This flourishing and prosperous city had formerly belonged to the Duchy of Cleve.

Placed at the junction of the Rhine and Lippe and commanding both rivers, it had become both powerful and Protestant, and had set itself up as a free Imperial city, recognising its dukes no longer as sovereigns, but only as protectors.

So fervent was it in the practice of the Reformed religion that it was called the Rhenish Geneva, the cradle of German Calvinism.

So important was its preservation considered to the cause of Protestantism that the States-General had urged its authorities to accept from them a garrison.
They refused.

Had they complied, the city would have been saved, because it was the rule in this extraordinary campaign that the belligerents made war not upon each other, nor in each others territory, but against neutrals and upon neutral soil.