According to a judgement by the Vienna Supreme Court (Wiener Hofgericht), Hesse-Cassel had to cede Upper Hesse, which included the University of Marburg, to Hesse-Darmstadt.

This attack was started because, earlier, the Hessian lieutenant general, Kaspar, Count of Eberstein had moved off with a portion of his troops to participate in the siege of Wolfenbüttel.

In a letter from the imperial Generalwachtmeister, Freiherr von Wendt, dated 16 July, to the mayor and town council of Recklinghausen, he demanded the following supplies for the provision of his soldiers outside Dorsten: 3,000 pounds of bread, 16 tonnes of beer, four head of cattle, 15 sacks of oats and several "kitchen items".

Once this breach had been widened by cannon fire and plans for an assault with initially 2,000 musketeers and 1,500 cuirassiers got under way, the Hessian commandants opened negotiations over the terms of surrender on 18 September with Field Marshal von Hatzfeld.

With the capitulation of Dorsten, Hesse-Cassel had lost the most important fortress on the right bank of the Lower Rhine and, in the aftermath, concentrated their efforts in the Hessian War, together with the so-called Weimar Army in French service under Guébriant, on the left bank possessions of the Archbishopric of Cologne under Ferdinand of Bavaria and the neutral Duchy of Jülich under Wolfgang William.