and chapels and the town hall. Only 150 houses and the main church remained. In July of 1581, during the Eighty Years' War, Breda was captured by surprise by Spanish troops then under the command of Claudius van Barlaymont, whose sobriquet was Haultpenne (Siege of Breda (1581)). Although the city had surrendered upon the condition that it would not be plundered, the troops vented their fury upon the inhabitants. In the resulting mayhem, known asHaultpenne's Fury, over 500 citizens were killed. In March of 1590, Breda fell back into the hands of the Dutch and Maurice of Nassau, when a 68 men hand-picked force, concealed under the turf of a peat-boat, had contrived to enter the city in a daring plan devised byAdriaen van Bergen (Siege of Breda (1590)). The so-called Spaniards Hole marks the spot where the peat-boat allegedly lay, although this has not been historically proven.
After a ten-month siege in 1624–25, the city surrendered to the Spaniards under Spinola; the event was immortalized by Diego Velázquez. In 1637 Breda was recaptured byFrederick Henry of Orange after a four-month siege, and in 1648 it was finally ceded to theDutch Republic by the Treaty of Westphalia.
Stuart exiles
The exiled Stuart pretender Charles II of England resided in Breda during most of his exile during the Cromwellian Commonwealth andProtectorate, thanks to the proximity of Charles's sister Mary, Princess Royal, the widow of Prince William II of Orange.
Based mostly on suggestions by Parliamentarian General George Monck, Charles II's Declaration of Breda (1660) made known the conditions of his acceptance of the crown of England which he was to accept/resume later in the same year.
The Treaty of Breda was signed in the city, July 31, 1667, bringing to an end the Second Anglo-Dutch War in which the Dutch faced the same Charles II who had been their guest. Between 1746 and 1748 it was the site of the
