The siege of Perpignan was a siege during the Catalan Revolt.

History

Already in June 1641, the cities of

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...

, Salses,

Port-Vendres Port-Vendres (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales Departments of France, department, southeastern France. A typical Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean fishing port, situated near the Spanish border on the Côte Vermei ...

and

Collioure Collioure (; , ) is a commune in the southern French department of Pyrénées-Orientales. Geography The town of Collioure is on the Côte Vermeille (Vermilion Coast), in the canton of La Côte Vermeille and in the arrondissement of Céret. ...

were the last strongholds of the Spanish in

Roussillon Roussillon ( , , ; , ; ) was a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and French Cerdagne, part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of the region of ' ...

. A French army of 14,000 men conquered the rest of the province and left Perpignan isolated. The siege of the city was then postponed, as the bulk of the French army marched south to participate in the Siege of Tarragona in August. In the meantime, the blockade of Perpignan was maintained by the remaining French troops, which led to famine in the city. The Spanish suucceed in breaking the siege between 4-8 January 1642, when the Marquis of Mortara and

Girolamo Maria Caracciolo Gerolamo Maria Caracciolo, Marquis of Torrecuso was a Spanish aristocrat and soldier born in the Kingdom of Naples in the 17th century. He rose through the ranks of the Spanish army becoming, in 1643, captain general of the Army of Aragon. Valladar ...

, Marquis of Torrecusa, managed to conquer

Argelès-sur-Mer Argelès-sur-Mer (; ; ; ), commonly known as Argelès ( ), is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in the administrative region of Occitania, France. It is about 25 km from Perpignan. Geography Argelès-sur-Mer is located in ...

, opening the way for a convoy with grain from Collioure to enter Perpignan. On 25 January, a new French army of 25,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry under command of

Charles de La Porte, 1st Duke of La Meilleraye Charles de La Porte, 1st Duke of La Meilleraye (1602 in Paris – 8 February 1664 in Paris) was a French nobleman and a Marshal of France. He was marquis then duke of La Meilleraye and peer of France, baron of Parthenay and of Saint-Maixent, coun ...

, accompanied by King

Louis XIII of France Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...

and

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

, left Paris for Roussillon where it arrived on 10 March. First,

was retaken and on 11 April, the

Château Royal de Collioure The Château Royal de Collioure ( Catalan: ''Castell Reial de Cotlliure'') is a massive French beach fortified royal castle in the town of Collioure, a few kilometers north of the Spanish border in the French ''département'' of Pyrénées-O ...

, bravely defended by 3,400 men under command of the Marquis of Mortara, was also conquered after a siege of 4 weeks. La Meilleraye now surrounded Perpignan with his entire army and waited for the famine to force the Spanish into surrender. The King himself remained present during spring 1642, but left before the conquest of the city. Two Spanish attempts to relieve the city failed: on land in the

Battle of Montmeló The Battle of Montmeló took place on 28 March 1642 in Montmeló, Catalonia during the Reapers' War. A Franco-Catalan army under the command of Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt fought and defeated a smaller Spanish Spanish might refer to: * ...

on 28 March and at sea in the

Battle of Barcelona The naval battle of Barcelona was a naval engagement of the Franco-Habsburg War fought off Barcelona from 29 June to 3 July 1642 between a Spanish fleet commanded by Juan Alonso Idiáquez, Duke of Ciudad Real, and a French fleet under Jean Arm ...

in July. By then end of August all horses had been eaten, and the first cases of cannibalism on children were reported. The governor, the Marquis de Flores Dávila, was forced to surrender the city on 9 September 1642, because of the increasing number of casualties by hunger, and because the Spanish garrison had been reduced to only 500 able-bodied men. Modesto Lafuente,
Historia general de España
'
The city was then occupied by French troops supported by the Catalan rebels. In the city, the French army captured a very large arsenal of the Spanish army: 120 cannons and 20,000 rifles. Gazanyola, page 380.

Consequences

After the fall of Perpignan, the Fort de Salses remained completely isolated without any hope of relief, and therefore also surrendered.
The whole of the

had fallen into French hands and remained French until today, because of the

Treaty of the Pyrenees The Treaty of the Pyrenees(; ; ) was signed on 7 November 1659 and ended the Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635. Negotiations were conducted and the treaty was signed on Pheasant Island, situated in the middle of the Bidasoa River on ...

in 1659.

References

Sources

Gallica: Siège de Perpignan. 1641-1642. Extrait de l'"Histoire du Roussillon depuis 1639 jusqu'à nos jours", by M. Ernest Delamont Histoire du Roussillon by Jean de Gazanyola. P. 373-380
{{coord, 42.6986, N, 2.8956, E, source:wikidata, display=title

Perpignan 1641 in France 1642 in France 1641 in Spain 1642 in Spain Conflicts in 1641 Conflicts in 1642