The sack of Antwerp, often known as the Spanish Fury at Antwerp, was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. It is the greatest massacre in the history of the Low Countries.
Anonymous contemporary depiction of the "Spanish Fury" in Antwerp (Museum Aan de Stroom)
Antwerp is sacked
A Spanish Fury was a number of violent sackings of cities in the Low Countries or Benelux, mostly by Spanish Habsburg armies, that happened in the years 1572–1579 during the Dutch Revolt. In some cases, the sack did not follow the taking of a city. In others, the sack was ordered, or at least not restrained, by Spanish commanders after the fall of a city.
Mutinous troops of the Army of Flanders ransack the Grote Markt during the sack of Antwerp in 1576. Engraving by Frans Hogenberg.
The Spanish Fury of Maastricht in 1579
Massacre of Naarden, 1 December 1572, Spanish soldiers slaughtering local civilians (17th century etching by J. Luyken) British Museum, London
The pillaging of Maastricht in 1576