The Battle of Valenciennes was fought on 16 July 1656 between the Spanish troops commanded by John Joseph of Austria and the French troops under Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, in the outskirts of the city of Valenciennes in the Spanish Netherlands during the Franco-Spanish War. After a period of Spanish recovery following the Peace of Münster in 1648, France went again on the offensive in 1654, having succeeded in suppressing internal rebellions, and took several towns in the province of Hainaut over the course of two years. On early 1656, Turenne was instructed by the French court to continue the offensive. He intended at first to besiege Tournai, but realising that it had been strongly reinforced by the Army of Flanders under the newly appointed John Joseph of Austria, illegitimate son of Philip IV of Spain, he went instead to besiege Valenciennes, in the course of the Scheldt River.
The defenders of the city opened locks and breached dikes to flood the surroundings and hamper the siege. Their strong resistance gave time the Spanish army to prepare a relief which took place one month after the beginning of the siege. The early hours of 16 July, the forces led by John Joseph of Austria and the Prince of Condé, the victor of the Battle of Rocroi, now in Spanish service, stormed the French circumvallation lines west of Valenciennes, defended by the forces of Field Marshal Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre. The Spanish were victorious and destroyed Le Ferté's army, whom Turenne was unable to help because of the floods that separated their respective armies.
The Battle of Valenciennes was the worst of only a few defeats that Turenne suffered in his long career campaigning, and is regarded as Spain's last great victory of the 17th century, as well as one of France's worst defeats of the century. Coupled with another Spanish victory over the French at Pavia in 1655, that of Valenciennes seriously damaged France's military capabilities and fueled the hopes in the Spanish court for a favourable peace with France after more than twenty years of conflict. Peace talks took place at Madrid during the summer of that year, but ultimately failed to produce any result, and the war continued for three more years, until the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659.
Background
France and Spain had been in war since 1635. The outbreak of revolts in Catalonia and Portugal in 1640 allowed the French to gain advantage in all the fronts, notably after the Battle of Rocroi in 1643. However, the Peace of Münster between Spain and the Dutch Republic in 1648, together with the beginning of a series of civil wars in France known as the Fronde, allowed Spain to recover most of the lost ground. By the end of 1652, the armies of Philip IV had recovered Barcelona and most of Catalonia, the strategic ports of Gravelines and Dunkirk in Flanders, and managed to capture the fortified city of Casale Monferrato in Italy. Spain offered peace to France, yet Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister to Louis XIV, rejected them, hoping that the kingdom would be able to recover. In 1653, the French Royal armies subdued the Fronde in Bordeaux and the southwestern France, while the poor relationship between the leader of the Fronde, the Prince of Condé, and the commanders of the Army of Flanders, archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Count Fuensaldaña, hampered the planned Spanish-Frondeur invasion of France.
In 1654, France continued to bolster its position by subduing the Fronde in Alsace and laying siege to the city of Stenay, in Lorraine, which was held by the Condéan army. In response, Leopold Wilhelm and Condé, together with the allied forces of duke Charles IV of Lorraine, laid siege to Arras, the capital of the County of Artois. Stenay surrendered on 6 August, while a French army under Turenne stormed the Spanish lines of circumvallation around Arras on 25 August and forced the Spanish army and its allies to abandon the siege in hurry. The French victory was not decisive, since the archduke was able to take the field again within a few weeks after making new recruits. The battle had, however, deep political consequences, since Condé, whose dexterity saved the allied army from destruction, was hailed as a hero by the Spanish court, and the support from Philip IV and his valido, Luis de Haro, gave him the status of 'informal authority' in competence with Leopold Wilhelm and Fuensaldaña.
The Spanish situation worsened further in 1655 as the French army under Turenne took Landrecies after an eighteen-days siege in 14 July, and the strategic towns of Condé and Saint-Ghislain, situated north of Valenciennes, on 18 and 25 August. After that, the French consolidated their control in the province of Hainaut by seizing and fortifying positions around Condé, Arleux and other localities. Important cities like Douai, Bouchain, Valenciennes and Tournai were put under threat. Just as the campaign finished, the Spanish prestige was seriously damaged when the Lorrainer forces, led by duke Francis, defected to France in November and allowed them to take control of a series of fortresses in Lorraine, the Electorate of Trier and the middle Rhine. The change of side was motivated by the arrest and imprisoning of duke Charles by Philip IV, who accused him of conspiring with Mazarin and who wished to turn Lorraine into a Spanish client state.
The Spanish defeats led Philip IV to replace Leopold Wilhelm as governor of the Spanish Netherlands and commander of the Army of Flanders by John Joseph of Austria, his illegitimate son. Despite his young age, John was already an experienced and successful commander who had brought Naples and Catalonia back under Spanish rule, as well as a skilled negotiator. On 17 February 1656, the Spanish monarch ordered his son to secretly embark at Barcelona towards Genoa in order to travel to Brussels as fast as possible. Near Minorca, the small squadron of two galleys where he travelled was attacked by Barbary pirates. One of the galleys was captured, and John barely escaped. He landed at Genoa on 23 March and reached Milan the 29th. From there, he travelled to Trento and then to Innsbruck, from where he moved into Bavaria. Having crossed the Danube at Donauwörth, he took a boat at Miltenberg and sailed down the Main up to Frankfurt. There, he was joined by the Marquis of Caracena, who had been appointed Governor of the Arms (second in command) of the Army of Flanders after the Prince of Condé, through his agents at Madrid, managed to have Fuensaldaña sacked. They travelled by boat to Mayence and Coblenz, finally landing at Cologne on 1 May. There they received by Fuensaldaña with 400 Spanish and 400 Condéan cavalry soldiers, who escorted them to the Spanish Netherlands. John met Leopold Wilhelm on 10 May at the Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel, and Condé near Leuven the next journey. The entrance at Brussels took place on 12 May.
