The Miracle of Empel or the Battle of Empel occurred on December 7 and 8, 1585 during the Eighty Years' War, in which a third of the Spanish army, the Tercio Viejo de Zamora, commanded by field master Francisco Arias of Bobadilla, faced and defeated in very adverse conditions a fleet of ten ships of the rebels of the General States of the Netherlands, under the command of Admiral Felipe de Hohenlohe-Neuenstein.
In Spain, the Catholic tradition has considered that the victory was thanks to the intercession of the Immaculate Conception and therefore the Conception was proclaimed patron saint of the Spanish Tercios, the current Spanish Infantry, and it is a national holiday in Spain on December 8.
The Miracle of Empel – Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau
According to the chronicles collected by Infantry Memorial No. 7 of the Infantry Weapon Magazine, on December 7, 1585, the Tercio of Field Master Francisco Arias de Bobadilla, made up of some five thousand men, fought on the island of Bommel, located between the Meuse and Waal rivers, completely blocked by Admiral Filips van Hohenlohe-Neuenstein's squadron. The situation was desperate for the Spanish Tercios, because, in addition to the tightening of the fence, they had to add the shortage of food and dry clothes.
The enemy leader then proposed an honorable surrender but the Spanish response was clear:
Spanish infantrymen prefer death to dishonor. We'll talk about capitulation after death.
Faced with such a response, Hohenlohe-Neuenstein resorted to a method widely used in that conflict:opening the dikes of the rivers to flood the enemy camp. Soon there was no more solid land left than the small hill of Empel, where the soldiers of the Tercio took refuge.
At that critical moment, a Tercio soldier digging a trench tripped over a wooden object buried there. It was a Flemish panel with the image of the Immaculate Conception.
Via Numanguerrix
Announced the finding, they placed the image on an improvised altar and Master Bobadilla, considering the fact as a sign of divine protection, urged his soldiers to fight entrusting themselves to the Immaculate Virgin.
That night, a completely unusual and intensely cold wind was unleashed that froze the waters of the Meuse River. The Spaniards, marching on the ice, attacked the enemy squadron by surprise at dawn on December 8 and won such a complete victory that Admiral Hohenlohe-Neuenstein even said:
It seems that God is Spanish to work such a great miracle.
That same day, amid cheers and acclamations, the Immaculate Conception is proclaimed patron saint of the Tercios of Flanders and Italy.
via Zamora24