In the wake of the Allied victory over the French at the
Battle of Ramillies on 23 May 1706, many cities across the
Spanish Netherlands rapidly surrendered to the
Duke of Marlborough's victorious forces. On 17 June,
Kortrijk was occupied, just 11 Kilometer from the French border. Menin had been occupied by the French since 1678 and turned into a formidable fortress by
Vauban. The fortress was manned by some 5,000 French soldiers under command of general de Caraman and military governor Louis d'Etendart, Marquis de Bully. Marlborough detached Dutch and British forces and gave the command to
Ernst Wilhelm von Salisch, a Silesian general in Dutch service. Marlborough had originally appointed Englishman
Holcroft Blood as the engineer to manage the siege. However, the Dutch could not stomach this as they shouldered the bulk of the expenses for the siege. The Dutch dismissed Blood and instead appointed
Guillaume le Vasseur des Rocques and
Lucas de Mée to manage the siege. On 18 July, the enemy was chased from the
Counterscarp at a high cost. The next weeks, trenches were dug to the left and the right of the city towards the wall, while the city was constantly bombed. The wall was breached in the morning of 21 August, after which the French commanders asked to negotiate. In the fortress the Allies recovered some of the guns they had lost at the
Battle of Landen in the
previous war. == References ==