During the winter of 1747/1748 peace-negotiations were resumed. Meanwhile in January 1748 the allies agreed upon a further augmentation of their army up to 192,000. Russia had concluded a treaty with Austria and sent 35,000 troops to the Rhine-area. Louis XV felt that he had to act quickly if he wanted to press the peace-negotiations and decided to try a renewed siege of Maastricht.

In March De Saxe feined a march on Antwerp in order to lay siege to Breda. Cumberland was deceived by this manoeuvre and quietly waited for things to come in The Hague. Meanwhile LOwenthal force-marched with another army by way of Sedan through Luxemburg to Maastricht. When nearing Maastricht, De Saxe turned on this town too and both armies met there on March 13th..

Before Cumberland could have gathered and organized his army at Roermond, De Saxe had already completed a strong line of circumvallation around Maastricht. It consisted of some boat-bridges, connecting both banks of the Meuse, as well as 24 redoubts, large enough to hold 4 artillery-pieces and a complete battalion of infantry each. Cumberland was so surprised and browbeaten, that he thought it unwise to attempt a relief.

Maastricht was garrisoned by some 11,000 infantry:

12 Austrian battalions and 8 grenadier companies, totalling 5,300 men under general Marechal;

5 Bavarian battalions; probably from the regiments Leib, Preysing, Hegnenberg, Seckendorff and Hildburghausen, totalling 1,800 men;

Dutch troops:

infantry; the regiments Hoolwerf, De la Riviere, Grotenray, De Villattes, Cronstrom, Aylva and Rheede van Oudshoorn, totalling 3,120 men; 

cavalry; 400 cavalry/dragoons and 100 hussars;

300 artillerists and 250 miners.

General command in Maastricht was in the capable hands of general Aylva.

In the night of April 15th the French opened the first parallel and 2 nights later the second. The following night the garrison succeeded in clearing and destroying a considerable part of the 2nd parallel with a sortie. During the nights of April 26th and 27th, 2 other successful sorties were directed against the French siege-works, during which some 25 artillery-pieces were nailed. The besiegers were also seriously hampered by a terrible storm which flooded the trenches and destroyed the boat-bridges, causing 5 days of delay to repair the damage.

Cumberland still didn't intend to try a relief-attempt and left Aylva alone in his hopeless resistance. The artillery was again commanded by (now major) Verschuer and once more performed well. Unfortunately 2 engineer-commanders were killed. The seperate bastion le Roy was stormed 6 times by the French, however without severe damage. Finally on May 2nd De Saxe decided on a massed assault against the same bastion and nearby outworks. He gathered all available grenadiers of his army, backed up by 40 infantry battalions and some dragoon regiments.

Meanwhile, on April 30th, a tentative peace had been concluded at Aachen and Aylva was allowed to surrender to the French. Accordingly Aylva left the town on May 7th and admiring his heroic resistance, Lowenthal granted him 4 cannon and 2 mortars.

Finally on Oct. 18th the definite peace was signed at Aix-laChapelle and France had to restore all gains in the Netherlands.

Dutch Commitment War of Austrian Succession

Introduction and Preliminaries
1744: First Hostilities in Flanders
1745: Conquest of Flanders
1746: Further Conquests of Austrian Netherlands
Battle of Rocour: 11 October 1746
1747: Dutch Republic Threatened
Battle of Laffelt: 2 July 1747
Siege of Bergen-op Zoom
1748: Maastrict and the End of the War