La Mothe fortress

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The Citadel and the Mouzon River on an illustration by Matthäus Merian
Plan of the fortress

The former fortress La Mothe (also "Citadelle de La Mothe"), now called "La Mothe-en-Bassigny", is located on the hill "Saint-Hilairemont", which belongs to the communes of Outremécourt and Soulaucourt-sur-Mouzon in the Haute department -Marne heard. There are only small remains that testify to an eventful past.

history

The strategic location of Bassigny was ideal for building a fortification to protect the duchies of Lorraine and Bar . Although only about 500 meters high, the height allowed a wide view over 30 villages and into the valley of the Mouzon . Furthermore, the old Roman road from the south to Toul could be controlled here. According to documents that have been received, Comte Thiébaut II de Bar left the castle “Château de La Mothe” (also: “Château de Saint-Hilairemont”) on land that he had acquired from Seigneur de Joinville in a way that was no longer comprehensible ) on the isolated hill of Saint-Hilairemont. The castle was thus in the Duchy of Lorraine , which was part of the Holy Roman Empire .

After the union of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine, La Mothe was expanded in 1400 due to its location and strong fortifications to become the second strongest bulwark in Lorraine behind the capital Nancy . Since the ramparts were built for tactical reasons along the edge of the mountain plateau, the village around the castle was integrated into the fortress ring. Over time, an important trading and military base developed that housed up to 4,000 soldiers and civilians. Within the walls one was collegiate church was built, also had a convent of Augustinian located here.

First siege

Jacques Nompar de Caumont la Force

During the Thirty Years' War , Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine sided with his liege, the German Emperor, and against his cousin, the King of France. Duke Karl had no military success and all of his permanent positions quickly fell into the hands of the royal troops. The only exception was the fortress of La Mothe, which had a crew of 330 men and was besieged with troops from Maréchal de La Force on the orders of Cardinal de Richelieu . On March 5, 1634, the commandant of the siege troops, the Marquis de Villeroy , had asked the governor of the fortress, Monsieur Antoine de Choiseul, seigneur d'Ische, to surrender. He replied "also on behalf of the population":

“Nous mourrons tous, s'il le faut, et notre forteresse nous servira de sépulture commune, plutôt que de retraite aux Français. Vive son Altesse. Vive le Duc Charles! »

“We will all die if we have to, and our fortress will serve as a common grave for us rather than as a retreat for the French. Long live his highness. Long live Duke Karl! "

On April 30, a second - again unsuccessful - call to surrender was issued . Two attempts by the French to achieve their goal by bribery also failed. A French spy by the name of Desviviers was discovered in the fortress, tried and executed .

On June 21, Monsieur d'Ische was killed by the splinter of a cannonball . The incident was treated with the utmost secrecy and the French were not to find out about it.

Nicolas de Neufville, duc de Villeroy

However, the besiegers' efforts continued, they managed to detonate a mine under the Saint-Nicolas bastion and lay the bastion in ruins. On June 24, 1634, the Sainte-Barbe bastion was destroyed by gunfire within four hours.

On July 26, 1634, after 141 days of siege, the fortress had to surrender. The defense attorneys, of whom barely a hundred were still healthy, were guaranteed free retreat, the civilians with all furniture and clothing, the military with flying flags, all weapons and all luggage.

Second siege

Returned to the Duke in 1641, the fortress was again besieged on July 25th. After the Duke had dispersed the royal troops in a battle at Liffol-le-Grand , the siege had to be broken on August 31st.

Third siege

The Duke of Lorraine had the fortress repaired and made a pact with the Spaniards against France, which turned Richelieu against him, who called the fortress a den of robbers and sent troops to siege. This siege under the Maréchal de camp François de L'Hospital was short, it lasted from December 1642 until the death of King Louis XIII. in May 1643 and did not lead to success. Heavy snowfall and extreme cold had worn down the besiegers.

Fourth siege

Richelieu († December 4, 1642) had urged his successor to destroy La Mothe in his will.

As soon as he felt his power sufficiently consolidated, Cardinal Mazarin began the work of his predecessor. He ordered General Magalotti (possibly Mazarin's nephew) to take the fortress. The siege began on December 4, 1644 with 20 regiments of French and Italian mercenaries . A siege wall six kilometers long was raised, reinforced by seven redoubts . In March and April, the approach trenches were dug without interruption and work on mine tunnels was carried out at the same time . On March 30th, the attempt of the Lorrainers failed due to the resistance of the Italian Mazarin regiment to break through the siege ring and bring reinforcements into the fortress. On May 18, three mines under the Sainte-Barbe bastion were detonated, but without any great success. Despite this, the population of La Mothe was greatly intimidated, the constant fighting, human losses and the prevailing tension made themselves increasingly noticeable, they gradually weakened the physical resistance.

Despite this, the fortress continued to fight back by all means, and on May 20, 1645, during an inspection of the siege trenches at the Bastion de Vaqudémont, Magalotti was so heavy with a musket ball that the provost of the canons (prévost des chanoines) Monsieur de Héraudel had fired wounded that he died two days later.

