The second siege of Corbie of 1636 was begun by a French army under the command of Cardinal Richelieu on 30 September.David Parrott, Richelieu's Army: War, Government and Society in France, 1624–1642 (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 121, indicating that Richelieu only took command after the siege had begun. It ended with the surrender of the Spanish garrison on 14 November.David Parrott, Richelieu's Army: War, Government and Society in France, 1624–1642 (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 121, although he dates the recapture to 10 November on p. 198.
Corbie had been captured by the Spanish Army of Flanders after the first siege on 15 August. In response, Richelieu used the to call up the nobility of the Paris region.Stéphane Thion, French Armies of the Thirty Years' War, 1618–48 (Casemate, 2024), p. 23. The size of the army raised at Paris is unknown,David Parrott, Richelieu's Army: War, Government and Society in France, 1624–1642 (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 199. but may have been as large as 30,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry under the command of Richelieu and King Louis XIII, who arrived at the siege of Corbie in early October. Most of the Army of Flanders had retreated back across the border, leaving only a small garrison in Corbie. The Count-Duke of Olivares was to criticize the Cardinal-Infante for this decision after the loss of Corbie.Jonathan Irvine Israel, Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585–1713 (Continuum, 1997), p. 78.
The commander of the garrison, an Italian named Caravaio, died of an infection around 15 October. His lieutenant, Campani, soon followed.Louis Douchet, ed., Manuscrits de Pagès marchand d'Amiens, écrits à la fin du 17e et au commencement du 18e siècle, sur Amiens et la Picardie, Volume 2 (Amiens: 1857), p. 315. On 5 November, Richelieu wrote that to take Corbie by blockade would probably take another six months. At the suggestion of the Marshal of Châtillon, however, it was decided by the king to assault the place and take it by force.Gabriel Hanotaux and the Duc de La Force, "Histoire de Richelieu: L'année de Corbie (1636). Les camps et la cour", Revue des Deux Mondes 50.3 (1939): 556–590. The garrison offered to surrender on terms, which were agreed on 10 November. The garrison marched out on 14 November.
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