The siege of Bonn took place in 1689 during the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

when the forces of

Brandenburg-Prussia Brandenburg-Prussia (german: Brandenburg-Preußen; ) is the historiographic denomination for the early modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenz ...

and the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

besieged and captured

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. It was part of the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

campaign which Brandenburg was fighting as part of the Grand Alliance against

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

. Following Louis' incursions into the Rhineland the previous year, a coalition of nations had formed to resist French hegemony. In Germany this involved an advance into the territory of France's ally the

Electorate of Cologne The Electorate of Cologne (german: Kurfürstentum Köln), sometimes referred to as Electoral Cologne (german: Kurköln, links=no), was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. ...

, while to the west the large field armies of Waldeck and

Humières Humières () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regio ...

were manoeuvring against each other. Waldeck, the overall commander of the Allied forces, was wary of taking any offensive action against the French until he received reinforcements from Rhineland, but the Brandenburg forces concentrated on their own operations in Cologne. In June 1689 Brandenburg took

Kaiserswerth Kaiserswerth is one of the oldest quarters of the City of Düsseldorf, part of Borough 5. It is in the north of the city and next to the river Rhine. It houses the where Florence Nightingale worked. Kaiserswerth has an area of , and 7,923 inh ...

, leaving Bonn as the only major settlement in Cologne not in Allied hands.Childs p.111 Bonn was already under threat and a

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are le ...

had been imposed on it. On 11 July the Allied commanders

Hans Adam von Schöning Hans Adam von Schöning (1 October 1641 – 28 August 1696) was a ''Generalfeldmarschall'' in the service of Brandenburg-Prussia and the Electorate of Saxony. Schöning was born at Tamsel near Küstrin in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. He was ...

and

Adriaan van Flodroff Adriaan Gustaaf Count van Flodroff (also Flodorf or Flodorph, died 1690) was a Dutch soldier. He first joined the Dutch Army in 1671, and by 1683 had risen to become a Major General of cavalry. In 1689, following the outbreak of the Nine Years ...

captured a key fort close to Bonn, and eleven days later the main Allied field army arrived outside Bonn. Batteries opened fire on 24 July, but a formal siege did not begin until 16 September. On 12 October the defenders surrendered after a very heavy bombardment that left much of Bonn in ruins. In 1703 Bonn again came under siege during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

References

Bibliography

* Childs, John. ''The Nine Years' War and the British Army, 1688-97''. Manchester University Press, 1991. * Lynn, John A. ''The Wars of Louis XIV 1667-1714''. Routledge, 2013.

Bonn 1689 1689 in the Holy Roman Empire Bonn 1689 Frederick I of Prussia Sieges involving France History of Bonn {{Battle-stub