THE SEA BEGGARS

In 1566, when the Dutch first rose up in rebellion against Spanish rule, the Governor of the Netherlands at the time, the Duchess of Parma, referred to the rebels as “beggars.” This name stuck. Indeed it became a badge of pride and the rebels even coined special “Beggar’s Medals” for those men who had taken part in campaigns against the Spanish.



Beggar’s medal by Jacques Jonghelinck, cast silver, original gilt, 1566

The title “Sea Beggars” was given to the organised band of sailors (mostly former pirates and smugglers) who took it upon themselves to patrol the coast of the Netherlands, attacking Spanish ships whenever they could and effectively preventing the Spanish from sending supplies to their troops via the sea ports.
In 1572, the Sea Beggars captured the port of Brill (also known as Brielle and Den Briel) in South Holland and used it and the mouth of the River Zeeland as their base.
The Sea Beggars preferred form of shipping was the shallow-draughted flyboat that was best suited to the coastal waters of the Netherlands, which were riddled with sandbanks and treacherous currents. They could outmanoeuvre the bigger Spanish ships and they could also disappear further up the wide Dutch rivers than any larger craft.
In 1573 they besieged the coastal city of Middleburg, forcing the Spanish garrison to surrender in 1574. This now meant that the Sea beggars controlled the whole of the coastline from the River Schelde northwards. This made it almost impossible for any Spanish shipping to go beyond the coast of France and, as Spain was frequently not on good terms with France, they were not able to use it as an overland route for supplies into the Netherlands.
The Sea Beggars were cunning. They used every trick they could muster in order to win battles. When the Spanish laid siege to the city of Leiden, the Sea Beggars breached the dykes holding back the sea water, flooded the surrounding countryside and sailed in supplies to the starving city. The Sea Beggars were heroic but they were still essentially pirates and vagabonds. Their day-to-day criminal activities at sea and on land caused Queen Elizabeth to ban them from entering British ports.
In 1578, King Philip of Spain appointed a new commander to the Spanish Army in the Netherlands – the Duke of Parma –and he began to gradually take back some of the towns and cities that had fallen to the Dutch rebels. By 1585 Parma had encircled Antwerp – the major trading centre of the Netherlands at that time and his troops began to built a massive pontoon bridge over the River Schelde, in order to get into the city. The bridge was almost half a mile long and heavily protected by guns. The Sea Beggars used the incoming tide to carry a fleet of unmanned fire-boats towards the bridge. The fire-boats were packed with explosives so that by the time they hit the bridge, they would do maximum damage. 800 Spanish troops were killed and the bridge was blown apart but, sadly, the city of Antwerp still fell a few months later.
The fall of Antwerp caused two things – the rise of Amsterdam as the major city in the Netherlands, since all Antwerp’s activities had to be transferred northwards, and the entry of the English into the Dutch revolt. Queen Elizabeth, in her wisdom, decided that the Spanish were getting too close to England for comfort and so she sent troops to assist the rebels and instructed her seamen to assist the cause. So, with the Sea Beggars patrolling north of the French coast and the English “Sea Dogs” patrolling the Channel, the Spanish supply line was forced onto the hazardous and lengthy route overland.