Capture of Liège (1702)

Capture of Liège
Part of the War of the Spanish Succession
The assault of the English troops on the 23rd as depicted by Robert Alexander Hillingford
Date 13 October – 31 October 1702 Location Liège Result Anglo-Dutch victory
Belligerents
Dutch Republic  England	France Bourbon Spain Liège Cologne
Commanders and leaders
Marlborough Athlone Coehoorn	Violaine Millon
Strength
23,000[1]	7,200[1]
Casualties and losses
1,034 killed and wounded[1]	5,700 killed, captured or deserted[2]

The capture of Liège took place in October 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Anglo-Dutch forces under the command of the Duke of Marlborough took control of the city itself on 15 October without resistance but besieged the Citadel of Liège and the Chartreuse fort, which were held by Bourbon troops from France, Spain, the Bishopric of Liège and the Electorate of Cologne. The operation formed part of the Allied campaign to secure the Meuse valley. After intense bombardment and assaults, directed by Menno van Coehoorn, the citadel fell on 23 October, followed by the surrender of the Chartreuse on 31 October, resulting in the capture of several thousand French troops and the consolidation of Allied control over the region. The capture of Liège was the last and most imporant achievement of Marlborough's 1702 campaign, enabling subsequent operations along the Meuse and the Rhine in the years to come.

In May 1702, the Dutch Republic, England, and the Holy Roman Emperor declared war on France, thereby starting the War of the Spanish Succession. According to the Treaty of Ryswick, Dutch troops occupied several barrier fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, which served as the Dutch Republic's first line of defence.^{[note 1]} However, in February 1701 a French surprise attack, carried out with the assistance of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria and governor of the Spanish Netherlands, had replaced these garrisons with French troops. French troops took up positions in the Spanish Netherlands and with help of the Elector of Cologne and Prince-bishop of Liège, Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, in Germany too, and were thus directly threatening the Dutch border.^[3] The situation was reminiscent of the Rampjaar of 1672, the opening year of the Franco-Dutch War.^[4]

These moves by France effectively dismantled the line of fortresses on which Dutch security relied, stripping away its first line of defence. The French, on the other hand, had as their second line the great fortresses within the French frontier, and thus enjoyed both their own defences and those which had belonged to their opponents. In addition, they had constructed the formidable Lines of Brabant, a continuous seventy-mile defensive system from Antwerp to Namur, designed under the Marquis of Vauban, allowing their field armies to confront any Allied advance. Only a handful of strong fortresses remained under Dutch control, such as Bergen op Zoom, Nijmegen and Maastricht. Maastricht, a powerful fortress on the Meuse, lying within a Dutch enclave, had escaped both the French seizure of the Spanish Netherlands and the defection of the prince-bishop of Cologne and Liège. It was a fortress of the first order, with modern defences, a historic reputation, ample supplies, and a garrison of some 14,000 men, but it was strategically isolated, cut off by the French-garrisoned towns of Venlo, Roermond, and Stevensweert.^[5]

Stadtholder-King William III of Orange, who had commanded Allied forces in previous conflicts, had died in March, and his death was viewed as a disaster. No one possessed the prestige to fill his place. While the Allied political leadership debated whom to appoint as his successor, an Allied army under the Prince of Nassau-Usingen captured Kaiserswerth, an important fortified town in Germany, on 15 June, securing the eastern flank of the Dutch Republic.^[6] The Duke of Boufflers' French army, to save Kaiserwerth, had pursued an Anglo-Dutch covering force, under the Godard van Reede-Ginkel, Earl of Athlone, all the way to the gates of Nijmegen. Though he failed to take Nijmegen or bring Athlone's force to battle, and with it doomed Kaiserswerth which fell in June, Boufflers had almost taken one of the last Dutch strongholds.^[7]

The close call at Nijmegen had caused significant unrest among the Dutch regenten, and they were now determined to take decisive action. In response, they resolved to raise a substantial field army and to make a final decision on who would command the combined Anglo-Dutch forces. During a conference on June 25, it was decided to appoint John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough as commander-in-chief. While he had limited military experience, the confidence that William III had previously placed in him, along with the strategic belief that his appointment would further solidify England's commitment to the war on the continent, ultimately outweighed other considerations.^[8]

The Prince of Nassau-Usingen refused to serve under Marlborough, while Athlone, encouraged by the other Dutch generals, made efforts to secure an equivalent position to Marlborough. Athlone was an experienced commander, famous for his victories in Ireland during the Nine Years' War, and the regenten agreed with Athlone that Marlborough was a lightweight compared to him. Although Athlone officially remained subordinate, they strongly limited Marlborough's power over the army. Marlborough could only command Dutch troops who were part of the combined field army and had to coordinate all his plans with Athlone. In cases of disagreement, Marlborough could not push through his plan; instead, the Dutch field deputies had to make the final decision.^[9][10]

