Siege of Neuss - Part XIII

As the siege dragged on into december the food provisions were running low. In february only 3 of the initially hundreds of cattle were left to give milk to infants. Only the sparse news that arrived from the imperial relief force which was moving at snails pace along the Rhine gave hope to the besieged town. On 5th of february 1475 the hessian knights inside the town arranged for a joust, partly to deceive the Burgundians about the true state of affairs in Neuss. Indeed, the Burgundians were much surprised to hear the sounds of the festival inside the city walls. After the joust was over, the hungry Neussers started butchering the last horses.
In addition to the inner famine outside the walls the Burgundians started to dig trenches near the walls to set mines.The shelling of Burgundian artillery ever increased and the Lombardians tried to take the Rhinegate by storm several times. Only with the utmost effort the Neussers were able to repel the repeated Burgundian assaults.