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Description

Rare battle plan of the area around Cadiz and parts of Huelva and Malaga, originally engraved by Frans Hogenberg as a news broadside in 1596.

Sevilla is shown at the top left of the map.

The map illustrates the siege of Cadiz by the English and the Dutch, in June and July 1596. The English fleet in the foreground. The Strait of Gibraltar top right.

The present example was reissued in a composite book of Hogenberg's engravings, circa 1625.

Capture of Cadiz - 1596

The Capture of Cádiz in 1596 was an event during the Anglo-Spanish War, when English and Dutch troops under Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and a large Anglo-Dutch fleet under Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, with support from the Dutch United Provinces, raided the Spanish city of Cádiz.

The Anglo-Dutch forces met little resistance. In order to deny the raiders their prize, the Spanish set fire to their fleet anchored in the Bay of Cádiz; the attacking forces disembarked, captured, sacked and burned the city and took hostage several of the city's prominent citizens, who were taken back to England to await payment of their ransom.

The economic losses caused during the sacking were numerous: the city was burned, as was the fleet, in what was one of the principal English victories in the course of the war. Despite its failure in its primary objective of seizing the Spanish treasure fleet's silver, the raid contributed to Spain's declaration of bankruptcy the following year.

Frans Hogenberg Biography

Frans Hogenberg (ca. 1540-ca. 1590) was a Flemish and German engraver and mapmaker who also painted. He was born in Mechelen, south of Antwerp, the son of wood engraver and etcher Nicolas Hogenberg. Together with his father, brother (Remigius), uncle, and cousins, Frans was one member of a prominent artistic family in the Netherlands.

During the 1550s, Frans worked in Antwerp with the famous mapmaker Abraham Ortelius. There, he engraved the maps for Ortelius’ groundbreaking first atlas, published in Antwerp in 1570, along with Johannes van Deotecum and Ambrosius and Ferdinand Arsenius. It is suspected he engraved the title page as well. Later, Ortelius supported Hogenberg with information for a different project, the Civitates orbis terrarium (edited by Georg Braun, engraved by Hogenberg, published in six volumes, Cologne, 1572-1617). Hogenberg engraved the majority of the work’s 546 prospects and views.

It is possible that Frans spent some time in England while fleeing from religious persecution, but he was living and working in Cologne by 1580. That is the city where he died around 1590. In addition to his maps, he is known for his historical allegories and portraits. His brother, Remigius, also went on to some fame as an engraver, and he died around the same time as his brother.