The Spanish Army of Flanders, under command of Ambrosio Spinola, engaged in the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom, a town on the estuary of the Schelde River, was in a dangerous position; while a relieving Dutch army was being assembled to the East at Breda he faced an invasion from the South. He was in danger of being trapped between the two enemy armies, his line of retreat towards Antwerpen blocked by the invading German army. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, commander of the Spanish army in the Palatinate, was recalled in a hurry to stop that army. Cordoba marched through Luxembourg and the difficult terrain of the Ardennes, and was able to intercept Mansfeld and Brunswick in the border of Brabant.