Legions of Angels: Providential Assistance in Herman Hugo’s Account of the Siege of Breda (1624-1625)

Arblaster, Paul [UCL]

One of the most famous sieges of the early seventeenth century was that of the small but strategically and symbolically important town of Breda. The main account of the siege, a classic of Baroque historiography written by the Jesuit priest Herman Hugo and published by the Plantin Press under the title Obsidio Bredana (1626) was quickly translated into English, French and Spanish. Hugo himself, a former teacher of rhetoric best known as a devotional poet, had become chaplain major to the Army of Flanders and confessor to its leading commander, Ambrogio Spinola. He was an eyewitness to the siege and had access and insight into the highest levels of decision-making, as well as a clear concern for the material and moral condition of the common soldiery. While his Obsidio Bredana primarily recounts human efforts, one central and recurring theme is the necessity of providential assistance to ultimate military success: “though the labours of our commanders were without intermission, yet all their endeavours out of doubt would have proved in vain, without the singular assistance of that sovereign commander, God.”