A Case Study of the Perfect Siege of Ath 1697

The art of siege warfare was perfected in the 17th century. Bastion forts had never been sturdier and more complex while the methods of attack became ever more standardized and increasingly effective. To be sure, sieges remained extremely diverse, but now there was a consistent thread running through them, culminating in an almost infallible method created by Sébastien Le Prestre de VaubanSebastien Le Prestre de Vauban. The great French engineer of Louis XIV demonstrated his masterful siege craft in the siege of Ath in 1697. It was considered “[…] not so much a siege as an idealized version of one.” This is quite convenient for us, because it saves us the trouble of re-constructing a typical 17th century siege in the way we’ve covered medieval and 16th century siege craft. For a better overview, we are going to structure this as an 11-Step guide. So, let’s look at the siege of Ath, a masterful example of how to lay siege in the age of Louis XIV.

#history #france #education

Sources: Bibliography
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.
Duffy, Ch., The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494-1660, London 1979.
Lazard, P. Vauban, 1633-1707, Paris 1934.
Lynn, J., Giant of the Grand Siecle. The French Army 1610-1715, Cambridge 1997.
Ostwald, J., Vauban under Siege. Engineering Efficiency and Martial Vigor in the War of the Spanish Succession, Leiden/Boston 2007.
Parent, Michel et Jacques Verroust. Vauban, Paris 1971.
Rochas d’Aiglun, Albert de (ed.), Vauban, sa famille et ses écrits, ses oisivetés et sa correspondance, Vol. 2, Paris 1910.
Vauban, Sebastien le Prestre de, A Manual of Siegecraft and Fortification, trans. G.A. Rothrock, Ann Arbor 1968.

[SandRhomanHistory]

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[oldrabbit]

we move from the era of "the staggering siege of.." to the era of "the lightning siege of".. I still remember sieges that take years, if not decades, with dozens of thousands of deaths.. It is truly a revolution of siege warfare..

[aloof_cardinal]

Vauban during the whole siege
"Not necessary. The guy in front of us is a fcking noob"

[MTerrence]

Vauban's true mastery was revealed here in his ability to profitably break his own rules. By skipping unnecessary steps, he saved time and cost. To capture a modern star fort in two weeks with the loss of only fifty men is astonishing!

[Blastaballzy]

Fun facts : During the German Blitzkrieg a small group of french soldiers took cover in one of Vauban’s fortress while they were pushed by a German panzer division. Since his fortress were almost always conceived to allowed small groups of soldiers to hold the forts he designed, they were able to hold the german’s off with small arms, mortar and grenades against a far superior force until they were out of amo and forced to surrender. Vauban was truly the best engineer, a master in many ways.

[kevinreiss-coint]

Little fun fact about the grenadiers. Initially, the task to attack the breaches during sieges was done by the royal musketeers and even if they were rather successful in these missions they were also very costly, which was a problem since these musketeers were noble and were supposed to take officer roles in the army after their career in the musketeers. To diminish theses loses Louis XIV created a regiment of royal grenadiers, these regiments were special because while the regiments of the "maison du roi" were often mainly composed of nobility, this one was composed of veteran grenadiers of more common regiments, so of commoners. They became so effective that every time musketeers were charged to assault of fortified place they were accompanied by these royal grenadiers.

[alexandrebenoin]

I live in France and it’s a pleasure to visit the dozens of Vauban citadel from the Atlantic coast to the Pyrenees and alps
Great video as always

[TheGrenadier]

Vauban was a master, an artist in a kind of warfare often ignored. Definitely going to study him further.

[hndrwn]

I like how Vauban just sieged Ath just to flex and bully others 😂 What a fitting subject of the fabulous Sun King!

[eldorados_lost_searcher]

It was very considerate of Vauban to execute a textbook siege of a textbook fortress for future generations to study his methods' effectiveness.

Also, for a two person team, you guys sure do put out an impressive amount of quality videos. I'd have guessed at least five.

[Aaliyashi]

I'm glad I watched this. In these tumultuous times, you never know when you might have to lay siege to a bastion fort

[annominous]

Vauban was one impressive person. In his last years, he determined that to secure the defense of France, it was necessary to lift the lower classes out of abject poverty by redistributing the tax burden. If the king had done as he said, the Revolution might not have been necessary at all.

[Mares]

French here, just wanted to say that your prononciation of french names is really good. Keep it up

[ross]

I live in Ypres, one of Monsieur de Vauban's other masterpieces! We are reaping the benefits of his work up til this day: first, our fortifications are magnificent and attract many tourists; we ourselves profit from them because they have been topped with trees all around our city, which gives us a very large park, larger than most bigger cities. And third: we never get our feet wet, eventhough we live in a very low part of Flanders: thanks to the remnants of Vauban's "inondations" around the city, that take in all the heavy rains, inside the city there is never any flooding. On top of that, the large inondations make lovely lakes for our leasure, and up to a few years ago the city could draw it's own drinking water from it, which made our water bills way cheaper than those of our neighbours. All that thanks to monsieur Sébastien!
(btw, the fine fortifications that he built around Ypres were never really taken to the test: we were never attacked anymore until the first World War. And then, of course, the fortifications were of no use against Kaiser Wilhelm's cannons... we were blown to smithereens, city and fortifications. But we built it all up again. Come visit us!

[Khobotov]

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

[julienlengrandlambert]

I never comment on videos but here I really want to salute the efforts to use the correct prononciations for names of cities, people and more. French, Dutch and all impressively correct, super work!

[halneufmille]

Vauban: Methodically captures state of the art fortress in 2 weeks while losing 50 men.
Game of Thrones: Puts artillery outside the city walls and crashes its light cavalry in the enemy line.

[SpartaVictor]

When you design the perfect fortress, the king gives it away, and you have to re-conquer it...wonder if Vauban wished he had put "Easter eggs" in his designs? (secret entrance tunnel etc.) 😃

[swordsmen]

This is THE source for anything in the pike and shot era. You videos are awesome and would be great resource for any European history major.

[owenmalanaphy]

Actually, Total War has taught me that you simply send everyone into the town at the same time and you literally can't lose!