stance in the Netherlands. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt proceeded unhindered to break the opposition. Elizabeth appreciated that she needed Dutch naval co-operation to defeat the threatened invasion and that opposing Oldenbarnevelt's policies, or supporting his enemies, was unlikely to get it. The position of Holland was also improved when Adolf of Nieuwenaar died in a gunpowder explosion in October 1589, enabling Oldenbarnevelt to engineer his succession as stadtholder of Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel by Maurice, with whom he worked hand in glove.
The role of the budding Dutch navy in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in August 1588 was crucial. After the fall of Antwerp the Sea-Beggar veterans under admiral Justinus van Nassau (the illegitimate elder brother of Maurice) had been blockading Antwerp and the Flemish coast with their nimble flyboats. These mainly operated in the shallow waters off Zeeland and Flanders that larger warships with a deeper draught, like the Spanish and English galleons, could not safely enter. The Dutch therefore enjoyed unchallenged naval superiority in these waters, even though their navy was inferior in naval armament. An essential element of the plan of invasion, as it was eventually implemented, was the transportation of a large part of Parma's Army of Flanders as the main invasion force in unarmed barges across the English Channel. These barges would be protected by the large ships of the Armada. However, to get to the Armada, they would have to cross the zone dominated by the Dutch navy, where the Armada could not go. This problem seems to have been overlooked by the Spanish planners, but it was insurmountable. Because of this obstacle, England never was in any real danger. However, as it turned out, the English navy defeated the Armada before the embarkation of Parma's army could be implemented, turning the role of the Dutch moot. The Army of Flanders escaped the drowning death Justinus and his men had in mind for them, ready to fight another day.
1589
The War of the Three Henrys reached its climax on 1 August 1589 with the assassination of Henry III, leaving the Huguenot Henry of Navarre as the only plausible candidate for the throne. However, the succession of Henry IV occasioned still more civil war, as the Catholic League utterly rejected him. On 7 September 1589, Philip II of Spain ordered Parma, the commander of the Army of Flanders, to move all available forces south to prevent Henry's accession. For Spain, the Netherlands had become a sideshow in comparison to the French conflict, as Philip feared the possibility of a Protestant France emerging between Spain and the Low Countries. Philip's intervention on the French Catholic side offered the Dutch rebels a respite from Parma's relentless pressure.
When Adolf van Nieuwenaar died in a gunpowder explosion in October 1589, Oldenbarnevelt engineered Maurice to be appointed stadtholder of Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel. Oldenbarnevelt managed to wrest power away from the Council of State, with its English members (though the Council would have an English representation until the English loans were repaid by the end of the reign of James I). Instead, military decisions were more and more made by the States-General (with its preponderant influence of the Holland delegation), thereby usurping important executive functions from the Council.
Meanwhile, the Frisian stadtholder William Louis travelled to The Hague twice in 1589, both times in order to plead with the States-General to enlarge the States Army and switch from defensive to offensive warfare. The States were initially wary, unsure whether Farnese was really concentrating his efforts on France and would not turn and surprise the rebels.
1590
Parma launched two successful campaigns against France and entered Paris on 19 September 1590, but his absence from the Netherlands provided the Dutch rebels in the north with opportunities for counter-offensives. Already on 4 March 1590 Breda was recaptured with a ruse, aided considerably by an English army under Sir Francis Vere. As Farnese did not respond, this emboldened the States to support offensive military operations for the 1591 campaigning season.
1591
The States Army developed a new approach to siege warfare, assembling an impressive train of siege artillery, taking the offensive in 1591. Maurice used his much enlarged army, which included reinforcements from England and with newly developed transportation methods using rivercraft, to sweep the IJssel river valley, capturing Zutphen (May) and Deventer (June); then invaded the Ommelanden, but a strike at Groningen city failed. Then he captured forts and defeated the Spanish during the Siege of Knodsenburg (July 1591). Maurice ended the campaign with the conquest of Hulst in Flanders and Nijmegen in Gelderland. In one swoop this transformed the eastern part of the Netherlands, which had hitherto been in Parma's hands.
1592
The next year Maurice joined his cousin William Louis in taking Steenwijk, pounding that strongly defended fortress with 50 artillery pieces, that fired 29,000 shot. The city surrendered after 44 days. During the same campaign year the formidable fortress of Coevorden was also reduced; it surrendered after a relentless bombardment of six weeks. Drenthe was now brought under control of the States-General.
1593
From 14 January to 10 February 1593, the Dutch Republic and the Duchy of Bouillon jointly staged the first of two Luxemburg campaigns. This did not result in territorial gains, but did do damage to the Luxembourgish countryside, and successfully managed to distract the Spanish army.
Despite the fact that Spanish control of the northeastern Netherlands now hung by a thread, Holland insisted that first Geertruidenberg would be captured, which happened after a spectacular siege from March–June 1593, which even the great ladies of The Hague treated as a tourist attraction. Only the next year the stadtholders concentrated their attention on the northeast again, where meanwhile the particularist forces in Friesland, led by Carel Roorda, were trying to extend their hegemony over the other north-eastern provinces. This was temporarily resolved by a solution imposed by Holland, putting Friesland in its place, which the Frisians resented.