Siege of Cuneo (1691)

Siege of Cuneo
Part of the Nine Years' War
Siege of Cuneo 1691
Date 28 June 1691 Location Cuneo, Piedmont, (Present-day Italy) 44°23′22″N 7°32′52″E / 44.38944°N 7.54778°E / 44.38944; 7.54778 Result Grand Alliance victory
Belligerents
France	Duchy of Savoy
Commanders and leaders
Marquis de Feuquières Vivien de Bulonde	Victor Amadeus II of Savoy
Strength
Data pending	Garrison, + 2,500 relief force[1]
Casualties and losses
~700–800[2]	Data pending

The siege of Cuneo was fought on 28 June 1691 during Nine Years' War in Piedmont-Savoy, modern-day northern Italy. The siege was part of French King Louis XIV’s campaign against Victor Amadeus, the Duke of Savoy, who had sided with the Grand Alliance the previous year. The siege was an attempt to gain a foothold on the Piedmont Plain, thus ensuring Marshal Catinat's army could winter east of the Alps. Yet due to the incompetence of the two French commanders (in fact, General Vivien de Bulonde, because of decoded messages from Louis XIV to Catinat authorizing his punishment, has been proposed by some to have been the Man in the Iron Mask) – and a timely arrival of Imperial reinforcements – the siege proved a disaster, resulting in the loss of between 700 and 800 men. Although French forces had taken Nice in the west, and Montmélian in the north, Catinat's small, ill-equipped army was forced onto the defensive. Louis XIV subsequently offered Amadeus generous peace terms but the Duke, who had by now received substantial Imperial reinforcements from the Empire, considered himself strong enough to continue hostilities.