Siege

A technical term indicating that a location has been invested (surrounded) by troops unfriendly to the occupants of that location. After making zero or more attempts to force their way in, the troops outside (called besiegers) settle down to wait out the (besieged) defenders.

A siege can end via:

• negotiation

• the defenders being relieved by some of their bezzers arriving to help out

• the besiegers starving the buggers out.

Investing castles was very popular during the Medieval period but faffing about for 6 months outside one occured less often after the invention of gunpowder where back doors were simply kicked in. Last great traditional siege was the Siege of Constantinople in 1453.

Became very popular again during the 30 Years War (1618-1648) since no bugger (with the exception of the Duke of Marlborough) had much idea how to fight a pitched battle.

Other more recent sieges:

• The Crimean War was one long attempt to get into Sevastopol.

• WW1 was basically one long siege although not too sure who was besieging whom!

• The French suffered Dien Bien Phu in 1950's Vietnam and later the Spams had Khe Sanh in the 60's.

• Afghanistan has currently got our chaps surrounded.

Find out more in the Dictionary