The Spanish Road: An Army's Highway Across Europe

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain ruled a sprawling European empire but faced a geographic nightmare: the 'Spanish Road,' a 1,000-kilometer military corridor from Milan to Brussels. This episode follows the logistics, diplomacy, and sheer human endurance that kept the Army of Flanders supplied during the Eighty Years' War. Lucas and Luna explore the route through the Franche-Comté, the Savoyard passes, and the Rhine Valley, the role of the 'paymaster' and the 'asiento' system, and how the closure of the Road by France in the 1630s helped doom Spanish ambitions. Learn about the soldiers who marched it, the accountants who financed it, and the treaty of Vervins that briefly secured it. #SpanishRoad #EightyYearsWar #ArmyOfFlanders #Tercio #Milan #Brussels #FrancheComté #Savoy #Habsburg #Logistics #MilitaryHistory #16thCentury #17thCentury #Spain #FexingoHistory #History #Europe #War Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo