THE PERFECT SIEGE of ATH 1697 the Epitome of Louisquatorzian Siegecraft Was the 1697 Attack on Ath. As with Many Places in the C
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAPTER TWO THE PERFECT SIEGE OF ATH 1697 The epitome of Louisquatorzian siegecraft was the 1697 attack on Ath. As with many places in the cockpit of Europe, the town’s sov- ereignty changed several times over the course of the late seven- teenth century. Long under Spanish control, its garrison abruptly abandoned the town upon the approach of a French force in June 1667, one of Louis’ many effortless victories during the unnaturally short War of Devolution. It would remain in French hands until it was returned, with substantial improvements, to the Spaniards at the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, along with several fortresses in the pré carré, a double barrier of fortresses defending France’s northern bor- der from the Channel to the Meuse (see Map 2.1 at the end of the chapter). When the Nine Years’ War broke out in 1688, Ath wit- nessed the usual depredations of partisans and troops billeted in gar- rison, but it only became the focus of both belligerents in 1697. Ath itself might never have been besieged in 1697 had the peace negotiations started in 1695 and convened more formally at Rijswijk (Ryswick) the next year taken hold. Waging war while discussing peace was common in an era of fluid coalition warfare, and the rar- ity of decisive military victories only reinforced both sides’ willing- ness to keep fighting. When one of Louis XIV’s enemies, Vittorio II Amadeo, Duke of Savoy abandoned his allies for neutrality in late 1696, Louis saw this as an opportunity to push the issue in the Spanish Netherlands the next year. He hoped, with the help of a reinforced army in the Low Countries, to give the Allies one more illustration of his military potency in order to force them to acknowl- edge his new-found pre-eminence. France’s numerical superiority gave them the hope that the siege of Ath would be the straw to break the proverbial camel’s back. Louis’ forces entered the field in mid-April, and preparations for the siege were made amid recurrent rumors of an impending suspension of arms.1 1 French archives relating to the siege are found in Service Historique de l’Armée 22 chapter two Rumors of peace dissipated as a force of 12,000 French cavalry arrived before Ath on the morning of 16 May from three direc- tions—they quickly secured the main roads, river crossings, abbeys and buildings within a several-mile radius of the town. The main siege force left its camp at Helchin the same day, crossed the Scheldt River and camped about six miles from its intended target; two other armies moved to support the flanks of the besieging army. With all the troops assembled in their bivouacs, maréchal de France Nicolas Catinat commanded a besieging force of fifty battalions and as many squadrons, divided into three main camps around the town, with Vauban as the chief engineer. These two men, among the only low- ranking nobles to attain the elevated position of maréchal de France (Catinat in 1693 and Vauban in 1703), were particularly close and well disposed for the cooperation required of a successful siege. Vauban was seconded by his close companion Jean de Mesgrigny and further supported by more than sixty hand-picked engineers.2 de Terre (SHAT), Archives de Guerre (AG), series A1, volumes 1394, 1400 and 1401. Among the most important published sources regarding the attack on Ath is an anonymous journal of the siege, published in English translation as “A Journal of the Siege of Ath conducted by Monsieur de Vauban” in Charles Goulon, Memoirs of Monsieur Goulon, being a Treatise on the Attack and Defence of a Place, (London, 1745), pp. 91ff. Goulon’s abridged version is an edited and rearranged version from a fuller original French manuscript that has been published as Relation du siège de la ville d’Ath en 1697, (Mons, 1910). One historian attributed the work to one of Vauban’s aides-de-camp Ferry, who is mentioned in the text in the third person; see also Gudin de Vallerin, “Les Ingénieurs de Vauban à Bazoches et le Journal du Siège d’Ath,” Bulletin de la Société nivernaises des lettres, sciences et arts, vol. 28: 601–604. Other primary accounts can be found in various contemporary news- letters (Le Mercure galant, Europische Mercurius, Gazette d’Amsterdam); in Lecestre (ed.), Mémoires du chevalier de Quincy, vol. 1, pp. 41–59; in Edward d’Auvergne, The History of the Campagne in Flanders for the Year 1697, (London, 1698); and in Vauban’s cor- respondence reproduced in Albert de Rochas d’Aiglun (ed.), Vauban, sa famille et ses écrits, ses oisivetés et sa correspondance, (Paris, 1910), vol. 2, pp. 449–465. Later histo- ries and memoirs, which largely follow the Goulon journal, include: Charles Sevin marquis de Quincy, Histoire militaire du règne de Louis le Grand, Roy de France, (Paris, 1726), vol. 3, pp. 296–308; Pierre Alexandre Joseph Allent, Histoire du corps impérial du génie...depuis l’origine de la fortification moderne jusqu’à la fin du règne de Louis XIV, (Paris, 1805), pp. 345–351; Antoine-Marie Augoyat, Aperçu historique sur les fortifica- tions, les ingénieurs et sur le corps du Génie en France, (Paris, 1860), vol. 1, pp. 216–220; F. Delvaux, “Sièges subis par la ville d’Ath,” Annales du Cercle royal d’histoire et d’arche- ologie d’Ath, 24 (1938), 285–304; and Childs, The Nine Years’ War, pp. 46–50. 2 On Mesgrigny, see M. de Pinard, Chronologie historique militaire, (Paris, 1761–1764), vol. 4, pp. 396–398; and Michèle Virol, Vauban: De la gloire du roi au service de l’État, (Seyssel, 2003), pp. 287ff. For lists of the engineers serving at the siege, see AG A1 1400 #155 and #156..