Siege Bergen op Zoom Austrian War Succession French army Marshal Maurice de Saxe, laid siege Dutch border fortress 1747 Castle
The Siege of Bergen op Zoom (Dutch, Beleg van Bergen op Zoom) took place during the Austrian War of Succession, when a French army, under the command of Lowendal and the overall direction of Marshal Maurice de Saxe, laid siege and captured the strategic Dutch border fortress of Bergen op Zoom on the border of Brabant and Zealand in 1747. Bergen op Zoom was defended by allies, consisting of: the Dutch, Austrians, British, Hanoverians and Hessians, that supported the Pragmatic Sanction. After seven years of brutal war, both sides in this conflict were suffering from weariness of the war. Although tentative peace initiatives had been put forward, neither side was yet willing to make meaningful concessions. The capture of Bergen op Zoom would be a signal defeat for the Dutch and would open the door for an invasion of the Dutch Netherlands. The siege was the center of attention in Europe and news of it followed eagerly in numerous reports with the Pragmatic allies confident that the fortress would withstand the French and the French determined it should fall. Lowendal felt an urgency to take the town because autumn rains were coming. The rains would cause certain failure of the siege. Löwendahl, advised that several breaches in the defensive fortification were practicable, stormed the city in a coup de main attack on the early morning of 18 September 1747. The Dutch commanders did not perceive the breaches as practicable and had taken no particular cautionary measures. The city garrison consisted of nine battalions: two Scots battalions, Colyear and Majoribanks; Waldeck and Saxe-Gotha, Lewe, Evertsen, Holstein-Gottorp, Deutz and van Rechteren.
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