Catholic forces of the king lay siege…
August 1573 CE
Catholic forces of the king lay siege to Sancerre, a Huguenot stronghold in central France.
The fortified city has held out for nearly eight months without bombard artillery.
The city has suffered terrible famine and its population has been reduced to eating rats, leather and ground slate.
There are even isolated reports of cannibalism.
It is one of the last time slings will be used in European history.
The Duke of Anjou had been fighting at La Rochelle when he received word that he had been elected King of Poland.
The announcement had given the Duke a pretext to abandon the losing siege, which had been repulsed twenty-nine times in four months and decimated the principal army of France.
On August 25, 1573, one day after the anniversary of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the last of the survivors leaves the fortress.
The royal army commander, Claude de La Châtre enters the empty city on August 31, and commands the peasantry from the surrounding areas to demolish the ramparts.