Siege mortar for shooting so-called "bombs"

The command then passed to the Marquis de Villeroy, who continued to work on the trenches, mines and saps .

The Duke of Lorraine, who advanced for relief with an army of 6,000 men, was repulsed by the Prince de Condé at Longwy .

On June 24th, a new mine was detonated and, together with heavy artillery fire, two bastions were destroyed. The bombs used for the first time on the European theater of war (meaning bullets filled with explosives and fitted with a fuse that were fired from so-called mortars), the cold in winter, illnesses and, most recently, hunger forced the besieged to give up.

After hostages were exchanged between June 28 and 30, the governor of the fortress began negotiations, and on July 7, after 205 days of resistance, the besieged surrendered with full military honors.

Contrary to what was stipulated in the surrender agreements, Mazarin ordered the total demolition of the fortress - not just the ramparts, but also the houses of civilians and even the church. 3,000 residents were downright chased away.

After 387 years of existence, after four sieges and destruction by royal troops, La Mothe was nothing but a huge ruin.

1,500 farmers were forcibly used to completely level the plateau.

Building

The walling consisted of seven bastions of up to 30 meters high with curtains in between , which were 17 to 20 meters high. Both bastions and curtains were made of masonry. The entire complex was surrounded in places by a dry moat. The Contrescarpe had a height of 13 meters and was equipped with a glacis.

The center was the castle as a donjon with four cylindrical towers at the corners. The governorate was later housed in it. The protection of the settlement had initially only consisted of an ordinary wall, which was replaced from 1520 by a bastionary wall in the old Italian manner due to the constantly improved firepower of the artillery. Work on this began around 1547, probably at the instigation of the Lorraine Duchess Christina of Denmark , at the same time as Duke Charles III strengthened the fortifications around Nancy . of Lorraine . The engineer in charge was the Italian Ambrosio Precipiano. First, the two northern bastions were completed and the curtain in between was given a retranchement in the manner of a demi-lune . The bastions were named "Bastion de Danemark" and "Bastion de Vaudémont".

In 1554 the work was intensified by installing lime kilns .

The drawbridge at Porte de France was completed between 1560 and 1565. The builder was Florent de Belleau.

In 1590 repairs were carried out on the ramparts with the windmill and on the Porte Neuve.

The construction work was completed around 1600.

At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War , before the first siege, the walls of La Mothe covered 37 hectares with an extension of 700 meters in length and 250 meters in width. Seven bastions à la Orillon were laid out , with an advanced retranchement in the northwest, which could only be entered via a drawbridge, and a ravelin in the southeast between the bastions of Sainte-Barbe and Saint-Nicolas. The bastions had the following names:

  • Saint-Georges
  • Sainte-Barbe
  • Saint-Nicolas
  • Saint-Antoine
  • Le Duc
  • de Denmark
  • Vaudémont

Only the Porte de France could be used by car. It was equipped with a drawbridge and had the coat of arms of Lorraine in the keystone. It was covered by the left orillon of the Saint-Georges bastion.

Current condition

Today the hill is completely forested and shows nothing of its original meaning. On the plateau there are still remains of the wall of the church and the large cistern, streets and part of the fortress moat. The donjon has disappeared and a memorial column now rises in its place.

Security measures are being carried out on the remains.

Sacred objects from the demolished collegiate church can now be found in the village church of Outremécourt, which was built from stones from the fortress.

The outlines of the retranchement, the Ravelins Point d'Iche and the bastion Saint-Georges can still be seen on the satellite images (e.g. at Bing ).

La Mothe was added to the list of Monument historiques on October 4, 2001 .

Views

literature

  • La Mothe, citadelle Lorraine aux confins de la Champagne. Catalog of the exhibition, organized by the Archives départementales de la Haute-Marne et des Vosges, the Musée de Chaumont and the Musée historique lorrain de Nancy. 1996, ISBN 978-2-9509920-0-0 .
  • Jean Charles, Jacques Philippot: La Mothe-en-Bassigny. Place forte de la Lorraine face à la France. Haute-Marne (= Itinéraires du patrimoine ). Dominique Guéniot, Langres 2002, ISBN 978-2-87825-227-9 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Nicole Villa-Sébline: La sénéchaussée de La Mothe et Bourmont des origines à 1645. Dominique Guéniot, Langres 2002, ISBN 978-2-87825-233-0 .
  • Jean Charles Chapellier: Les Défenseurs de La Mothe. Veuve Gley, Épinal 1863, OCLC 83702004 .

Footnotes

  1. an insignificant branch line of the Choiseul family
  2. ^ Philippe Martin (Professor of Modern History at the University of Nancy II ): Une guerre de Trente Ans en Lorraine. 1631-1661. Éditions Serpenoise, Woippy 2002, ISBN 978-2-87692-550-2 , pp. 285, 369 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. from the regimental history
  4. This rather unusual height was due to the fact that the ramparts had to be considerably extended downwards due to the construction on the slope.

Web links

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 42 ″  N , 5 ° 41 ′ 6 ″  E