October 3, 1574 · Holland Theater
October 3, 1574
With a third of Leiden's people dead of hunger and plague and the city refusing to surrender, William of Orange did the unthinkable: he broke the dikes and let the sea into Holland, drowning the harvest to float a fleet of shallow-draft barges across the flooded fields to the walls. The wind held, the water rose, and the Sea Beggars sailed over the drowned countryside into the city. The Spanish, unable to fight boats, withdrew.
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