| Siege of Leuven | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659) | |||||||||
 Relief of Louvain. Oil on canvas by Peter Snayers. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Spain Holy Roman Empire |
 United Provinces Kingdom of France | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Anthonie Schetz Ottavio Piccolomini |
Frederick Henry Marquis de Brézé Maréchal de Châtillon | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
Garrison: 4,000[2][3][4] Relief force: 11,000[5] |
50,000[2] 30,000 Dutch 20,000 French | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 700 | At least 12,000 casualties[6][a] | ||||||||
  Leuven Location within Belgium | |||||||||
The siege of Leuven (24 June – 4 July 1635) was an important siege in the Thirty Years' War in which a Franco-Dutch army under Frederick Henry of Orange and the French Marshals Urbain de Maillé-Brezé and Gaspard III de Coligny, who had invaded the Spanish Netherlands from two sides, laid siege to the city of Leuven, defended by a force of 4,000 comprising local citizen and student militias with Walloons, Germans, Spanish and Irish of the Army of Flanders under Anthonie Schetz, Baron of Grobbendonck.[4] Poor organization and logistics and the spread of sickness among the French, along with the appearance of an Imperial-Spanish relief army of 11,000 under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and Ottavio Piccolomini, forced the invading army to lift the siege.[7][8] This failure allowed the Spanish forces to take the initiative and soon the invaders were forced into a headlong retreat.[1]
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