page_title: Bombardment of Brussels
section_title: Preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Bombardment of Brussels / The bombardment / Preparations
context_page_description: The bombardment of Brussels by troops of Louis XIV of France on August 13, 14 and 15, 1695, and the resulting fire were together the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels. The Grand Place was destroyed, along with a third of the buildings in the city. The reconstruction of the city centre, effected during subsequent years, profoundly changed the appearance of the city and left numerous traces still visible today.
  The bombardment was part of the Nine Years' War. The French forces hoped that by bombarding, or threatening to bombard Brussels, they would be able to divert Allied troops from the Siege of Namur. The strategy was unsuccessful, and no military gain came of the bombardment, although Louis XIV's reputation suffered for such a barbarous act.
context_section_description: At the end of July, Villeroi sent the king a request for supplies, compiled by his master of artillery. He evaluated that 12 cannons, 25 mortars, 4000 cannonballs, 5000 explosive shells, a large amount of gunpowder, lead shot, grenades and fuses, and 900 wagons for transport would be necessary. In addition, there would need to be a baggage train capable of supplying arms and provisions to an army of nearly 70,000 men. The supplies and troops were largely taken out of French garrisons and strongholds in the region, and on August 7, Villeroi left Mons for Brussels with a baggage train of nearly 1500 carts.
  These maneuvers did not pass unnoticed, as Villeroi let his intentions be known with the goal of worrying the allied armies besieging Namur. On August 3, a truce was declared in the siege in order to treat the wounded and restock the citadel. After six days, the siege resumed, with both William III and Maximilian II Emanuel standing their ground. Only the small army of the Prince of Vaudemont, near the city of Ghent, was able to achieve anything, by controlling roads leading to Brussels. Having only 15,000 men, however, he was forced to withdraw faced with Villeroi's much larger force. The French army arrived in the vicinity of Brussels on August 11, and installed themselves on the high ground to the west of the city. Brussels was not strongly defended, as its walls offered no defense, despite improvements made by the Spanish in the previous century. Two entrenchments in front of Flanders Gate and Anderlecht Gate were easily taken by the French, who then installed their artillery nearby.
  On August 13 Villeroi sent a letter to Philippe François de Berghes, the military governor of Brussels. Because hoping to draw the allied armies away from Namur could not reasonably be used as justification for an attack on the civilian population of a relatively defenseless city, Villeroi used the pretext of the bombardment being a reprisal for the bombardment of French cities along the English Channel by the English fleet. Within six hours, the letter announcing the bombardment affirmed this, in addition to asking the location of Max Emanuel's wife Theresa Kunegunda, the daughter of Polish King John III Sobieski, neutral in the conflict, as the King of France had forbidden that she be fired upon. The Prince of Berghes asked for a 24-hour extension to refer the request to stop bombarding the French coastal cities to William of Orange. He also asked Villeroi to consider the injustice of taking vengeance on Brussels, when the bombardments of French cities were entirely the fault of the King of England. Villeroi scoffed at this, saying the king "... has not given me the authority to enter into a treaty with the Prince of Orange."
caption: François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi
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