How to Lay Siege to a Bastion Fort 1643-1715 (in 11 Easy Steps)

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.

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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.

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