siege of Alkmaar

The Siege of Alkmaar (1573) was a turning point the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War. The burghers of the Dutch city of Alkmaar fought off the Spanish (who had set up their camp in Oudorp) between August 21 and October 8, 1573, with boiling tar and burning branches from their renewed city walls. The garrison included a detachment of English and Scots soldiers (including a few survivors from the siege of Haarlem).