The Battle of Fleurus of August 29, 1622 was fought in the Spanish Netherlands between a Spanish army, and the Protestant forces of Ernst von Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick during the Eighty Years' War and Thirty Years' War. The bloody struggle left the Protestants mangled and the Spanish masters of the field and would ensure Catholic dominance in Germany till the intervention of Denmark–Norway. Campaign After failing to relieve Heidelberg, besieged by Tilly's army, Frederick V, Elector Palatine, decided to disband his army. On July 13, 1622 the contract was cancelled and the unemployed army of Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick was hired by the Dutch to help in the relief of the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. The Protestant army departed from Alsace and at a fast pace crossed Northern France, entering the Spanish Low Countries through Hainaut. The Spanish Army of Flanders, under command of Ambrogio Spinola, engaged in the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom, a town on the estuary of the Schelde River, was in a dangerous position; while a relieving Dutch army was being assembled to the East at Breda he faced an invasion from the South. He was in danger of being trapped between the two enemy armies, his line of retreat towards Antwerp blocked by the invading German army. To stop that army Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, commander of the Spanish army in the Palatinate, was recalled in a hurry from the siege of Heidelberg. Cordoba marched through the Duchy of Luxembourg and the difficult terrain of the Ardennes, and was able to intercept Mansfeld and Brunswick on the border of Brabant. The Protestant army advance guard met Spanish cavalry scouts on 27 August, and two days later they found Córdoba's army entrenched. Córdoba, much weaker in cavalry, had assumed a blocking position north of the town of Mellet, near Fleurus, with flanks supported by woods. The Protestant commanders deployed their army to try to break through the Spanish position. Armies SPANISH ARMY Right Wing Commander: Gauchier 800 commanded musketeers (in the woods) 5 Cavalry Squadrons in two lines Center Commander: Córdoba Several units brigaded into 4 Escuadrones deployed in a single line 1st Escuadron Tercio of Naples (16 companies, Spaniards) Tercio Balanzon (2 companies, Burgundians) Tercio Verdugo (15 companies, Walloons) 2nd Escuadron Isenburg Regiment (10 companies, Lower Rhine Germans) Emden Regiment (1 company, Northern Germans) 4 Free Companies (French) 3rd Escuadron Tercio of Capua (14 companies,