User:Paris1127/Siege of Charleroi (1667)

The Siege of Charleroi (Siège de Charleroi) was the first battle in the War of Devolution. The town of Charleroi, which had been part of the Spanish Netherlands since the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, was briefly besieged by Turenne's armies before surrendering.

Construction of the Fortress of Charleroi
The 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees altered the border between France and the Spanish Netherlands. Several strongholds became French, leaving a wide, undefended corridor between Mons and Namur in the direction of Brussels.

Marquis Francisco de Castel Rodrigo, governor of the Netherlands in 1664, wanted to reinforce the military defenses. The village of Charnoy, along the river Sambre, was one of the few places suitable for a fortress, and belonged to the county of Namur (thus to the Netherlands). Charnoy gave way to Charleroy, named in honor of Charles II, King of Spain and the Netherlands.

Construction of the new fortress began in mid-September. As soon as construction began, Louis XIV, informed by spies, decided to take Charleroy. Faced with the threat, Castel Rodrigo considered abandoning and even demolishing the fortress, which had cost 28% of the average revenue for the years 1665 to 1667. The last Spanish soldiers left on 27 May 1667.

French troops advance
In four days, 51,000 soldiers were assembled between Mézières and the sea. Having left Paris on 16 May 1667, the 35,000-strong main army marched under the leadership of the King himself, accompanied by Marshal Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount de Turenne. To their left, the corps of Marshal Antoine d'Aumont de Rochebaron advanced along the Channel coast. A third corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General François de Créquy, protected the main army on its right flank. On May 24, 1667, the three corps went on the attack and together invaded Spanish territory. The reason for going in en masse was to ensure French numerical superiority and prevent the enemy from concentrating on a single column.

With the Spanish Netherlands ill-prepared for a siege, its governor, the Marquis de Castel Rodrigo, assembled a field army from a militia and the few Spanish troops he commanded.

France, which has been fighting on another front, or rather on another flow, that of the North Sea since 26 January 1666, now wanted to disengage in order to recover its troops and mass them against the Spanish Netherlands. On land, the king's three army corps were ready.

Siege
The first target was the fortress of Charleroi, located at the Sambre river, the natural frontier between northern and southern Spanish possessions.

On 31 May, the French, under Turenne's command, discovered a desolate landscape. The Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo's small army tried to put up resistance to the French siege, but failed, especially after the French army destroyed the fortifications protecting the fortress.

Maréchal de Turenne seized Charleroi on June 2, 1667. Louis XIV entered the city the same day and ordered its reconstruction. The engineering works were perfected and enlarged by Thomas de Choisy, with Vauban providing guidelines for the ravelins to the north and in the lower town.

Aftermath
Under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Charleroi was awarded to France, and Louis XIV granted privileges to the inhabitants of the new town (free land, building bonuses, etc.) to help it develop.