Siege of Rees (1599)

Siege of Rees (1599)
Part of the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)
Photograph of the old walls of Rees in 2011.
Date September 10–12, 1599 Location Rees, Lower Rhine, Duchy of Cleves (present-day Germany) Result Spanish victory[1][2] Protestant-German mercenary army destroyed[1][3] Re-established Spanish control of the fortress of Rheinberg[3]
Belligerents
United Provinces Electoral Palatinate Brunswick-Lüneburg Lower Saxon Circle	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Count of Lippe Count of Solms Philip of Hohenlohe Supported by: Maurice of Nassau	Ramiro de Guzmán Hendrik van den Bergh Supported by: Francisco de Mendoza
Casualties and losses
Count of Lippe: 2,000–2,500[2] Hohenlohe & Solms: Unknown	1,500–3,000[2]

The siege of Rees of 1599, also known as the relief of Rees (Socorro de Rees in Spanish), was an unsuccessful attempt by Protestant-German forces led by Count Simon VI of Lippe, and Anglo-Dutch forces sent by Prince Maurice of Nassau (Dutch: Maurits van Oranje), commanded by Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein and the Count Ernst of Solms, to capture the strategic stronghold of Rees, Lower Rhine, Duchy of Cleves (present-day Germany) from the Spanish forces of Don Francisco de Mendoza, Admiral of Aragon, second-in-command of the Army of Flanders, and Governor Don Ramiro de Guzmán, between 10–12 September 1599, during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).^[1][2] This Spanish victory was part of the campaign of Francisco de Mendoza and Cardinal Andrew of Austria of 1598-1599, also called the Spanish Winter of 1598-99.^[2][4]