The focus of the campaign shifted westward. With a field army of 68,000 men under their command, Marlborough and Athlone aimed to re-establish the Dutch connection to Maastricht, by capturing Venlo, Roermond and Stevensweert.^[11] On 24 July the Allied army crossed the Meuse, threatening Boufflers' supply lines and forcing him to retreat towards Venlo. Marlborough saw an opportunity to bring Boufflers' smaller army to battle near Peer, but Athlone, mindful of the Dutch Republic's precarious strategic situation, refused to take the risk. As a result, Boufflers was able to withdraw. He discarded much of his baggage, which greatly increased his mobility, and received reinforcements that enabled him to attempt to push the Allies back across the Meuse.^[12]

On 9 August the French positioned themselves northwest of Marlborough's army, near Balen, from where they threatened the Allied supply lines and the southern Dutch cities of Den Bosch and Breda. The supply situation in the Allied camp deteriorated rapidly and only improved when the Earl of Albemarle arrived with a large convoy on 19 August, enabling the Allies to move again. Three days later they advanced towards Boufflers, and on 23 August the two armies deployed in battle order opposite each other on the Heath of Helchteren. For two days the armies stared each other down, trading cannon fire that produced several hundred casualties, before Boufflers slipped away in the night of the 25th. To many in the Allied ranks, the episode felt like a missed chance to bring the French to battle.^{[13][14][note 2]}

With the French army in retreat, it became possible to invest Venlo on 11 September, the first city on the Meuse on the way to Maastricht. The Prince of Nassau-Usingen, who until then had refused to take part in the campaign, led the 25,000 men conducting the siege, while Marlborough and Athlone covered it with 45,000 men. After twelve days, the city surrendered.^[18][19] A French attempt to divert Allied troops away from Venlo by attacking Hulst failed.^[20] Stevensweert and Roermond were next. As both were considered weak, the Allies decided to besiege them simultaneously. Stevensweert capitulated on 2 October and Roermond five days later. With these victories, the vital connection with Maastricht was reestablished, yet Marlborough remained dissatisfied with the campaign's results. He argued that the Allies needed to capture Liège to secure Maastricht fully and open the way for an attack on Huy and Namur in 1703. Liège, a major city with a population of 50,000 and the capital of the Bishopric of Liège, was a prize Louis XIV did not want to lose, and he ordered Boufflers to protect it. However, the terrain around Liège made this difficult, and positioning his army in front of the city would expose the weak fortresses in Brabant to an Allied incursion. Seeing no viable way to defend Liège, Boufflers withdrew behind the lines of Brabant, and on 13 October the Allied army arrived before the city.^[21][22]

Liège was an open city without strong fortifications,^[22] and the city council of Liège was unwilling to sacrifice the city for France, or even for their own sovereign, Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, and the mayor succeeded in concluding a favourable convention with the Allies on the evening of 13 October, allowing them entry into the city while obliging them not to attack the French occupied Citadel of Liège from within.^[23] When it came time to sign, Marlborough refused Athlone's signature, leaving only the Dutch deputies to represent the Dutch Republic.^{[note 3]} Athlone lodged a formal complaint with the States General, but no decision followed. Four days later, on 17 October, Nassau-Usingen died, and on the 19th Athlone was promoted to Field Marshal of the Dutch States Army. The advancement gave him personal satisfaction, but it left the underlying issue between the Allied leaders untouched.^[25]

On the 15th, three Dutch and three English battalions entered the city and the Allies began preparing for the siege of the citadel and the Chartreuse fortress, a detached stronghold of considerable strength. Menno van Coehoorn, the renowned Dutch engineer-general who had directed the sieges of Venlo and Roermond, was tasked with the technical command. It was decided to begin with the citadel. This was an irregular pentagon, with bastions, dry ditches, ravelins, and a covered way. Its main rampart was reinforced with stonework, while the other works were not, though they had been made storm-proof with palisades and cheval de frise. The garrison consisted of seven and a half battalions under Violaine, while Millon commanded five battalions in the Chartreuse, together about 7,200 troops.^[25]

At nine in the morning on 20 October, the Dutch artillery opened the bombardment. The English contingent had no siege guns. By evening, two parallel attack trenches were begun, each worked by 500 sappers under the protection of four infantry battalions. The next night they were deepened and widened, almost ready to serve as launching positions for the assault. Mortar bombardment began that evening as well and would continue until the citadel's surrender. During the preparations, Coehoorn had clashed one of the Dutch deputies who had ordered the guns to fire without his approval, and he threatened to abandon the siege until Athlone and others persuaded him to stay.^{[26][note 4]}

