Siege of Arras (1640)

The siege of Arras took place from 22 June to 9 August 1640, during the Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635, a connected conflict of the Thirty Years' War. A French army besieged the Spanish-held town of Arras, capital of the province of Artois, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, which surrendered after holding out for 48 days.

Siege of Arras

Siege of Arras; the French defeat a Spanish sortie, 8 August
Date22 June - 9 August 1640
Location
Arras, France, then part of the Spanish Netherlands
Result French victory
Belligerents
 France  Spain
Commanders and leaders
de Châtillon
de Chaulnes
de la Meilleraye		 Owen Roe O'Neill
Strength
32,000 2,000
Casualties and losses
unknown minimal

Arras was held by a garrison of 2,000, commanded by Owen Roe O'Neill, an Irish exile in Spanish service. Despite a counter-blockade by a Spanish field army under Charles of Lorraine, which brought the French to near starvation, they were eventually resupplied, and the garrison surrendered on 9 August.

Ceded to France in the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees, Arras has remained part of France ever since. The siege is also notable for the participation of French poet and playwright Cyrano de Bergerac, who was wounded on 8 August in a Spanish attack.

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