Siege of Namur (1695)
Encyclopedia
The Siege of Namur, 2 July–1 September 1695, was the second siege of the city of Namur
in the Nine Years' War. The Allied forces of the Grand Alliance retook the city from the French, who had captured it in the first siege in 1692
. The recapture of Namur has been called the most important event in the Nine Years' War.
, under the command of the Duc de Luxembourg, with King Louis XIV of France
present. Namur's defensive works had been designed by Menno van Coehoorn
, who oversaw the citadel's defence during the first siege. His French counterpart, Vauban
improved the defensive works significantly after the city was taken. Given its strategic position at the confluence
of the Sambre
and Meuse
rivers, the Citadel of Namur became the most strategically important fortress in the Spanish Netherlands.
under the command of King William III of England
and Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria
, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, laid siege to the city beginning on July 2, 1695. By July 3, they had invested
the city. Menno van Coehoorn, in a reversal of roles, directed the siege works against the city.
By July 18, Allied forces had overcome the outer fortifications that Vauban had built. Five battalion
s of English and Dutch troops launched an assault on the Brussels Gate of Namur. The general assault began on August 3, and the Duc de Boufflers
, the French commander, offered the surrender of the city. The offer was accepted, and the following day as part of the terms of surrender a six day truce was granted to attend to the wounded and withdraw to the citadel. The truce was guaranteed by an exchange of high ranking officers as hostages; after the six days had expired, the hostages returned to their camps and the siege of the citadel was renewed.
The Duke of Villeroi
made an attempt to draw the attackers away from Namur by bombing the militarily unimportant target of Brussels
, with the goal only of causing destruction to the city. The bombardment lasted from August 13–15, and did not divert any Allied troops from the siege of Namur. Villeroi's army later attempted to lift the Allied siege of Namur, but it was blocked in the field by an army under the Prince of Vaudemont
.
After a further month of resistance, Boufflers surrendered the citadel to the besieging army on September 1, having lost 8000 of his 13,000 men. The Allies lost 12,000 men. William had Boufflers detained, as Boufflers had violated the terms of surrender and treated Allied prisoners of war poorly after battles at Deinze
and Dixmuide
.
, Scotland
, Ireland
and Wales
bear "Namur 1695" as a Battle honour
including the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards, The Royal Scots, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, The Royal Irish Regiment, The Welch Fusiliers, the Queen's Royal Surreys , the East Yorkshire Regiment, the West Yorkshire Regiment the King's Own Royal Regiment , the King's Own Royal Border Regiment the Sunderland Fusiliers and the Royal Warkwickshire Fusiliers . Other regiments taking part included the Bedfordshire Regiment
's novel Tristram Shandy, Tristram's uncle Toby injured his groin
at the Siege of Namur. A major subplot of the novel involves his obsession with the siege and reenacting battles from the war with his trusty sidekick, Corporal Trim. He builds a complete replica of the battle in his garden, which he shows to his fiancée Widow Wadman, who keeps trying to find out how serious his groin injury is before committing to marry him, but who is always fobbed off with increasingly elaborate accounts of the siege. The siege and Toby's reconstruction of it are featured in the film version of the novel, A Cock and Bull Story
(2006).
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
in the Nine Years' War. The Allied forces of the Grand Alliance retook the city from the French, who had captured it in the first siege in 1692
Siege of Namur (1692)
The Siege of Namur, 25 May–30 June 1692, was a major engagement of the Nine Years' War, and was part of the French grand plan to defeat the forces of the Grand Alliance and bring a swift conclusion to the war...
. The recapture of Namur has been called the most important event in the Nine Years' War.
Background
The French captured the city of Namur in the first siege in 1692Siege of Namur (1692)
The Siege of Namur, 25 May–30 June 1692, was a major engagement of the Nine Years' War, and was part of the French grand plan to defeat the forces of the Grand Alliance and bring a swift conclusion to the war...
, under the command of the Duc de Luxembourg, with King Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
present. Namur's defensive works had been designed by Menno van Coehoorn
Menno van Coehoorn
Menno, Baron van Coehoorn was a Dutch soldier and military engineer of Swedish extraction. He made a number of influential weaponry innovations in siege warfare and fortification techniques...
, who oversaw the citadel's defence during the first siege. His French counterpart, Vauban
Vauban
Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them...
improved the defensive works significantly after the city was taken. Given its strategic position at the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of the Sambre
Sambre
The Sambre is a river in northern France and Wallonia, southern Belgium, left tributary of the Meuse River. The ancient Romans called the river Sabis.-Course:...
and Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
rivers, the Citadel of Namur became the most strategically important fortress in the Spanish Netherlands.