The effect of the bombardment soon became apparent when two ammunition magazines caught fire or exploded, while work on the trenches steadily progressed. Among the generals commanding operations in the trenches were, on the 21st, the Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Kassel, then a lieutenant general in Dutch service and later King of Sweden; on the 22nd, Major General Prince George of Hanover, the future King of Great Britain; alongside Danish General Jobst von Scholten, who would later distinguish himself at Ramillies. By the 23rd, the fort was considered ready for storming: the palisades had been destroyed, a sufficient breach had been made in the main wall, and much of the artillery had been silenced.^[28] Marlborough demanded the citadel's surrender, but the governor defiantly replied that he would not even think of such a thing for another six weeks.^[29][30] At a quarter to four, the signal for the assault was given, which was carried out with great resolve under a heavy fire from 72 cannon, 50 howitzers and mortars, and 250 hand mortars.^[28]

Lieutenant-Generals François Nicolas Fagel and Carl Christian von Sommerfeldt commanded the attack on the Dutch and English sides respectively. The covered way was quickly taken, during which the governor, Violaine, was captured. Without pause, the assault pressed on to the main wall; together with the fleeing defenders, the attackers broke into the citadel. ^[28] In the heat of the fighting many defenders were cut down, as the English troops initially gave no quarter.^[29] Some defenders managed to escape, but 2,100 men, were eventually taken prisoner. The Dutch, under Fagel, lost 41 men killed and 255 wounded, while Sommerfeldt's command suffered 154 dead and 385 wounded, of whom 83 and 171 were English.^[31]

Immediately following the fall of the citadel, preparations began for the assault on the Chartreuse. Command of the forces assigned to the siege was given to Hesse-Kassel. By 24 October the fortress was encircled by four squadrons, with approximately forty infantry battalions joining the following day. Stormy weather over the next few days delayed operations, rendering the pontoon bridge over the Meuse unusable and preventing the artillery from being brought forward. Despite these difficulties, the trenches were opened on 27 October, and by 10 a.m. on the 29th the mortars began firing. The bombardment soon set the buildings inside the fort alight, and by mid-afternoon the cannons were also in position, though further fire was scarcely necessary. ^[2]

The raising of white flags and the sounding of the chamade soon signalled the end of resistance. Terms of capitulation were quickly agreed and signed that evening, with Marlborough and the Dutch field deputies representing the Allies. Governor de Millon had followed his orders to avoid exposing the garrison to assault, and unlike the citadel, the five battalions stationed at the Chartreuse largely survived. On 31 October the garrison, numbering around 1,500 men excluding 400 Swiss and seven Liège companies who left French service, marched to Antwerp with the army. The citadel garrison was sent to Maastricht and remained prisoners of war.^[2] The Allies lost 1,034 men during the sieges.^[1]

The advances of the Allies in 1702 were significant. The connection to Maastricht was re-established and the French expelled from the Lower Rhine and much of the Meuse. The Archbishopric of Cologne and the Bishopric of Liège almost intirely returned to Allied control. The Elector of Cologne, a French ally, was left without an army, and much of his revenue. Allied forces now controlled the navigation of both rivers, garrisoning Kaiserswerth, Venlo, Roermond, Stevensweert, Maastricht, and Liège. Marlborough also arranged the winter siege of Rheinberg, which capitulated in February 1703, ensuring that the next campaign could begin under favourable conditions.^[32]

Following the fall of Liège, the French commander, Boufflers, withdrew his forces behind the defensive lines of Brabant protecting the heart of the Southern Netherlands, repositioning between Wasseiges and Petit Hallet. He strengthened several fortresses, including Huy, Limbourg, and Zoutleeuw, but their safety ultimately depended more on the onset of winter than on their defences. To compensate for his numerical inferiority, Boufflers recalled the Duke of Tallard from Bonn, while diversions were attempted along the Moselle and Rhine. The Allies briefly considered besieging Bonn in the winter, but the plan was discarded and its siege wouldn't start until May of next year. A Prussian corps did appear before Rheinberg, but after an ineffective bombardment abandoned its siege, maintaining only a blockade until February.^[33]

The year had thus gone well for the Allies: from an Anglo-Dutch army being on the defensive at Nijmegen to Allied dominance across a significant part of the Spanish Netherlands, all achieved without a major pitched battle. Yet Marlborough himself remained dissatisfied, believing that he had been denied the decisive field engagements necessary to bring the war to a swift conclusion.^[34] However painful the loss of these fortresses was for the French, the primary fortification lines of the Spanish Netherlands had not yet been broken.^[35]

The campaign turned out to be Athlone's last. A distinguished soldier, he suffered a fatal stroke in February 1703. His partnership with Marlborough had often been difficult, but he was eventually succeeded by Hendrik van Nassau-Ouwerkerk, a Dutch general with whom Marlborough worked more easily.^[36]

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