Siege of Amiens
Henry IV at the siege of Amiens (Anonymous, Musée de Versailles)
| date | March 11th - September 25th, 1597 |
|---|---|
| place | Amiens |
| output | French victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Commander | |
|
Henry IV. |
Hernandes Teillo Porto Carrero |
| Troop strength | |
| 25,000 men | 7,700 men |
| losses | |
|
about 600 men |
? |
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The siege of Amiens (also known as the "pleasant siege") took place in 1597 during the Eighth Religious War. The opponents were the French army as attackers and Spanish troops as defenders.
Starting position
Henry IV tried to protect the French border against attacks by the Spanish from the north. Laon , commanded by Count Mansfeld , had already had to capitulate to him three years earlier . However, the Spanish troops remaining in France, under the command of Hernandes Teillo Porto Carrero, took the fortified city of Amiens in March 1597.
Coup d'état by the Spaniards on March 11th
On the night of March 10th to 11th, 1597, Hernandes Teillo Porto Carrero appeared at the head of 7,000 infantry and 700 horsemen in the vicinity of the capital of Picardy . He posted detachments of soldiers on all footpaths around the city to block these routes. Then 500 infantrymen had to hide in the houses, thickets and barns in front of the city.
Another 30 men were disguised as farmers, so that one had to assume that they would go to the market with their baskets. (They carried weapons under their clothes.) With three carts they passed one of the city gates and overturned one of the nut-filled carts to create a barricade and cause confusion. A great number of citizens rushed up at once, cursing the stupid peasants and at the same time getting hold of the nuts. Then the Spaniards left the panel fall, killing some of the citizens and the Torposten and opened the portcullis to the hidden 500 men, and involved four companies of cavalry. In less than half an hour, the attackers had seized the city.
Henry IV was dismayed by the loss of the city and, on the advice of François de Bonne de Lesdiguières , decided to initiate the recovery immediately. The Maréchal de Gontaut-Biron was entrusted with this task .
Prepare for the siege
The Maréchal de Biron initially brought together 4,000 infantrymen and 700 horsemen in Artois in order to maintain the supply lines of the Spaniards e.g. B. to cut off after Doullens . He had a loose containment ring drawn around the city, whereby the Spaniards, despite their numerical superiority, could not decide on countermeasures.
Hernandes Teillo Porto Carrero, who was completely surprised by the action of the French, did not have enough supplies to withstand an enclosure for long. He therefore had all non-combatants - all useless eaters - move out and the suburbs burned.
Meanwhile the French were preparing for a long siege. They set up a large camp with everything a real city has to offer, there were even two hospitals . All this led to the fact that the siege of Amiens was also called the "pleasant siege". Soldiers had to be used for the dangerous work of digging the approach trenches, as the peasants who had been forcibly dug had run away. The king then paid the soldiers a premium.
Deployed units
Of the regiments that took part in the siege, only the Régiment du Bourg de Lespinasse , the Régiment de Flessan, the Régiment de Picardie and the Regiment de Navarre are known.
siege
At the beginning of April, the king arrived with his court and ordered the attack on the fortress to begin with the artillery . On May 22, 1597, Porto Carrero made a sortie with 500 riders, his destination was the headquarters of Général de Biron. In doing so, they were able to seize an earthwork that the French had built to protect the headquarters. After two hours of fighting, the Spaniards were thrown out again and pursued by the French, who almost managed to penetrate the city. The situation was cleared up by 400 rushed infantrymen from the fortress garrison, who pushed the French back and closed the fortress gate again.
In June, the Spaniards undertook a new sortie, penetrating the trenches in three places. The immediate counterattack by the French threw them out again and led to a pursuit up to the glacis .
On July 18, 1597, the Spaniards attacked again with two groups of 300 men each. The first group attacked the trenches of the Régiment de Picardie, and the second group that of the Régiment de Flessan. The Spaniards captured the trenches, killed the Maitres de camp Flessan and Jean de Mercastel, sieur de Fouquerolles and took action against the artillery positions. The reinforcements sent by the Maréchal Biron and Charles de Guise tried to push the Spaniards back. The fighting was fierce as the Spaniards were initially able to assert themselves in the positions they had conquered. Ultimately, however, the French managed to force them to retreat to the city.
On September 4th, the French launched a new attack on the ramparts, which was repulsed after a long struggle. The Spanish commander, Hernandes Teillo Porto Carrero, was killed by a bullet from an arquebus . He was succeeded by Girolamo Carafa, Marchese de Montenero. He then decided to entrench himself in the city and wait for the relief army sent by Archduke Albrecht of Austria , the governor of the Spanish Netherlands . It consisted of 25,000 men and was under the command of the eighty-year-old Field Marshal Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld , who appeared in front of the city on September 20.
Charles de Mayenne convinced the Maréchal de Biron that it was better to wait behind your own entrenchments than to deliver a battle to that of Mansfeld. Then came the curious situation that the French besieged the city, but in turn were besieged by the relief army in the fortified camp. The relief army attacked the camp, but was turned away by the massive French artillery with heavy losses. The French strengthened their entrenchments so that the Spanish did not dare to attack again the next day and the Archduke ordered the withdrawal.
End of the siege
After the relief army withdrew, King Henry IV asked the governor of the fortress to surrender. After six months of siege, the Spanish surrendered on September 25, 1597.
The French lost only about 600 men, which was in the lowest range for a military action of this magnitude.
Remarks
- ↑ Dictionnaire historique of sièges et batailles Mémorables
Web links
- Amiens City Archives (French)
literature
- Georges Poull, La maison ducale de Lorraine, Nancy, Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1991 ISBN 2-86480-517-0
- M. Pinard Chronologie historique-militaire, chap. 1, Paris 1760
- "Historique du 1st regiment d'infanterie", 1952, imprimerie Chotel.
- Louis Susane, Histoire de l'ancienne infanterie française, Paris, Corréard, 1851
- Ministère de la Guerre, Historiques des Corps de troupe de l'Armée Française 1569–1900, Paris, Berger-Levrault & Cie Éditeurs, 1900