Siege of Montauban, 1621

MONT' ALBANO

A middle-high oblique view of the siege of Montauban, August to November 1621, by Louis XIII (27 September 1601-14 May 1643) resulting in the failure of the French Royal army to capture the town and the raising of the siege. Huguenot Rebellions or Rohan Wars (1621-2). Oriented with north-east to top.

The accompanying letterpress text is at RCIN 722004.b.

The print shows the new fortifications added to the town on its northern and north-western sides, and, top left, the besieging forces and batteries of the Prince de Joinville (Charles de Lorraine, 4^er de Guise (2 August 1571-30 September 1640)) and, top right, the forces and batteries of Lesdiguieres (François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières (1 April 1543-21 September 1626)) can be seen outside the suburbs of the town. At the bottom of the view are the siege works and troops of the Duc de Mayenne (Henry of Mayenne (20 December 1578- killed at the siege of Montauban 20 September 1621)), attacking the demi-lune.

This may be a copy of a French print, published by Nicolas de Mathoniere in Paris in 1621 which shows identical details and numbering of the features; see Bibliothèque nationale de France. The Italian copy appears to have been cut down along the top and left edges where details appear to be missing. The French print is accompanied by letterpress text which is printed on the same sheet as the view. The French text is the same as the Italian copy with the exception that the Italian key has omitted ‘Prez de l’Abbaye’ at 47 and has two different features at 62. The French print has the same scale bar and the units are given in thoises; it seems reasonable, therefore, to assume that the same, although here unspecified, unit was used for the Italian print.