Siege of Privas

. The siege of Privas followed the disastrous capitulation of the main Protestant stronghold of La Rochelle. Louis XIII then moved to eliminate the remaining Huguenot resistance in the south of France. Privas was selected by Antoine Hercule de Budos, Marquis des Portes (1589-1629), as a strategic target; capturing it would break a line of Huguenot defences and disconnect their main centers of Nîmes and Montauban. The city was defended by Alexandre du Puy-Montbrun, a leading Protestant from Montbrun-les-Bains in the Dauphiné, already active in Montauban (1621). ==The siege==

at the Siege of Privas. Siège de Privas, by Nicolas Prévost, 1640 (detail). Château de Richelieu Privas was captured on 28 May 1629 after a siege of 15 days, at which Louis XIII was present. In a letter to the Queen, Richelieu reported the destruction in wording that minimized active responsibility on the part of royal Catholic forces: , 1640. Château de Richelieu One girl who escaped the massacre was adopted by Richelieu, and was nicknamed "La Fortunée de Privas". The Marquis des Portes was killed in the siege. ==Aftermath==

After Privas, Alès soon fell in the Siege of Alès in June 1629. The remaining Huguenot cities rapidly fell too, and finally Montauban surrendered after a short siege led by Bassompierre. In 1640, Richelieu commissioned painter Nicolas Prévost to paint the siege, based on the engraving by Abraham Bosse. The painting is now located at the Château de Richelieu. ==See also==