Sack of Antwerp

Sack of Antwerp
	Part of the Eighty Years' War
	; Anonymous contemporary depiction of the "Spanish Fury" in Antwerp (Museum Aan de Stroom)
Date	4 November 1576
Location	Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium)
Result	Dutch rebels unite against Spanish crown; Decline of Antwerp as commercial hub
Belligerents
Mutinying Spanish Tercios (Army of Flanders)	People of Antwerp; German and Walloon troops
Commanders and leaders
Sancho d'Avila; Julian Romero; Juan del Águila	Count Eberstein †; Governor Compagny; Marquis d’Havré
Strength
6,000	20,000 (civilians included)
Casualties and losses
Unknown	7,000–18,000

51°12′48″N 4°24′10″E

The sack of Antwerp, often known as the Spanish Fury at Antwerp, was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. It is the greatest massacre in the history of the Low Countries.

On 4 November 1576, mutinying Spanish tercios of the Army of Flanders began the sack of Antwerp, leading to three days of horror among the population of the city, which was the cultural, economic and financial center of the Low Countries. The savagery of the sack led the provinces of the Low Countries to unite against the Spanish crown. The devastation also caused Antwerp's decline as the leading city in the region and paved the way for Amsterdam's rise.

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