A Dutch
skipper from
Leur, Adriaen van Bergen devised the plot to recapture the city of
Breda
Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...
from the Spanish during the
Eighty Years' War
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish Empire, Spanish government. The Origins of the Eighty Years' War, causes of the w ...
. In February 1590, he approached
Prince Maurice with a
Trojan Horse
In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse () was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer, Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending ...
-type plan.
In February 1590, during the
Capture of Breda a nobleman from Cambrai, Charles de Heraugiere, under orders from Maurice of Nassau, was to make a covert reconnoiter of Breda. Disguised as a fisherman he was hoping to enter Breda and to study its weaknesses, garrison strength, and general conditions. Heraugiere contacted Adriaen van Bergen, loyal to the Dutch by trade who was used to entering and leaving Breda with a barge loaded with peat. Heraugiere went into the city, hidden between the peat of the barge along with a small group of soldiers, and discovered how easy it was as none of the garrison checked the barge. When they were in the heart of Breda they made a hasty exit with enough peat to keep them covered. Heraugiere soon realized a Trojan Horse style attack was too good an opportunity to miss and thus reported it to Maurice as soon as they returned.
Adriaen van Bergen's grandson
Adriaen van der Donck played an important role at the colonization of
New Netherland.
See also
*
Siege of Breda (1590)
References
External links
16th-century births
Year of death unknown
Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War (United Provinces)
People from Etten-Leur
Sea captains
{{Netherlands-hist-stub