In early 1656, the Army of Flanders had 22,000 soldiers available for field operations. On 2 April, a treaty of alliance was agreed at Brussels between representatives of Philip IV and Charles II of England in which the exiled British monarch agreed to raise troops to fight for Spain against France in exchange of support for him to be restored on his throne. In the meantime, however, the French enjoyed numerical superiority and took the initiative. Their forces were divided into two armies, one of 16,500 men led by Turenne, who acted as overall commander, and another one of 9,000 to 10,000 men under Field Marshal La Ferté. Having joined forces at Chauny on 1 May, they established their depots at Le Quesnoy and took the field on early June. The then 18 years old Louis XIV intended to participate in the campaign and left Paris on 27 May towards Compiègne. He arrived at La Fère on 7 June to follow the operations from there, and Mazarin soon joined him. Turenne aimed first at besieging Tournai and advanced towards there on 12 June. However, the Spanish command anticipated the move and reinforced the city with 4,000 men. The French commander decided then to besiege Valenciennes. On 15 June his army closed on from one side, while next day La Ferté approached from the other, being their troops separated by the Scheldt river.
Siege
Investment
The garrison of Valenciennes consisted of 2,000 infantry and 300 cavalry soldiers led by Alexander de Bournonville, Count of Henin, which were reinforced gradually by 6,000 armed burghers. The Spanish Tercio of Francisco de Meneses Brito was entrusted the guard of the gate of Anzin, on the citadel, which gave access to the river, while Bournonville's own German regiment was positioned to protect the gates of Lille and Le Quesnoy, the Walloon Tercio of the Count de La Motterie was detached to protect the gate of Mons, and the burghers took care of the gate of Famars, the Tourelle —a small palace belonging to the Society of Jesus on the right bank of the Scheldt— and the redoubt of St. Ignace. The Walloon Tercio of Maestre de Campo Verkeest, which was garrisoning the nearby town of Saint-Amand, tried to reinforce Valenciennes, but could not get across the French lines
The French army invested Valenciennes and started the construction of a circumvallation line. Turenne deployed his troops between the Abbey of Saint-Saulve and the road to Bouchain. He established his quarter with the bulk of the army in the road to Le Quesnoy, since any relief army would likely appear on that side. Southwest of Turenne's quarter, separated from it by a stream called Rhonelle, which flows into the Scheldt at Valenciennes, there were two further quarters garrisoned by the Lorrainer troops led by the Count of Ligneville and the Maison du Roi under Anne de Noailles. A pontoon bridge was built over the Scheldt to connect Turenne's with La Ferté's armies. West of the river, the latter extended his lines from Bourlain to l'Épaix. Four redoubts were built on this section to counter any attempt to relieve the city. However, La Ferté did a serious mistake: not extending the lines to cover the high ground which presided over the whole section.
In order to hamper the French siege works, Bournonville ordered the terrain around the city to be flooded. On 16 June, the defenders breached a dike near the Tourelle, which led to the marshes of Bourlain to be flooded. Next day, the canal of the Cambrai faubourg was obstructed, and, as a consequence, the surroundings of l'Épaix were flooded. The same day, the defenders of the citadel made a sortie in which 150 French soldiers were killed or wounded. On the 18th, the French took the tower of Raismes, a fortified post halfway between Valenciennes and Saint-Amand, and repelled an attempt by troops from the garrison of Bouchain to reinforce Valenciennes across the Lorrainer lines. In order to ease the communications between the two besieging armies, the French sappers started to build a bridge of fascines over the flooded terrain south of Valenciennes. In response, Bournonville ordered another dike to be breached, which increased the water level by three feet. This did not stopped the construction of the bridge, which was finished by 26 June and had a length of 2,000 paces.
Preparations for the relief
Once the circumvallation line was completed on 26 June, the besiegers started to dig trenches in two approaches directed to the citadel from the quarter of Marshal La Ferté. To support the attacks, the French erected two batteries in front of the port of Montoise; one was furnished by seven 34 or 35-pounder heavy cannons, and the other by seven. Over the following days, the Spanish defenders made several sorties that slowed the pace of the attacks and gave time forJohn Joseph of Austria and Condé to prepare the relief. They were then at Douai ahead a force of 10,500 to 10,000 infantry and 5,000 to 5,500 Spanish cavalry, plus 5,800 Condéans. On 27 June, they advanced to Valenciennes from the south and established a fortified camp at Mont Houy, a hill located between the villages of Famars and La Fontenelle with the Scheldt on the right and the Rhonelle on the left. A smaller detachment of 4,000 men under the Count of Marsin positioned itself on the opposite side of Scheldt at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, north of the French lines.
While the Spanish forces skirmished along the French lines looking for a weak spot, a three-cannon battery was established at Mount Houy to bombard the quarters of Ligneville and Noailles. In turn, the French troops increased the pace of their trench works and, by the night of 1 to 2 July, they were in position to launch an assault over the ravelin of Montoise. That night, the Regiment of Piemont launched an attack on the covertway over the counterscarp, which was repelled by the defenders. The night of 5 to 6 July, a second assault took place, this time by the Regiment of La Ferté. Paillet, its commanding officer, was killed, and the unit lost a third of its strength. The next day, however, the Regiment of Piemont succeeded in the taking counterscarp. Bournonville then wrote a letter to John Joseph to inform him that he would not be able ro resist more than a few days. On 14 July, the prince assembled a war council in which it was decided to attack the French lines and relieve Valenciennes. Next day, the baggage was sent to Bouchain while the bulk of the Spanish Army crossed the Scheldt at Denain to attack the army of La Ferté.