[1][2][6] After having captured Rheinberg in July 1601, Prince Maurice in October mobilized seventy-three companies of infantry and thirty-three companies of cavalry, including several pieces of artillery.

[3] The city was virtually impregnable due to the great defensive fortifications, the continuous arrival of fresh Spanish reinforcements, and the deep loyalty of the population to the Catholic cause.

[2] The siege ended when the Archduke Albert, Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands, sent a Spanish relief force under Count Frederik van den Bergh from Ostend, who on 27 November had reached the town of Oirschot, some 25 km south of 's-Hertogenbosch.

[2] A day before, on 26 November, Prince Maurice, according with his cousin William Louis about the threat and danger to facing the Spaniards in open field, started the withdrawal.

[3][7] This Dutch failure was also an attempt to weaken the Spanish attacks in Ostend, where Sir Francis Vere (the commander of the garrison of Ostend at that time) was by now close to despair.