Siege of Fort Mardyck

Siege of Fort Mardyck

Part of: Thirty Years War

Siege of Fort Mardyck

date	August 4 to August 24, 1646
place	Dunkirk
output	Franco-Dutch victory

Parties to the conflict
France United Netherlands	Spain
Commander
Gaston de France Maarten Tromp	Fernando Solis
Troop strength
	2,500

The siege of Fort Mardyck took place from August 4 to 24, 1646 during the Franco-Spanish War (which in turn was part of the Thirty Years War ) and ended with a victory for the besiegers. It preceded the siege of Dunkirk .

While the United Netherlands, as an ally of France, was busy taking Antwerp from the Spanish , the French had pledged to open a front in the west. In the course of this fighting they had succeeded in conquering some important places from the Spaniards along the Leie . The French troops, commanded by Gaston de France , took Bergues-Saint-Winoc and on August 4th stood in front of Fort Mardyck, which the Spanish had built from 1622 by the architect Jean Gamel to protect Dunkirk.

The fort itself consisted of a citadel directly on the sea with four corner bastions , which were covered by four ravelins . It was surrounded by a wet ditch, in front of which was a glacis with a covered path .

A rampart was built around the citadel on the land side, consisting of four bastions and two half-bastions. There were four ravelins for cover. In front of the wet ditch, the glacis lay with a covered path, with another wet ditch being dug in front of the glacis. The trenches were fed from a canal.

On August 7th, work began with the construction of two approach trenches against the northern and northwestern bastions of the outer wall. The technical management was the responsibility of the royal engineer and graphic artist Sieur de Beaulieu. A possible support from the Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp with five ships was blocked from the sea .

On August 25, the fort had to surrender, the garrison of 2,500 men was taken prisoner of war .

On the orders of King Louis XIV , the fort was razed (demolished) in 1662. Today in Dunkirk only one part of the city with this name is evidence of the former fort.

Others

Several French aristocrats and later well-known military leaders were involved in the siege: François de La Rochefoucauld , Jean Hérault de Gourville , César-Phoebus d'Albret , Roger de Bussy-Rabutin and Louis II. De Bourbon, prince de Condé . La Rochefoucauld was wounded in the shoulder by a musket shot.

After the siege, Roger de Bussy-Rabutin wrote of Louis II de Bourbon-Condé:

“[…] Un Mars dans la chaleur du combat. Il avait le poignet de sa chemise ensanglanté de la main dont il tenait l'épée. Je lui demandai s'il n'était point blessé. Non, me dit-il, c'est you sang de ces coquins. "

"[...] a Mars in the heat of the moment. The wrist of his hand that held the sword was wrapped in his bloodied shirt. I asked him if he wasn't hurt? No, he answered me, that is the blood of these rascals. "

literature

• Charles Sevin, marquis de Quincy : Histoire militaire du règne de Louis le Grand, Roy de France . Volume 1. Paris 1726, pp. 58-59 ( full text in the Google book search).
• Henri Martin : Histoire de France, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'en 1789. Furne, Paris 1859.

Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 12 ″  N , 2 ° 18 ′ 28 ″  E