Apart from losing a high proportion of its middle class and mercantile population, Antwerp's trade suffered for two centuries afterwards as Dutch forts blockaded the River Scheldt until 1795.

At the time Antwerp, in modern Belgium, was not only the largest Dutch city, but was also the cultural, economic, and financial centre of the Seventeen Provinces and of Northwestern Europe.

The Prince of Parma's forces had been reinforced in the previous years, both in quantity and quality, yet at the start of the siege, his troops did not exceed 10,000 infantrymen and 1,700 cavalrymen.

It was a main road leading north from Habsburg holdings in Northern Italy into the Low Countries, protected by forts built at strategic intervals, to provide the army with a reliable flow of supplies.

The first stage of the siege saw encirclement lines constructed around Antwerp and forts built along the Scheldt estuary so as to cut off trade with Ghent and Dendermonde.

[7] The purpose of capturing the strongholds along both banks of the Scheldt would have allowed Parma to control the passage of vessels trying to deliver relief supplies to Antwerp.

These tree trunks were planted as close to the middle of the Scheldt as possible, out to a distance of 450 feet, the point where the depth of the riverbed no longer allowed piles to be driven.

This formidable matrix of piles was joined together by heavy wooden beams, well nailed and immobilized by chains, which gave the entire structure an unfailing rigidity and stability.

On this ravelin, which projected out from the estacade, the Prince in-stalled a battery of three demi-cannons, for the defense of the bulwark against an attack by enemy ships, and stationed fifty soldiers there.

A little bit beyond each side of the bridge along its length, between the fort of Saint-Mary and the end of the ravelin, were additional piles driven into the sandbar, slightly exceeding the water level of the river, and interconnected by heavy beams, which, in this way, constituted a sturdy stop barrier for enemy ships or machines which could come up against the estacade.

Between the two parts of the bridge which were thus advancing to meet one another, a large space of about 1,000 paces, had remained open, where the depth and flow of the Scheldt did not allow tree trunks or piles to be driven into the riverbed.

Each of these masts was fitted at the tip with a large iron point, in the form of a lance, and was to be used to keep at some distance the boats, the ships, and the machines that the enemy would probably not fail to send toward the estacade with the intention of destroying it.

[13] The cargo hold of each of two ships were converted into masonry lined blast chambers filled with gunpowder and heaped over with old gravestones, pieces of marble, iron hooks, stone balls, nails, and scrap metal then covered with planks and brush to give the appearance of an ordinary fire-ship.

[14] To ignite these floating bombs, one was equipped with a slow-burning match cord and the other had a sophisticated clock work that would throw sparks at a preset time.

[17] The river's water was sent over the dikes flooding everything in its path, stones were hurled nearly a mile away, the earth in Antwerp trembled, 800 Spaniards are said to have been killed, Caspar de Robles being one of the casualties.

[22] The Kouwenstein dike was a low-lying levee three miles long, in many places barely ten feet wide, with deep water on both sides.

[33] After the battle, Alexander Farnese noticed a group of Antwerpian ships stationed around one enormous vessel which turned out to be a floating battery, intended to attack the Spanish forts and the bridge over the Scheldt.

[33] It had four masts, three of which were topped with bullet-proof crow's nests where musketeers were stationed, its flanks were equipped with 20 large cannons and numerous small and medium pieces, and its hull was encased in cork and empty barrels wrapped in oakum to make it unsinkable.

Many of Antwerp's skilled tradesmen were included in the Protestant migration to the north, laying the commercial foundation for the subsequent "Dutch Golden Age" of the northern United Provinces.