A French army led by Louis de la Feuillade besieged the Savoyard capital of Turin, whose relief by Prince Eugene of Savoy has been called the most brilliant campaign of the war in Italy.

De la Feuillade began siege operations on 2 June but made little progress, while Prince Eugene out manoeuvred the French field army under Orleans, and joined forces with 7,000 cavalry led by Victor Amadeus.

In 1701, disputes over territorial and commercial rights led to war between France, Spain, and the Grand Alliance, whose candidate was Charles, younger son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

The Austrian commander Prince Eugene returned from Vienna and quickly restored order; this left 30,000 Imperial troops around Verona facing 40,000 French spread between the Mincio and Adige rivers.

[10] However, after a serious defeat at Ramillies in Flanders on 23 May, Louis XIV ordered Vendôme back to France and on 8 July he relinquished command in Italy to the inexperienced Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, although it has been argued he was fortunate to be recalled before Prince Eugene exposed his poor strategic planning for the theatre.

[13] Since 1696, the citadel had been significantly improved based on designs provided by the French military engineer Vauban, and much of it was now underground, including 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) of tunnels used for counter sapping operations.

[14] Vauban pointed out firing from that distance meant they could only target the higher part of the walls, not the base, and allegedly offered to have his throat cut if Turin was captured using this approach.

Attempting to buy time for Prince Eugene, he spent the next two months attacking French supply lines, while La Feuillade continued siege operations 'with more obstinacy than success.'

[15] Taking over a battered and defeated army, Prince Eugene first reorganised it, then ...marched 200 miles in 24 days...crossed four major rivers, pierced lines drawn between the mountains to the seas to stop him...and drove superior numbers of the enemy before him.

Although Charles of Württemberg broke through on the left, the rest of the army was held up, before repeated attacks by Leopold, supported by a sortie led by von Daun, finally forced the French to retreat.

He was the hero of the 1938 film Pietro Micca; on the tercentenary of his death in 2006, a number of studies were published to mark the occasion, including Le Aquile e i Gigli; Una storia mai scritta, by Cerino Badone.