Siege of Neuss The Siege of Neuss , from 1474 – 75 , was part of the Burgundian Wars . The siege , led by Charles the Bold against the Imperial City of Neuss , was unsuccessful . Charles was compelled by the approach of a powerful Imperial army to raise the siege . Prelude . Under Charles ' s father , Philip the Good , the Duchy of Burgundy had allied itself to the cause of the newly elected Archbishop of Cologne , Ruprecht . Ruprecht proved immensely unpopular , and by 1471 several major towns in the archbishopric , as well as the Kölners themselves , were on the verge of revolt . Attempts by the Emperor Frederick III to mediate the conflict failed , and in 1474 Charles the Bold signed a treaty with Ruprecht which stipulated that Charles would subdue the rebels and serve as Ruprecht ' s lifelong protector in return for 200 , 000 florins a year . To secure his western border , Charles concluded a treaty with Louis XI of France and then prepared to march into the Rhine valley ; contemporaries suspected his real motive was the eventual reconquest of all of Alsace . The Siege . Charles ' s route towards Cologne led him past Neuss , one of the centers of resistance against Ruprecht . Fearing the threat Neuss would pose to his exposed rear if left uninvested , Charles prepared to lay siege to the city , and the investment began on 29 July 1474 . The Neussers , though they had had only a short time to prepare , laid in enough provisions to last until Christmas . They were led by Hermann , Landgrave of Hesse , and had the support of many nearby towns and cities . Charles ' s army set up siege lines to the North and West of the city ; the South and East were guarded by the rivers Krur and Rhine , respectively . Two large islands lay in the Rhine , however , and Charles decided to capture them , reasoning that he would then control passage along the Rhine ( and thus prevent the city from being resupplied ) and the water supply to the city ' s moat . Several assaults in early and mid - August eventually captured the islands , though with heavy losses ; soon thereafter a bridge to one of the islands collapsed , drowning many of Charles ' s Italian soldiers . The Burgundians were also harried by hostile peasants . In September Charles ' s Italians and English archers launched a 3 , 000 - strong attack on one of Neuss ' gates , which was repulsed . The next night , Kölners floated a fire - boat down the Rhine to destroy Charles ' s pontoon bridges , but the Burgundian river - fleet diverted it successfully . Shortly thereafter Charles ' s English archers , upset by the arrears of pay , began to cause trouble , and as Charles tried to calm them they opened fire . Charles was unharmed , but a rumor spread that the English had killed him , and enraged Burgundians began to slaughter the English until Charles presented himself to his army . Throughout the siege he worked tirelessly to keep up morale and to prosecute the siege , and it was a common belief that he slept fully armored for only a few hours a night . The Neussers , bolstered by Hermann ' s Hessian troops and the support of Kölners , who skirmished with the Burgundians and smuggled provisions into the city while disguised as Italians , held out resolutely . Charles ' s men captured a German trying to swim the Rhine with a message that declared the Emperor Frederick was approaching with a huge army , and Charles redoubled his efforts , to no avail . By May , Frederick was on the move , his army slowed by drunken brawls between soldiers from different regions of the Empire and by the need to recapture other cities from the Burgundians . But by the end of May he had arrived , and the Burgundians , after signing a provisional treaty , began to dismantle their siege works . At first , Burgundians , Imperials , and Kölners fraternized , but soon the Germans began to harass the Burgundians ( the Kölners stole five Burgundian ships loaded with cannon ) , precipitating a sudden and violent assault on the unsuspecting Germans . Sporadic fighting continued until the papal legate present at the siege threatened to excommunicate both Charles and Frederick unless they ended the fighting ; this threat , probably an idle one , enabled the two monarch to conclude hostilities without losing face . The siege was finally terminated on 27 June 1475 . The failure of the siege of Neuss was attributed by the inhabitants of the city to the intervention of their patron saint , Quirinus of Neuss . The siege in popular fiction . In " Ash : A Secret History " by Mary Gentle , the Siege of Neuss has the title character ' s mercenary company involved in a skirmish with Charles the Bold ' s forces .