This scarce and dramatic engraving depicts Valenciennes during the Eighty Years' War. The city was the site of the first siege of the war from December 1566 until March 1567, when the Calvinists within the city walls were driven out by Philip of Noircarmes, a stadtholder of Hainaut in the Habsburg Netherlands. The engraving is dated November 10, 1577, a decade after that siege. German text below describes tensions with the Spanish Habsburg armies during the so-called Spanish Fury. The engraving appeared as part of Hogenberg's Geschichtsblatter, or history broadsheets, a series of several hundred prints depicting various battles during the Dutch War of Independence, published between 1569 to 1637. After Frans Hogenberg's death in 1590, his publishing firm was continued well into the 17th century by his son, Abraham.

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Condition: B+

A dark impression on watermarked paper with light toning and a few minor spots that are mostly confined to the margins.