Siege of Menin (1706)
The Siege of Menin (1706) was a siege by the Allies against the French during the War of the Spanish Succession. Siege 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