Siege of Jülich (1610)
| date | July 29 to September 2, 1610 |
|---|---|
| place | Jülich |
| output | Handover of the city |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 25,500 men | 2,500 men |
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The siege of Jülich by troops from France and the United Provinces under the command of Claude de La Châtre and Moritz von Oranien took place from July 29 to September 2, 1610 during the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute and the Eighty Years War . It ended with the surrender of the city, whose fortress and citadel were regarded as one of the most advanced fortifications of their time.
prehistory
With the death of the last Duke of the United Duchies Jülich-Kleve-Berg , the dispute over the inheritance, which was also influenced by denominations and which, nine years before the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, almost led to a general European war, ignited. The main parties in dispute were the Elector Johann Sigismund of the Electorate of Brandenburg and Philipp Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg on the one hand, who fought over the inheritance with Emperor Rudolf II and a few other heirs such as the Electorate of Saxony on the other. Two warring parties formed: the possessors , in which the heirs of Brandenburg and Pfalz-Neuburg were grouped with their mostly Protestant supporters, and the imperial , i.e. the other heirs and the (Catholic) imperial power. Despite numerous negotiations, it soon became clear that the conflict would not go off without violence, and both sides were eager to recruit mercenaries.
course
Imperial occupation and advance of the siege army
At the beginning of the conflict, the Imperial Commissioner Archduke Leopold had secured the possession of the main fortress of the Duchy of Jülich and took possession of the Jülich Fortress on July 23, 1609, after Johann von Reuschenberg zu Overbach, who was loyal to the emperor, had already opened the gates for everyone else Parties had closed. From here the archduke placed the duchy under imperial administration until the succession was finally settled. Apparently, the emperor bet that the possession of what was by far the strongest fortress in the Rhineland at the time would be a weighty argument in the coming conflict over the succession.
The possessors, however, were not ready to let this sit on them. Shortly thereafter, their troops, allegedly 4,500 infantrymen and 1,200 horsemen, appeared in front of the fortress and took up their winter quarters around them, harassing the local population. However, this gathering was only the vanguard of a much larger army that was assembled at Schenkenschanz in the spring of 1610 . The supreme command was Christian von Anhalt and Margrave Ernst von Brandenburg , and the Colonel General of the States General Prince Moritz von Oranien-Nassau visited 14,000 infantrymen and 3,000 cavalrymen there on July 11, 1610, consisting of Dutch , English and French troops and five days later Xanten and Neuss set off in the direction of Jülich. The siege artillery consisting of 48 guns was transported on the Rhine by ship and brought ashore in Neuss. A serious accident occurred in Gustorf on July 27th . 16,000 pounds of gunpowder exploded, killing 25 carters and 16 horses, and damaging 50 carts with fuse loads. On July 28, the siege army united with the troops of the possessors already lying in front of Jülich and 5,000 mercenaries recruited by the Protestant Union and began the real siege. Later, other French troops of 8,000 foot soldiers, 1,200 horsemen and four guns arrived under the command of Claude de La Châtre .
Attack against the citadel
First zernierten the besiegers the fort with a ring of hills and then prepared the attack. For various reasons it was decided to attack the most strongly fortified section, the dominating citadel: an attack against the city would have been difficult in any case and would have left the besieged in possession of the citadel, without which the city could not be ruled. and besides, an attack against the citadel was easiest to carry out thanks to the nearby Merscher Höhe. From this hill in the north of Jülich you had a good overview of what was happening and also a good shooting position for an attack on the citadel. The elevated position made it easy to shoot into the fortress from there, and the north-east tower of the castle, which was still very high at the time, was supposedly a particularly popular target. Larger camps were located at Barmen and Broich (Moritz von Oranien) and at Stetternich and Bourheim (Christian von Anhalt), while the quarters of French auxiliary troops were at Koslar .
The only 2,500 strong fortress garrison under the command of Johann von Reuschenberg had erected some additional porches in front of the field side of the citadel, including two crescent-shaped earthworks in front of citadel bastions II and III and a ravelin in front of the field gate. The Reichskommissarius had left the fortress at the beginning of the siege, but had his silverware cut into small pieces for use as emergency cliffs and given out to his soldiers as a reward. Although the garrison made numerous sorties, they could hardly interfere with the overwhelmingly superior besiegers.
Moritz von Oranien tried to win Jülich as a strategically important fortress for the Netherlands if possible, and therefore pushed the attack against the fortress before the expected main French power under Henry IV arrived. In the night of July 31st to August 1st, the actual attack by digging trenches against the citadel began. On August 4th a battery of four guns began to bombard the fortifications, five days later another battery with nine guns, and on August 14th another battery of four guns joined them. The focus of the attacks was the Ravelin II in front of the field side of the citadel, which was able to repel a first assault, but fell into the hands of the besiegers on the second. The Kontregardes in front of Citadel Bastions II and III also fell on August 15, and the besiegers were able to begin building batteries in front of Citadel Bastion II. Cash and food soon became scarce in the fortress, as the imperial officials had probably not seriously expected a siege and had been locked in the fortress for months.
On August 26th, under cover of night, the besiegers crossed the trench, which they had partially filled, and called on the defenders to surrender for the first time. The commandant asked for three days to think about it, but refused, whereupon the besiegers began the attack on Citadel Bastion II on August 27th. Miners undermined the walls and broke through the cladding wall of the bastion on August 28th, and the next day they penetrated the soil behind. On August 31, the work of the miners and 200 rounds of the siege artillery had laid a wide breach, and it was only a matter of time before a practicable breach would enable an assault on the citadel. Accordingly, the defenders surrendered on September 1, 1610. The survivors were granted a deduction under honorable conditions.
Aftermath
The siege was closely followed at home and abroad and has come down to us in many contemporary depictions and descriptions. Initially, the possessors jointly administered the fortress, but from 1614 they quarreled over the inheritance. The fortress was now handed over to the allied Dutch, whose commander, the English mercenary commander and major of the States General Frederik Pithan , became the fortress commander from 1614 and was to remain there until the end of the second siege of Jülich in 1621-22 .
swell
- Neumann, Hartwig : The Citadel Jülich. A walk through history , Verlag Jos. Fischer, Jülich 1971.
- Historical reminiscences of the fortress Jülich , anonymous, Verlag Jos. Fischer, Jülich 1889.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Illustration by Frans Hogenberg from 1610: Occupation of the Vestung Gulich started on the 28th Juij resulted on the 2nd of September 1610 ( digitized version )