Siege of Tournai
1709 CE.
Shown on the map at 50.606°, 3.388°.
The siege of Tournai was a siege of the city of Tournai, then part of the Kingdom of France, between 28 June and 3 September 1709. A Grand Alliance army under the British Duke of Marlborough successfully forced the surrender of the French garrison during the War of the Spanish Succession. The siege was the first significant engagement of the 1709 campaign. Marlborough intended to take the city quickly, thereby enabling an Allied advance into northern France. The garrison however, under the Marquis de Surville, held out for considerably longer than had been expected and the siege consumed much of the fighting season. It saw extensive use of mining and countermining as the Allies sought to break through strong French fortifications, particularly Tournai's citadel. The British historian, David G. Chandler, described the siege as "one of the hardest fought and least pleasant of modern history".
Text from the Wikipedia article Siege of Tournai (1709), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.