Siege of Douai (1710)
The siege of Douai, which lasted from 22 April 1710 until the capitulation of the garrison under lieutenant-general François Zénobe Philippe Albergotti on 25 June 1710 was part of the Allied Campaign of 1710 in the War of the Spanish Succession. The siege was conducted under the joint command of the Princ of Orange and Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau and successfully concluded despite the fact that halfway through the French army under marshal Claude Louis Hector de Villars, 1st Duke of Villars made an attempt to relieve the fortress city, which led to an indecisive stand-off for four days with the Allied Army under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. After Douai the Allies went on to besiege Béthune.
Aftermath[edit]
As the fortress was now in Allied hands the commanders appointed general Reinhard Vincent Graf von Hompesch as the new governor of the city and the military engineer Des Roques as the governor of the Scarpe fortress.[25] The original plan had been to invest Cambrai as the next fortress on the way to Paris, but too much time had been lost. Besides Villars had by now concentrated his mobile army there, which made a siege virtually impossible. Quartermaster general Van Dopff preferred to invest Arras instead, because in that case Villars would be forced to engage in an open battle, as he had just narrowly avoided near Douai. As alternatives he proposed either Béthune or Aire, but those were less useful to break through the frontière de fer. The commanders nevertheless decided to invest Béthune first, and not Arras, because the horses of the French army had by then devoured all grass near Arras, so Arras was infeasible for practical reasons.[26]
Supply problems remained severe for both armies. The Allies used the Lys for their supply transports from their base of operations in Ghent. One such transport under the direction of general Frederick Christiaan van Reede, 2nd Earl of Athlone was intercepted by a force from the fortress city Ypres on 19 September 1710 and decisively defeated by the superior French force, with a large loss of men, while Van Reede was made prisoner. The French completely destroyed the convoy, blowing up the vessels that transported gunpowder which caused such an explosion that the riverbed of the Lys was severely damaged, further hindering transport by water for a while.[27][n]
King Louis rewarded Albergotti with the blue ribbon of the Order of the Holy Spirit and the governorship of the Saarlouis fortress. Other officers of the French garrison were also awarded appropriate honors.[28]