Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/240

 fidence of Sir Robert Cecil, and during the autumn he received a convincing mark of royal favour by his appointment to the governorship of the important cautionary town of Brill (De Briel) and his promotion to be general of the queen's forces in the Netherlands and of the English troops in the pay of the states. He went out to Brill to organise his new government in the early spring of 1599, being accompanied by Edward Cecil (afterwards Viscount Wimbledon) [q. v.] and by his brother Horace. He arrived to find the Dutch straining every nerve to save the island and town of Bommel, situate in the Maas between Dordrecht and Nymeguen, from a carefully concerted assault by the admiral of Aragon. Early in May the admiral captured Crèvecœur, occupied the land, and laid siege to Bommel. Early in July Vere crossed the Maas with six thousand men, and made a brilliant attack on the Spanish entrenchments, and, the vigilance of the allies being seconded by a mutiny in the camp of the enemy, the Spaniards had to beat an ignominious retreat before the close of the month.

In the summer of 1600 the States-General, upon the advice of Barneveldt, resolved to carry the war into the enemy's country by landing a powerful force on the Flemish coast and laying siege to Nieuport, a few miles south-west of Ostend. The Dutch army effected a landing in safety during the last days of June, and on 1 July arrived the news that the Archduke Albert was approaching with a large force from Ghent with a view of preventing their further advance. To Vere was entrusted the command of the allied vanguard consisting of 4,350 men, of whom sixteen hundred were English, and when it was decided to give battle in the dunes, on 2 July, he planted his vanguard in an advantageous position on two sandhills and a ridge about two miles north of Nieuport. The bulk of the cavalry was drawn up on the seashore, and the reserves under Prince Maurice about three hundred yards south of Vere's forlorn hope on the ‘East Hill.’ The battle began about 2 p.m. with a desperate struggle at push of pike between the 250 English posted on this hill and the pick of the Spanish infantry. Vere designates this portion of the fight as the ‘Bloody Morsel,’ his men being gradually overborne by overwhelming numbers. Messenger after messenger was despatched by Prince Maurice, but brought no reinforcement; the commander rode in person down into the hollow to cheer his men, and when retreat became imperative, after receiving a musket-shot in the thigh and another in the leg, he was with difficulty extricated from his dead horse. His wounds compelled his retirement from the field, but Prince Maurice at this juncture rallied the broken vanguard and advanced with his main force to the West Hill, where he made a determined stand. Furious charges by Sir Horace Vere, Ogle, Fairfax, and Sir Edward Cecil destroyed the cohesion of the Spanish tercios, and about four o'clock they broke and fled. The archduke made his escape to Bruges. Zapena and the admiral of Aragon were taken prisoners, while about a third of the Spanish army were put hors de combat. Of the sixteen hundred English, no fewer than eight hundred were either killed or wounded. Vere's wounds proved serious, but his name was in every one's mouth, and he was gladdened by a letter from the queen, to whom Prince Maurice had written attributing the victory in great measure to the judgment and valour of the English general (Sidney Papers, ii. 204; cf., True Relation of the Battell of Nieuport in Flanders … Delft, 1641; A New Ballad of the Great Overthrow .. gave to the Archduke, 1600, s. sh. fol.).

The battle of Nieuport was the most signal victory won by the Dutch patriots in the field during the war of independence, but the defence of Ostend was of even greater moment to their cause. On 5 July 1601 the Archduke Albert began the siege with twenty thousand men and fifty siege guns in position. The States-General rightly attached vital importance to the defence of this outlying post, which they consequently transferred from the hands of Vandernood to the more experienced management of Vere, to whom ample powers were confided. After a brief visit on the part of Vere to England in quest of recruits, the Dutch governor delivered up the keys to Sir Francis on 9 July 1601, and the strength of the garrison was raised from two thousand to three thousand five hundred. After the sieges of Leyden and Antwerp, perhaps no siege of the period attracted more universal attention (references to the siege of Ostend appeared in Atheists Tragedie and in other pieces of the day). The governor's first care was to strengthen the defences of the Polder or port meadow, which, though situated outside the wall, would have afforded a most dangerous base of attack for the enemy, and he next provided for the safe entry and unloading of ships from the sea bearing supplies. Shortly after he had completed these sagacious precautions he was unhappily wounded severely in the head by a stray shot, and had to leave Ostend for a few weeks. He returned on 19 Sept. to find