136
THE YPRES TIMES
23 attacks had been made. The annual Thuindag celebrations on the first Sunday
of August still commemorates the end of the siege.
Ypres never recuperated from this disaster, the suburbs were not rebuilt. With
the stones of the destroyed churches and other buildings the first stone wall was built
round the city (from 1388 to 1396).
After this memorable event Ypres enjoyed 180 years of peace, only troubled occasion
ally by political strife.
On July 20th, 1578, the town was occupied by surprise by the Protestants and
retaken by the Spaniards under command of the famous Alexander Farnese, Prince
of Parma, five years later, after a seven months' blockade.
The Spanish, in 1640, greatly improved the defence works, reducing the number
of gates to six and building in front of the wall and moat a series of demi-lunes, especially
on the eastern front, covered by six such works, four of which were south of the old
Hengouard Gate then called the Antwerp Gate. The Menin and Zonnebeke road was
cut through the second one starting from the north.
To write the military history of Ypres from about this date would mean to
copy the history of nearly all the European wars, as since then Belgium deserved the
name of Battlefield of Europe.
The King of Spain being then the legitimate ruler of Belgium, this country was
involved in the numerous wars fought by the French and the Dutch against Spain.
In May, 1648, a French army under Louis de Bourbon, with Marshals de Gramont and
Rantzau, arrived in view of the town. The western side of the city was protected
by floods. Two saps were dug against the eastern sector, one of them being directed
against the Antwerp Gate. In less than a week the French took the demi-lunes south
of the gate and the garrison surrendered without defending the walls. The following
year the Spanish came back and attacked from the north-west. The French governor
surrendered after 26 days' resistance.
Not until 1658 did the French reappear, when on September nth an army of
30,000 men under Turenne arrived from Dunkirk. After a fierce cannonade the garrison,
4,800 strong, capitulated on the 25th of the same month.
Peace was signed the following year and Ypres returned to the Spanish.
War broke out again in 1665, but Ypres was not attacked during the early period, and
this delay was actively used to improve the fortifications. The Antwerp Gate was
suppressed, but replaced by an important citadel of pentagonal shape, built just east
of the Saint Jacques Church, with two demi-lunes to the north and three to the south.
The Menin road was cut right through the citadel itself. (For simplicity's sake I will
not mention the works on other sides of the town.)
On March 15th, 1678, Louis XIV, King of France, arrived in sight of Ypres. The
small Spanish force, only 3,500 strong, took shelter in the citadel. Though siege
operations were at first impeded by rain and mud, the French were able to bring up
strong artillery forces and the Governor surrendered on the 25th. The garrison was
allowed to leave with military honours and marched past Louis XIV at Wieltje.
Nimeguen Peace Treaty was signed in September, whereby Ypres became French,
its position near the border being considered as most important. Modernization of the
defence works according to the new bastion-system was entrusted to the famous engineer
Vauban. The Spanish citadel disappeared again to be replaced by a strong work
called Corne d'Anvers," linked to other similar works farther north by demi-lunes.
One of them, between the Corne d'Anvers and the Corne de Thourout gave
passage to the Menin Road. The old crenulated stone wall was replaced by a stone
rampart bastioned except on the southern front This is the rampart you can still see,
now battle scarred, but it proves the quality of the work designed by Vauban, as
even the heavy German shells failed to pierce it. The casemates in the rampart
behind Saint Jacques Church also date from this period (about 1690). The number of
