Why do I have a free day today? October 3rd: Leidens Ontzet

On October 3rd 1574 the Siege of Leiden was lifted. To this day it is celebrated with a free day and some activities.

The 80 Years’ War had started in 1568 when the Low Countries revolted against the Spanish king Philip II. The Spanish were trying to conquer cities, among them Leiden. In 1573 the Spanish started a siege but Leiden was prepared and had stocked up. The soggy ground around the city made the siege difficult for the Spanish and they were probably happy to fight a battle somewhere else in April 1574. The people in Leiden failed to resupply the city (allegedly to wait for lower prices — cheapskates). The city was thus unprepared when the Spanish won their battle and returned to the siege of Leiden.

There was hunger. As the situation grew more dire by the day talk about surrendering grew louder and louder. Then in early September the watergeuzen (rebel fleet) broke dikes near Rotterdam, flooding the low lying land, hopefully allowing them to sail to the rescue without leaving their ships. Trust the Dutch to bring naval warfare to you, even when you live on land! This tactic was used by the Dutch until 1940, when the German tanks drove through the flooded land and the planes flew over it.

Believe it or not, but breaking the dikes did not to flood the land enough to sail over it. To reached the 50 centimeters of water depth to sail over it they needed the wind to blow the water to Leiden. This took time. More and more people wanted to surrender, but Mayor van der Werff wasn’t one of them and offered that the hungry people eat him.

On October 1st the wind direction changed and the boats continued to approach Leiden. The Spanish garrison in Lammenschans (the fort at Lammen (lambs)) fled on the night of 2/3 October. The people in Leiden couldn’t believe their eyes, but also didn’t dare to leave the city to investigate. Instead they send out a little orphaned boy (i.e. somebody who wouldn’t be missed) Cornelis Joppenszoon to do that. He found no sign of the Spanish but there was a cooking pot with hutspot (1). The next day the watergeuzen sailed in and gave herring and white bread to the citizens.

By the end of the siege 6000 out of 18000 citizens had died from disease and hunger. As a thank-you from the Dutch (rebel) government they started Leiden University. The people in charge of the dikes were not happy and wrote an angry letter to the government. Sigh…

To this date the relief is celebrated on October 3rd. At 7 a.m. the city hands out herring and white bread (I have never been there, but I understand it looks like people waiting for the new iPhone). I don’t have much Leiden heritage in me, but I ate hutspot on October 3rd 29 out of 31 years (I guess I didn’t eat it when I was 6 months old. I also missed one time in Zurich).


(1) Hutspot (hotchpotch) is a dish with boiled and mashed potatoes, carrots and onions. Since South America hadn’t been discovered yet in 1574 there were no potatoes yet (imagine that!). Instead they used parsnip.