Gorinchem: fortress in the Old Dutch Waterline
Field Marshal Wirtz puts things in order
1672 is the Year of Disaster, we all learned at school. The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands is attacked by as many as four neighbouring countries at the same time! On 27 March, England declared war on the Republic, followed by France on 6 April and the dioceses of Cologne and Münster at the end of May. 'The people were helpless, the government desperate and the country helpless'. The young Republic, only 100 years old, seemed lost.
But water became our salvation. Stadholder Prince William III has the sluices opened and the dykes breached. A water barrier was created along Dutch fortified towns from Muiden and Naarden on the Zuiderzee to Gorinchem and Woudrichem near the Biesbosch. The Old Dutch Waterline was born, stopping the 100,000-strong French army. The Republic had been saved.
The Year of Disaster in a nutshell. But what happened in the fortress of Gorinchem? We asked Hugo Ouwerkerk of the Werkgroep Vesting Gorinchem, who has studied the history of our fortress like no other.
It echt was a surprise attack, wasn't it?
"Well, not quite. The build-up of a large French army was already known through envoys. But what they did not expect was that the Rhine fortresses would fall so quickly. Normally the siege of a town took up to two months. The land attack came from the east. The Rhine and border fortresses were in bad shape and poorly defended. Wezel and Rees were in the path of the French and were captured by them almost without a fight. Moreover, it was a dry summer and the rivers were very low. Louis XIV could simply wade through the river with his army at Lobith. The northern border fortresses in the path of Bommen Berend, the bishop of Münster, were Grol (Groenlo), Enschede, Bentheim, Coevorden and Bourtange. Only Bourtange held out. The Prince of Orange (William III), with his army of mercenaries and 'huysluiden' (civilians), had to quickly retreat from the IJssel to Utrecht. At the time, the Dutch and Utrecht regents (administrators) were still wasting precious time discussing defence and costs. In the end, it was then but decided to make a water line on Dutch territory. Due to lack of time - the French had meanwhile already conquered Naarden - the Old Dutch Waterline was thus more or less accidentally created."
What was the situation in Vesting Gorinchem in 1672?
"A mess! The fortress had been neglected since the end of The Revolt (1568-1648); the moat had silted up and the parapets collapsed. Moreover, there were far too few soldiers. They had already started improving the fortress, though. Farmers and civilians were obliged to dredge the moats, but they did not do so wholeheartedly; they just walked away. Until Field Marshal Wirtz came to put things in order on 19 June. That same day, the sluices in Dalem and the Zuiderlingedijk were opened, the next day those in the northern Lingedijk and the Lekdijk near Ameide. Despite opposition from farmers, the Vijfheerenlanden and a large part of the Alblasserwaard flooded. The Land of Altena also had to suffer. Just in time, because on 30 June the French were in front of Gorkum."
So Wirtz was our saving grace?
"Gorinchem was the largest fortress in the Old Dutch Waterline. Prince William III therefore sent his most experienced army commander to Gorinchem. Field Marshal Wirtz was responsible from Gorinchem for defending the area between the Lek and Merwede rivers, as well as part of Brabant up to Heusden. In doing so, he encountered quite a few problems. There was a lack of everything. Around 100 pieces of artillery were needed to defend the fortress. On 9 June, Gorinchem had 2 twenty-four pounders and 15 iron twelve-pounders with 7,414 pounds of gunpowder, without flutes! It also lacked sufficient men. There were about 1,200 infantry and 1,500 cavalry, while 3,000 were needed. And of these, he also had to cede some 500 men to Fort Crèvecoeur (near Den Bosch), Dordrecht and the occupation of Woudrichem and Loevestein, so on 23 June Wirtz wrote to the States of Holland:
Het mangelt hier daerby ook becanst aen alle stucken, het canon is te weynig en ongemonteert en manqeert becanst alle toebeoor, en in den tweeden: Dese plaets ist van fortificatie, ammunitie ende alles qualyck versien.
Apparently this did not help, because in July he addressed the Prince of Orange directly. After the prince's visit on 25 July, most needs were slowly met. By October, the manpower was finally up to scratch and there were 3,000 men at Gorinchem and 400 together at Woudrichem and Loevestein."
Not everyone was happy with him eh?
"No, like everywhere else in the waterline, there was a lot of peasant protest and sabotage in Gorinchem. The inundation did not want to go smoothly at first, as farmers discharged water from the polders again. When Wirtz had the Merwededijk near Gorinchem breached, to the horror of the rebellious farmers, they came to negotiate, but continued to simply drain the water at night. Wirtz wrote:
The great deceitfulness of the Ingesetenen, which comes close to a straight betrayal, since the water is once again drained by many ways and unknown to me.
This is not surprising, either. If you flood the land, you can't do anything with it anymore. No more cows in the meadow and no more farming. Farmers revolted because of their income. There was no sense of community and national awareness yet either; everyone went for their own interests. Only when the Prince of Orange announced via a placard that this sabotage was punishable by death, did the inundations continue.
It was not only the farmers who suffered, but everyone. Because of the haste, there was no time to stockpile supplies, so there was much hunger and shortage among civilians and soldiers alike. Supplies were delivered from Amsterdam, but far too little. There was no hay for the horses and due to poor nutrition and housing, many soldiers fell ill. They did not have to count on support from the population, according to Wirtz:
It is in these quarters not much less insonderheyt wat sieckten ende sterven aengaet: This is partly due to the lack of payment, which the officers cannot give to the soldiers, and partly because they have been badly accommodated all the time in wet and cold weather, which has led to sickness and which is still increasing daily because people in the cities do not want to turn away from the use they have had in times of peace, and do not provide the soldiers with any useful quarters.
How did the attack on Gorinchem end?
"It is called that, but actually it was some warfare at some distance from Gorinchem. Zaltbommel had been captured by the French on 22 July because the population did not want to defend the town. One of the two explainers (warships) that Wirtz had moored near Zaltbommel still fired heavily at the French. The other, upon seeing the French, immediately fled to Gorinchem. Wirtz judged this "as a knave afgesacket, that merited being hung". Whether that actually happened, we do not know. We do know that at his request, the States of Holland sent an executioner from Haarlem to Gorinchem to carry out the punishment against the officers after the verdict of the court-martial.
French Marshal Turenne then demanded the surrender of Loevestein, Woudrichem and Gorinchem from Zaltbommel. Wirtz replied that he would receive the French lords with gunpowder and lead. On 18 August, he successfully repulsed a French attack from Utrecht, Vianen and Culemborg. After that, there were skirmishes in Poederoijen, Ameide and the village of Zegveld, but not in Gorinchem itself. At the end of 1672, the French retreated. The fortress was then expanded with 3 ravelins and a glacis on the east side of the fortress. That is Wirtz's legacy."