Siege
As France was on the defensive, the Allied army of the Grand AllianceGrand Alliance
The Grand Alliance was a European coalition, consisting of Austria, Bavaria, Brandenburg, the Dutch Republic, England, the Holy Roman Empire, Ireland, the Palatinate of the Rhine, Portugal, Savoy, Saxony, Scotland, Spain and Sweden...
under the command of King William III of England
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
and Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, laid siege to the city beginning on July 2, 1695. By July 3, they had invested
Investment (military)
Investment is the military tactic of surrounding an enemy fort with armed forces to prevent entry or escape.A circumvallation is a line of fortifications, built by the attackers around the besieged fortification facing towards the enemy fort...
the city. Menno van Coehoorn, in a reversal of roles, directed the siege works against the city.
By July 18, Allied forces had overcome the outer fortifications that Vauban had built. Five battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
s of English and Dutch troops launched an assault on the Brussels Gate of Namur. The general assault began on August 3, and the Duc de Boufflers
Louis François, duc de Boufflers
Louis François, Duc de Boufflers, Comte de Cagny was a Marshal of France....
, the French commander, offered the surrender of the city. The offer was accepted, and the following day as part of the terms of surrender a six day truce was granted to attend to the wounded and withdraw to the citadel. The truce was guaranteed by an exchange of high ranking officers as hostages; after the six days had expired, the hostages returned to their camps and the siege of the citadel was renewed.
The Duke of Villeroi
François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi
François de Neufville, 2ème duc de Villeroy was a French soldier.-Biography:Villeroy was born in Lyon into noble family which had risen into prominence in the reign of Charles IX....
made an attempt to draw the attackers away from Namur by bombing the militarily unimportant target of Brussels
Bombardment of Brussels
The bombardment of Brussels by French troops of King Louis XIV on August 13, 14 and 15, 1695 and the resulting fire were together the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels. The Grand Place was destroyed, along with a third of the buildings in the city...
, with the goal only of causing destruction to the city. The bombardment lasted from August 13–15, and did not divert any Allied troops from the siege of Namur. Villeroi's army later attempted to lift the Allied siege of Namur, but it was blocked in the field by an army under the Prince of Vaudemont
Prince Charles Henry de Lorraine-Vaudemont
Charles Henri of Lorraine was the legitimated son of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, and Béatrix de Cusance. His was given the Principality of Commercy in 1708 by his cousin Leopold, Duke of Lorraine...
.
After a further month of resistance, Boufflers surrendered the citadel to the besieging army on September 1, having lost 8000 of his 13,000 men. The Allies lost 12,000 men. William had Boufflers detained, as Boufflers had violated the terms of surrender and treated Allied prisoners of war poorly after battles at Deinze
Deinze
Deinze is a city and a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Deinze proper and the towns of Astene, Bachte-Maria-Leerne, Gottem, Grammene, Meigem, Petegem-aan-de-Leie, Sint-Martens-Leerne, Vinkt, Wontergem and Zeveren. On January 1,...
and Dixmuide
Diksmuide
Diksmuide is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Diksmuide proper and the former communes of Beerst, Esen, Kaaskerke, Keiem, Lampernisse, Leke, Nieuwkapelle, Oostkerke, Oudekapelle, Pervijze, Sint-Jacobs-Kapelle,...
.
English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh Regiments at the siege
Fourteen regiments from EnglandKingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
, Scotland
Kingdom of Scotland
The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
bear "Namur 1695" as a Battle honour
Battle honour
A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags , uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible....
including the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards, The Royal Scots, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, The Royal Irish Regiment, The Welch Fusiliers, the Queen's Royal Surreys , the East Yorkshire Regiment, the West Yorkshire Regiment the King's Own Royal Regiment , the King's Own Royal Border Regiment the Sunderland Fusiliers and the Royal Warkwickshire Fusiliers . Other regiments taking part included the Bedfordshire Regiment
In Tristram Shandy
In Laurence SterneLaurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
's novel Tristram Shandy, Tristram's uncle Toby injured his groin
Groin
In human anatomy, the groin areas are the two creases at the junction of the torso with the legs, on either side of the pubic area. This is also known as the medial compartment of the thigh. A pulled groin muscle usually refers to a painful injury sustained by straining the hip adductor muscles...
at the Siege of Namur. A major subplot of the novel involves his obsession with the siege and reenacting battles from the war with his trusty sidekick, Corporal Trim. He builds a complete replica of the battle in his garden, which he shows to his fiancée Widow Wadman, who keeps trying to find out how serious his groin injury is before committing to marry him, but who is always fobbed off with increasingly elaborate accounts of the siege. The siege and Toby's reconstruction of it are featured in the film version of the novel, A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story is a 2006 British comedy film directed by Michael Winterbottom...
(2006).