The siege of Turin

At the beginning of the war, the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II , relying on his cousin, Prince Eugene of Savoy , generalissimo of the imperial troops, sided with the Habsburgs . In response, King Louis XIV , in alliance with Spain, invaded first in Savoy , and then in Piedmont . As soon as the Spanish troops occupied Lombardy , Piedmont was surrounded. The attacked three armies, the Duke of Savoy lost Susa , Vercelli , Chivasso , Ivrea and Nice ( 1704 ). The last bastion was the citadel of Turin , built in the middle of the XVI century .

In August 1705, the Franco-Spanish army was ready to attack the city, but General La Feyad decided that there were not enough troops and was waiting for reinforcements. This decision turned out to be erroneous: it allowed the Piedmontese to strengthen the city and prepare for a long siege.

In May, the Franco-Spanish army approached Turin with more than 40,000 soldiers. Marshal Woban , an expert in siege techniques, volunteered for the campaign, but was fired because of his age. Nonetheless, Vauban persistently pointed out to the French command that it was worth storming the city, since a wide network of trenches dug by the defenders would be an obstacle to the siege. But La Feyad had his opinion and, ignoring the advice of Vauban, ordered 48 military engineers to develop plans for digging a long line of trenches ^[2] .

The French began digging trenches on May 14 , but the lines of La Feyada never completely surrounded Turin. The siege began in June and lasted for three months, in the face of stubborn resistance. The besieged, with the active support of the population, made sorties , inflicting heavy damage on the attackers. The fighting continued throughout the summer of 1706 .

On June 17, Victor Amadeus II left Turin to meet the troops of Prince Eugene, who came from Trentino . The heroism of the defenders, including Pietro Mickey, who blew himself up in the gallery along with the French soldiers, allowed him to wait for the imperial army to approach. On September 2, Victor Amadeus and Yevgeny Savoysky analyzed the tactical situation from the Superga hill, which dominates Turin and neighboring areas. While the city’s defenders fought off the last French attack, the imperial forces decided to bypass the besiegers from the northwest, where the French lines were especially vulnerable. The maneuver was a success, and the Imperials managed to set up a camp between the rivers Dora Riparia and Stura di Lanzo. Eugene said: "These people are already half defeated."

The decisive battle began at 10 am on September 7 with the attack of the imperial army on the entire front of the French troops. After three unsuccessful attacks, the Prussian infantry, led by Leopold I, Prince Anhalt-Dessau , hacked the French right flank, taking advantage of the fact that the enemy ran out of ammunition. Two attempts by the French to fill the gap breached by the Prussians failed, and the Austro-Savoy-Prussian army began to prevail. When Count Virich von Down ordered the garrison of the city to make a sortie and hit the left wing of the French army, La Feyad’s army fled, hundreds of soldiers drowned in Dore Riparia in an attempt to save their lives. At the beginning of the second half of the same day, the imperial troops, in order not to lose initiative, began to move to Pinerolo .

Franco-Spanish losses amounted to 9800 people, including 6 thousand soldiers were captured ^[1] . Marshal Ferdinand de Marsen , adviser to the Duke of Orleans, was mortally wounded and died in captivity ^[3] . Imperial forces lost a total of 3246 people, including 52 officers and 892 soldiers killed and 182 officers and 2120 soldiers wounded. They captured 146 guns, 40 siege field guns, 50 mortars, and many other equipment ^[4] .

Victor Amadeus and Eugene entered the liberated city and participated in a prayer service dedicated to the victory. On the hill of Superga, the Dukes of Savoy erected a basilica, where a memorial service is held every year on September 7th .

To the east, the French victory at Castiglion could not help the Bourbon forces regain the initiative, and the French retreat from Turin allowed the Allies to freely invade southern France. After the failure of the siege of Toulon the following year, fighting was not conducted on the Italian front until the conclusion of the Utrecht Treaty .

• Lynn, John A. The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714. Longman, (1999). ISBN 0-582-05629-2