Siege of Lions

Siege of Lions

Part of: Thirty Years War
Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659)

City plan of Lions from 1649, Joan Blaeu

date	June 24th to July 4th 1635
place	Leuven , Spanish Netherlands , today's Belgium
output	Decisive Spanish victory, repulsion of the Franco-Dutch invasion of the Spanish Netherlands

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of Spain	Kingdom of France United Netherlands
Commander
Anthonie Schetz Ferdinand of Spain Octavio Piccolomini	Friedrich Heinrich Urbain de Maillé-Brézé Marshal de Châtillon
Troop strength
4,000 men	50,000 men
losses
700 men	At least 12,000 men

The Siege of Leuven (June 24 - July 4, 1635) was a significant siege in the Thirty Years War . A Franco-Dutch army under Friedrich Heinrich von Oranien and the French marshals Urbain de Maillé-Brezé and Gaspard III. de Coligny , invading the Spanish Netherlands from two sides , besieged the Spanish-Dutch city of Leuven , which was defended by 4,000 Flemish civilians, Walloons, Spaniards and Irish under Anthonie Schetz . Bad organization and logistics and the spread of diseases among the French siege troops and the arrival of a relief army under Octavio Piccolomini (1599–1656) forced the siege troops to give up the siege. The failure of the siege allowed Spanish troops to take the initiative to force the siege troops to withdraw quickly.

background

Map of Brabant from 1645 by Joan Blaeu

In 1635, the Dutch Republic entered into an alliance with France aimed at attacking the Spanish army of Flanders from two sides in order to change the strategic stalemate in the Eighty Years War in favor of the Netherlands and the Spanish Netherlands between the two parties of the alliance split up. The French invaded the Spanish Netherlands from the south and defeated the Spanish army at the Battle of Les Avins on May 20, before uniting in Maastricht with the forces of Frederick Henry of Orange , who led the Dutch republic at the head of a 20,000 Strong army, to which 6,000 cavalry came, had left. Meanwhile, Cardinal Infante Ferdinand , who was in Leuven, moved Spanish Tercios to Tienen and sent the Count of Fuenclara to Germany to call on the Imperial Army for help.

The combined army of the French and the Dutch, which now consisted of 50,000 men and consisted of French, Dutch, German and English soldiers, marched to Tienen, which was defended by a small garrison under Captain Martín de los Alarcos. The village was taken by storm, looted for three days, and finally burned down. The Spanish garrison and most of the population were massacred. This delay gave Ferdinand time to develop the fortifications of Löwen and to position his army in a fortified position near the city. Soon afterwards the Franco-Dutch army appeared and camped two miles from Ferdinand's headquarters. Nonetheless, they remained inactive for eight days, which gave the people of the whole country, especially those of Brussels , where the news of the sacking of Tienen had caused great consternation, an opportunity to get to safety.

siege

Anthonie Schetz , Baron von Grobbendonck

First operations

On June 20, the Franco-Dutch army broke camp and shifted its lines to the east bank of the Dijle River . Francisco de Moncada, who commanded the Spanish Tercios of the Marquis de Celada, other units of Tercios and the cavalry under Johann zu Nassau-Siegen , advanced to reinforce the German garrison of a fortified bridge over the Dijle, as they feared the invading army could Use the bridge to get to the other bank. Spanish troops spent two hours watching Franco-Dutch troop movements over the hills across the river before realizing their opponents were crossing the Dijle over an undefended footbridge a mile away from the guarded one. Without wasting any more precious time, the Duke of Lerma was sent out with orders to prevent the crossing at all costs. Under his command were part of the cavalry under Juan de Vivero and 300 musketeers from the Celadas units, led by Captain Antonio de Velandia. By the time they got to the bridge, more than 4,000 enemy soldiers had already crossed the river and taken up good defensive positions, as they had begun this maneuver at dawn that day. When the Duke of Lerma became aware of this, he ordered Celada to withdraw and warned him through Captain Diego de Luna that he could not come to his aid if his men were attacked, since the cavalry had fallen behind under Johann von Nassau victories .

Siege per se

Lions in 1635 with siege troops to the west and north

Lions 1610 by Josse van der Baren . The city still had medieval walls in 1635.

During the night the entire artillery and the entourage were brought back to Brussels, the next day the Cardinal-Infante followed with his camp. Thus the defense of Lion was left to the veteran Anthonie Schetz, the Baron von Grobbendonck. He was able to dispose of the Tercios of his son, the Baron of Wezemaal, the Walloon Tercios of Ribacourt, the Irish Tercios under Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara , and some cavalry riders in regular troops . In addition, five regiments of armed citizens and students from the University of Leuven made themselves available. After the Franco-Dutch soldiers had completely crossed the Dijle, they first plundered the village of Tervuren , the summer residence of the Dukes of Brabant , and then reached the outskirts of Brussels. Soon they returned to Leuven to besiege the city. The siege resumed shortly after the troops arrived, while the Allied artillery shot over the fortifications of Löwen and engineers tried to damage the defensive walls with trenches and mines. Most affected by the undermining attempts was the gate of Vilvoorde, which was defended by Preston and his Irish Tercios, who hindered the siege work with their numerous failures and quickly demoralized the poorly equipped French soldiers. Walloon troops and students also made some sorties, so that the excavation work could regularly be destroyed at night.

