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Pieter Wouwerman (1623-1682)
The recapture of Coevorden by the States army, 30 December 1672. Signed P. W. Canvas, 65.5 × 80.5 cm.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.nr.A 486. From the National Museum, 1808.

The French invasion of the Republic in June 1672 was the occasion of the bloodiest fighting on Dutch soil in a century. While Louis XIV led his troops into the country from the south, his ally the bishop of Münster came in from the east. He laid siege to Coevorden on July 1st, and began a heavy bombardment. After eleven days, the garrison, ensconced in its 'impregnable' fort, capitulated. With the strongest point in Drenthe under his command, the bishop now undertook an abortive attack on Groningen.

One of those to leave the captured city was the Coevorden schoolmaster Meyndert van Thienen. In Groningen, he convinced the commandant – a German officer in the service of the States General – to try to retake the city. During a cold spell at the end of December, with the moats frozen, a troop of 1500 men was able to recapture Coevorden in an hour, and then take its time to plunder it. (In many parts of the country, Dutch property owners were more afraid of the States army, consisting largely of illdisciplined mercenaries, than of the enemy.)

The ignominy of July was forgotten and the glory of December immortalized in a day of thanksgiving and a flood of medals, prints and paintings. The sevensided fortress proved to be more effective in the hands of artists than of soldiers.

Veenhoven 1969, pp. 80-89.