Verhoeven, Abraham
This engraved plan of the siege of Jülich (Gulik in Dutch), published in 1622 by Abraham Verhoeven in Antwerp, documents the Spanish and Imperial siege of the fortress town from September 5, 1621, to its surrender on February 3, 1622. The bird’s-eye view presents the fortified city, surrounding siegeworks, and troop formations, illustrating the intensity of the military engagement. The accompanying letterpress text provides a detailed account of the siege, its progress, and the dire conditions faced by the defenders.
Jülich, strategically positioned in the Duchy of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, had been a contested stronghold during the early seventeenth-century conflicts between Protestant and Catholic forces in the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Netherlands. The siege was part of the ongoing Eighty Years’ War and the early phases of the Thirty Years’ War, reflecting the broader struggle between Spanish-Habsburg forces and the Dutch Republic, as well as Protestant and Catholic factions within the Empire.
The Nouvelles de Cologne du 10 de Fevrier 1622 (News from Cologne, February 10, 1622) section provides a post-siege report on events following the fall of Jülich on February 3, 1622. It describes the aftermath of the siege, focusing on the fate of the garrison and the movement of troops.
The print shows the elaborate system of siege trenches, bastioned fortifications, and artillery emplacements used by the besieging army under the command of Count Hendrik van den Bergh and Ambrogio Spinola. The defenders of Jülich, predominantly Dutch and Protestant troops, endured starvation, disease, and bombardment, ultimately forcing their capitulation. The text describes the soldiers resorting to eating horses, dogs, and even leather to survive, emphasizing the desperation within the fortress before its fall.
The publication by Abraham Verhoeven, an Antwerp-based printer known for his Catholic and Spanish sympathies, suggests that this broadside was intended as a propagandistic celebration of the Habsburg victory. Verhoeven was the first newspaper publisher in the Southern Netherlands.
Emergency Siege Money
A small woodcut vignette at the bottom center of the text shows the model for the emergency “siege money” struck inside the fortress of Jülich during the 1621–1622 siege. The accompanying French text explains that Governor Frédéric (Frederik) Pithaen ordered small silver coinage to be minted in multiple values so pay and everyday transactions could continue under blockade.
The polygonal outline copies the klippe-style planchets cut from plate. At center a shield reads essentially “1621 in ’t Gulik beleg” (“1621, during the siege of Jülich”), and the surrounding tiny shields show value marks indicating denominations—listed in the text as two, four, six, and twenty-eight patards.
Extremely rare, apparently unrecorded; we are unable to find any other examples.
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