The besiegers, annoyed by the hindrance of their work, decided to take the walls by storm and to exploit their numerical superiority in this way, although they would be defenselessly exposed to the enemy fire. At night three regiments raided the walls and bullworks of the foremost entrenchment, but were violently repulsed by the vigilant defenders. The following night Friedrich Heinrich himself led an attack on the Ravelin , which protected the gate of Mechelen and was only defended by a handful of Irish. Despite initial success, the attack was repulsed by the Irish, supported by some Germans and citizens, and Friedrich Heinrich and his men suffered heavy losses. The fact that the army's maneuvers could be observed from a well-fortified tower between the gates of Mechelen and Vilvoorde (popularly known as the Verlooren-Kost ) had contributed significantly to the failure of the attack . This tower served the Baron von Grobbendonck both as an artillery position and as a lookout. When the French recognized the importance of the lost food , they took it under heavy fire, but were unable to overcome the 9 meter thick walls.

Relief

Prince Friedrich Heinrich by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt

On June 29th, the Peter and Paul festival , the Franco-Dutch did nothing. Meanwhile, Grobbendonck ordered 250 specially selected defenders to undertake a sortie. The men left the city through different gates and met again before the lost food . Thereupon they stormed the positions of the besiegers in a surprise attack, which they found completely unprepared. Around 400 men, including a large number of officers, were killed in the process. Despite this setback, Friedrich Heinrich Grobbendonck was able to urge him to give up on the same day by threatening a massacre of the city's residents. Five days later, a relief army under Octavio Piccolomini arrived in the suburbs of Leuven , consisting of 8,000 cavalry units and the tercios of Alonso Ladrón and Sigismondo Sfondrati, who had been stationed in Namur to limit the defeat of Les Avins. There was also a rearguard of 3,000 infantry and a little cavalry. The arrival of the army caused the French and Dutch to abandon the siege and retreat north to the United Provinces. During the retreat, a large number of soldiers deserted or were killed by the Spanish cavalry and Flemish peasants. Shortly afterwards the Cardinal-Infante appeared on the scene with 22,000 infantry and 14,000 cavalry.

At the end of the siege, the siege army had also suffered from a typhus epidemic and problems with the food supply. At the end of June, only 17,000 of the initially 29,000 mercenaries of the siege troops were left, a number that had fallen to 9,000 by the time the remaining former siege troops were transported back by ship in the spring of 1636.

Aftermath

The Franco-Dutch failure outside the walls of Lion allowed the Spanish to take the initiative. A counterattack by the Cardinal Infante pushed the Franco-Dutch army back to the Dutch border. He undertook a north-easterly advance on the Rhine in the direction of Kleve , whereby Diest and Tienen could be retaken. A group of 500 German mercenaries under Lieutenant Colonel Eyndhouts, who were hanging around the left flank of the army, surprised and captured the Dutch fortress of Schenkenschans, which at the time was only a garrison of 120 soldiers, on the night of July 27-28 would have. A large number of men were then stationed in the fortress, first under the orders of Eyndhouts. The Dutch advanced immediately with reinforcements, but could not prevent a 20,000-strong Spanish army from occupying the Duchy of Cleves in August and September. The aim was to connect the Shecnk festivals with the main lands of the Spanish Netherlands. This occupation army threatened an invasion of the interior of the Netherlands, which is why it was inevitable to counter this threat. Friedrich Heinrich himself began the siege of Schenkenschans a few days after its fall, but soon transferred command to his cousin Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen . The fortress fell after a long and costly siege that was sustained even through the winter months. The Spaniards now turned their main focus on the French and turned towards the north of France towards the Somme . The invasion was only stopped at Corbie .

literature

• Ruby Mildred Ayres: A Popular History of Ireland . BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, ISBN 978-0-554-33033-4 (English).
• Jacques Albin Simon Collin de Pancy: Fastes militaires des Belges, ou Histoire des guerres, sièges, conquêtes, expéditions et faits d'armes qui ont illustré la Belgique depuis l'invasion de César jusqu'à nos jours . Au Bureau des fastes militaires, Brussels 1836 (French).
• William P. Guthrie: The later Thirty Years War: from the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 2001, ISBN 978-0-313-32408-6 (English).
• Jonathan Irvine Israel: Conflicts of empires: Spain, the low countries and the struggle for world supremacy, 1585-1713 . Continuum International Publishing Group, London 1997, ISBN 978-1-85285-161-3 (English).
• David Parrott: Richelieu's army: war, government, and society in France, 1624-1642 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK 2001, ISBN 978-0-521-79209-7 (English).
• Diego Luna y Mora: Relación de la campaña del año 1635 . in the Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España. LXXV. Edition. Impr. De la Viuda de Calero, Madrid (Spanish, 1842–1895).
• Peter H. Wilson: The Thirty Years War: Europe's tragedy . Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-674-03634-5 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Israel p. 70
2. ^ Guthrie p. 181
3. ↑ ^{a b} Collin de Plancy p. 128
4. ↑ ^{a b} Ayres p. 127
5. ↑ Parrott, p. 74
6. ^ Israel p. 69
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} de Luna y Mora p. 392
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} de Luna y Mora p. 393
9. ↑ ^{a b c d} de Luna y Mora p. 394
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Collin de Plancy p. 129
11. ↑ ^{a b c d} Collin de Plancy p. 130
12. ^ Lothar Höbelt: From Nördlingen to Jankau. Imperial strategy and warfare 1634-1645 . In: Republic of Austria, Federal Minister for National Defense (Hrsg.): Writings of the Army History Museum Vienna . tape 22 . Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-73-3 , p. 52-54 .
13. ↑ ^{a b} Israel p. 71
14. ^ Israel p. 76