Originally Posted by
Clistenes
But in Turnhout the Habsburg's army (there were only around 50 Spaniards among 4300 troops) were already retreating, escaping from a superior army. The Dutch cavalry caught them during said retreat, charging their rear, and the German regiments surrended without a fight, and the the Walloons escaped. Only the Italians fought back, until their leader was killed and they ran too.
It could be argued that the Dutch cavalry (supported by English musketeers) didn't break the Habsburg army, but just stopped their retreat, and that it was the sight of the main body of the enemy army approaching them what made the German and Walloon troops to lose heart and surrender or run away, leaving the Italians very badly outnumbered against the enemy infantry that was closing on them, so they escaped too when their leader Varas was killed.
And the Dutch cuirassiers didn't use the caracola, but rather repeated charges head on against the enemy, stopping and shooting all at the same time only when they were very close.
I have read that the caracola was very ineffective because infantry gunmen could take better aim from their static positions, which combined with the size of the horses and the short range of the pistols compensated for the greater dispersion of the cavalry, and anyways, while the rate of fire of the horsemen was continuous, whey could shoot very few bullets per minute, which diminished the psychological impact.
As for Nieuwpoort, the Tercios were, as you have said yourself, very tired and weakened already.